BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: In this country, debate about the death penalty has been revived and sharpened, on all sides, by last weekend's dramatic actions in Illinois. The outgoing Republican governor, George Ryan, pardoned four death row inmates and commuted the death sentences of all 167 others on death row. Ryan called the capital punishment system "arbitrary and capricious, therefore immoral."

Steve Mills has been covering the Illinois story for the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Steve, welcome. What is the reaction this week in Illinois to what Governor Ryan did?

STEVE MILLS (CHICAGO TRIBUNE): Well, it's been very sharply divided. Prosecutors like Dick Divine in Cook County here say that the governor overstepped his bounds. And families, they just think the governor has betrayed them entirely. Defense lawyers and death row inmates and their families are very heartened by what happened.

ABERNETHY: Some people on death row, I have heard, don't want to be moved back to the regular prison situation?

Mr. MILLS: Well, the common theme on death row is that if you're there, the media and the courts will give your case a little more consideration than they might give the garden-variety murderer. There are also some issues with creature comforts -- that on death row you are left alone, you have better TV -- things like that.

ABERNETHY: What have you heard from people in the victims' families?

Mr. MILLS: Well, Sam Evans, whose daughter and grandchildren were murdered in DuPage County, outside of Chicago, felt that he was betrayed by the governor, that the governor had said he wouldn't take this sort of broad action and did anyway. He was deeply disappointed.

ABERNETHY: Was there any religious reason for what Governor Ryan did?

Mr. MILLS: The only allusion that he made, or reference that he made, was that he didn't want to play God. Otherwise, no.