MAKANDA, Ill. (WJPF) — Former Governor George Ryan will spend the weekend in southern Illinois.

Ryan, now 87, will sign copies of his new book, ‘Until I Could Be Sure: How I Stopped The Death Penalty in Illinois,’ Saturday and Sunday at the Giant City Lodge. The book signing runs from 11:00 a.m. – 1:0 p.m. both days.

In 2000, then-Governor Ryan placed a moratorium on state executions and, in 2003, commuted the sentences of all Illinois inmates on death row. The death penalty was abolished by the-Governor Pat Quinn in 2011.

Ryan says he wrote the book to convince others that the death penalty is morally wrong.