SPRINGFIELD — Mass shootings and recent violence against law enforcement officers has one state lawmaker fed up, and he says he’ll file legislation to restore Illinois’ death penalty in extremely violent cases.

According to the Belleville News-Democrat, state Sen. Bill Haine, an Alton Democrat, said Thursday that as a former state’s attorney, he understands the complexities of seeking the death penalty for individuals who have committed heinous crimes.

“I have been shocked and appalled by the recent killings we have seen in churches and of police officers. The reality is there are some crimes in which the death penalty should be an option for a jury of our citizens to consider,” Haine told BND.

Haine said those who take the life of officers, or engage in mass killings, need to face the appropriate consequences, and the
legislation he’s filing would restore the death penalty as a sentence option for those convicted of serial killings, heinous murders of a child, of an elderly person or of a person with a disability, murders of crime witnesses, correctional officers and law enforcement officials, the statement said.

Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011, after a more than decade-long moratorium on the practice enacted by former Republican Gov. George Ryan, who commuted all Illinois death sentences in 2000.

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