The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area International Safeguards Pardon or commutation The Constitution gives the President the authority to grant clemency, and death penalties may be commuted to those of life imprisonment.41 No clemencies or commutations were granted during the reporting period, despite submitted requests, nor were any death sentences changed on appeal.42 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Legal Framework In the United States, death sentences can be handed down by state, federal or military courts. There are currently 16 jurisdictions that do not maintain the death penalty as a sentencing option, including Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.43 At the state level, the number of jurisdictions in which capital punishment is still practiced continues to decline. During the reporting period, Illinois abolished the death penalty.44 On 9 March 2011, Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill abolishing the death penalty, which had been passed by the Illinois legislature in January. The sentences of the 15 men on death row in the state at the time the law was signed were commuted to terms of life imprisonment.45 The abolition followed the imposition of a formal moratorium on executions in 2000, introduced due to concerns that innocent people could be put to death. These concerns arose after the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law identified cases in which 13 men had been wrongly condemned. 41  Article 84 (19) of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. 42  Response to from the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Belarus to the OSCE, op.cit., note 31. 43  Response to the ODIHR questionnaire on the death penalty from the Unites States Department of State, received on 11 September 2011. 44  Abolitionist states are Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin. The District of Columbia and the unincorporated United States territory of Puerto Rico are also abolitionist. 45  “Illinois Abolishes The Death Penalty”, NPR, 9 March 2011, <http://www.npr.org/2011/03/09/134394946/ illinois-abolishes-death-penalty>. 10