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One of the greatest dangers of capital punishment is the risk of executing the innocent. According to a 1987 study some 350 of the people convicted in the USA of a capital crime between 1900 and 1985 were innocent. 23 of these people were actually executed. Since 1973, 99 people have been released from Death Row after their innocence has been proven. The US state of Illinois declared a moratorium on executions in January 2000, following the exoneration of the 13th death row prisoner found to have been wrongfully convicted in the state since the USA reinstated the death penalty in 1977. During the same period, 12 other Illinois prisoners had been executed.
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