Posted on 12/11/2007 10:25:27 AM PST by Alter Kaker
TRENTON, Dec. 10 — The New Jersey Senate voted Monday to make the state the first in the country to repeal the death penalty since 1976, when the United States Supreme Court set guidelines for the nation’s current system of capital punishment.
Approval in the Senate was seen as the biggest obstacle to the repeal, and in the end, it passed 21 to 16, receiving the bare minimum number of votes required in the 40-seat chamber. Three senators did not vote.
Legislators on both sides of the debate said they expected the measure to pass easily on Thursday in the General Assembly, where Democrats hold 50 of the 80 seats.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat and a staunch opponent of the death penalty, has said he would sign a measure ending executions.
“Today New Jersey can become a leader, an inspiration to other states,” Senator Robert Martin, a Republican from Morris Plains who voted for the bill, said during Monday’s debate.
For those opposed to capital punishment, New Jersey’s repeal would represent a victory that has eluded them in the modern history of the death penalty. Though legislatures across the country have tried to abolish capital punishment since 1976, none have succeeded. This year alone, the legislatures in Nebraska, Montana, Maryland and New Mexico have debated bills to repeal those states’ death penalties, but each measure failed, often by a slim margin.
So far, opponents of the death penalty have succeeded only through court rulings, including the decision in 2004 declaring New York’s capital punishment statute unconstitutional, or through moratoriums imposed by a governor, as in Illinois and Maryland.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Stand by for a spike in NJ’s murder rate.
They’ll be partying in the streets of Camden.
They have not used it since the late 1960’s....
I heard on the radio there hasn’t been an execution in NJ in over 40 yrs. Might as well repeal it.
There; fixed it.
Isn’t NJ the most corrupt state in the Union?
NJ??? who’d a thunk it???? (sarc)
What a shame, think of all the money we could have saved...But it would have been stolen anyway. Shaking my head again. ~Pandy~
A (very) quick search on the internet shows that since 1976, NJ has executed exactly 0 inmates. Why do they need to repeal the law?
I think we could at least argue that position.
Isn't it incredible that the liberals act to protect murderers, terrorists, and are allowed to take the high moral ground? They are pigs who do not value a decent person's life.
...including my brother-in-law.
NJ politics....sigh.
I know... big sigh over here too!
Costs more to execute than to imprison for life. NJ did save money.
Why? If we pay to keep somebody alive for 20 years when we could kill them in minutes how do you figure? I know when I’ve had to put my cat down it was only $40 for the injection. But feeding, housing, health-care & protecting killers costs less? Show proof please, I’m interested in seeing this... To me that sounds impossible
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