Steve Mills has been a reporter for the Chicago Tribune since 1994.  He has written about the death penalty, miscarriages of justice, and other problems in the criminal justice system. In November 1999, he and reporter Ken Armstrong wrote the series “The Failure of the Death Penalty in Illinois,” which helped prompt former governor George Ryan to declare a moratorium on executions in Illinois and later to commute the sentences of all of Illinois’ death row inmates. Mills has since followed up that work with many other pieces on the death penalty, most recently helping to pave the way for the Illinois' Legislature's recent votes in favor of the bill that would abolish the death penalty in Illinois.  He has also co-written series on false confessions and wrongful convictions.  He is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.