Former Illinois Senator Paul Simon has died. He was 75.

Sen. Simon went into the hospital Thursday for a single bypass operation and died yesterday after the surgery. Right before he went into the hospital, he had been scheduled to endorse Howard Dean. Due to shortness of breath, he couldn't make the appearance and instead went into the hospital. Once there he called reporters and made the endorsement from his hospital bed.

Sen. Simon was a long-time death penalty opponent and served as Co-chair of the Illinois commission appointed by Gov. George Ryan to look into the state's capital punishment system.

Simon... said that the commission is likely to be unable to give Gov. Ryan an "iron-clad guarantee" that, even with extensive legal reforms, no innocent person would be convicted of a capital crime. He has said that it is possible that the commission will conclude that there is no way to salvage the death penalty.

R.I.P.

Update: Drug War Rant has a long quote from a 1996 article Sen. Simon co-wrote with Dave Koppel for National Law Journal on the Drug War. Here's a snippet, but go over and read the whole thing: