Associated Press – December 14, 2007
TRENTON, N.J. – With New Jersey poised to become the first state in four decades to abolish the death penalty, opponents of the practice declared a historic victory and hoped other states would follow suit.
The Assembly voted 44-36 on Thursday to approve the legislation, which passed the Senate on Monday by a 21-16 vote. Gov. Jon S. Corzine said he will sign it within a week.
Supporters hoped New Jersey’s move would start a wave of similar legislation. Thirty-seven states have the death penalty, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.
“New Jersey stands to embolden lawmakers who were as fearful of eliminating capital punishment as they were of keeping it,” said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. “This is a harbinger of things to come.”
Bills to abolish the death penalty were recently approved by a Colorado House committee, the Montana Senate and the New Mexico House. But none have advanced further.
The nation’s most recent execution was Sept. 25 in Texas. Since then, executions have been delayed pending a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether execution by lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions, but nobody has been executed in the Garden State since 1963.
New Jersey has been barred from executing anyone under a 2004 court ruling that declared invalid the state’s lethal injection procedures.
A special state commission found in January that the death penalty was a more expensive sentence than life in prison, hasn’t deterred murder, and could kill innocent people.
The measure would spare eight men on the state’s death row, including Jesse Timmendequas, a sex offender who murdered 7-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994.
The case inspired Megan’s Law, which requires law enforcement agencies to notify the public about convicted sex offenders living in their communities.
“There is no doubt whatsoever that those criminals now sitting on death row are guilty,” said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, a Republican. “Yet their lives are being spared in the name of justice. Tell me then, where is the justice for Megan Kanka and her family?”
Corzine said life in prison without parole offers a more certain outcome than death penalty sentences that come with years of appeals.
“This is an issue of conscience and the responsible administration of justice,” he said.
The bill gives the state’s death row inmates 60 days to decide whether to waive appeals and be sentenced to life in prison without parole. If such a motion isn’t made, the inmates would remain under the death sentence but would likely never be executed.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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posted December 14, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Whether or not the state is competent enough to make the call is one issue, but some people do deserve to die for their crimes.
posted December 14, 2007 at 1:49 pm
There are still, IMO, crimes so horrible that the convicted (without any doubt, and that is much more certain with DNA) man or woman doesn’t deserve to be housed (even without possibility of parole)for the rest of their life. I think that the option should still be on the table if necessary. Obviously not to be used without due consideration.
posted December 14, 2007 at 1:57 pm
And so civilization takes one more small step forward. Blessings on the legislature and governor of New Jersey. Proof that grace comes from the least expected places.
Of course, now the hard part comes. They have to discover and implement new, more creative and constructive ways to deal with perpetrators of heinous crimes.
posted December 14, 2007 at 6:53 pm
There’s plenty of grace in N.J. jestrfyl, lots of compassion for people, and religions of all kinds. I’m with the ladies above, there are some crimes that only the death sentence would be right for.
posted December 14, 2007 at 9:06 pm
“the death penalty was a more expensive sentence than life in prison, hasn’t deterred murder, and could kill innocent people.”
That says it all.
And while I might want someone to be executed for a heinous crime I don’t claim to be capable of fairly determining who should and who should not be executed and I don’t think anyone else is, either.
posted December 15, 2007 at 11:00 am
I cannot ask someone else to do what I would not do myself. I could not flip the switch or press the injector. Therefore, I believe there must be other, better ways to deal with the problem. There are so many things people do on our behalf that I would not do myself. But I hire them, support and encourage them. Waging wars, killing murderers, and defrauding nations are not something I would support if I had a choice.
posted December 15, 2007 at 1:47 pm
God made us all different, he did not make paperdolls. We all think differently because our experiences in life teach us different truths. We all have different talents, professions, jobs, genetic disparities; we all need each other and have to have faith in each other and the jobs that life asks us to perform. We should be able to discuss, debate, and try different viewpoints, but to say we wouldn’t execute, wage war, or anything else because someone else has, does not make us right when we aren’t them.
posted December 29, 2007 at 11:28 pm
I pray that God will forgive me for my failings of feelings and forgiveness; but there are people in our midst that, for whatever reasons or circumstances, have failed to acquire or have lost a connection with humanity. And as such, a society, for its greater good, must remove them. I know that statement basically rationalizes and valuates human life, and I am lessoned for making it. None the less, a society, for its preservation, must say and make known to its people that certain acts and actions are egregious and grave, and will not be accepted. It’s not a matter of society exacting its pound of flesh. It’s a matter of society saying there is no acceptable excuse for what you’ve done.