Illinois may be emptying its death row, but in California Governor Davis says the state should build a new and bigger facility for condemned inmates. State officials say Davis is proposing to spend $220 million to build a new death row at San Quentin.

California now has about 600 men on death row – but the new facility would house up to one thousand prisoners waiting for execution. The proposal now goes to the Legislature.

On Saturday, Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the death sentences of his state€™s 167 condemned inmates. California prison officials say the current death row at San Quentin is old and overcrowded. They say the state sentences about 20 people a year to die – but only executes about one a year. The result is a constantly expanding death row population.