Posted on 10/24/2005 2:01:15 PM PDT by Coleus
Marilyn Flax won't be voting in this year's governor's race because neither Jon Corzine nor Doug Forrester will promise to execute her husband's murderer.
"New Jersey politicians are a bunch of cowards," Flax said. "Why even have a trial by jury if you're not going to do what the jury says after they have heard all the evidence in the case? Might as well not even have a jury, not have a court, just let the governor decide."
The death penalty was reinstated in 1982, but for decades it was largely an academic issue because death-row inmates kept filing appeals and courts kept refining the rules for how capital trials should be conducted.
There's a possibility, however, that the next governor could be faced with having to enforce the penalty because three death-row inmates have nearly exhausted their appeals, including John Martini, 71, who killed Irving Flax of Fair Lawn in 1989.
"I had hoped my husband's name would be in the law books as the victim of the first man executed in New Jersey" under the new death penalty law, Marilyn Flax said. "If [Martini] just dies in jail, my husband's name won't live on forever and ever, it will just be swept under the carpet."
Opposition to capital punishment has been growing around the country, however, and both Corzine and Forrester are sympathetic to those who question whether having a death penalty provides any benefit to society.
"There are certain facets about having a death penalty that warp the whole decision-making process of justice in New Jersey," Forrester said. "I would be willing to consider a moratorium."
Corzine has co-sponsored a bill in the U.S. Senate that would impose a moratorium on death sentences nationwide until a commission could study the way the death penalty is carried out.
"The federal and state systems of capital punishment ... [are] so riddled with errors that for every eight people executed in the modern death penalty era, one person on death row has been found innocent," Corzine and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., wrote in an opinion piece submitted to newspapers around the country in May 2002.
"No one would buy a particular car if the brakes failed in one car for every eight cars that came off the lot, and we should never accept that level of error when people's lives hang in the balance," he said.
Spokeswoman Ivette Mendez said Corzine supports sentences of life without parole instead of the death penalty.
But while it's clear both candidates question the need for a death penalty, it is the law of the land in New Jersey today and it's hard to pin them down about how they would deal with cases like Martini's that might come up while they were in office.
Under state law, death warrants are issued by trial judges and the Department of Corrections is required to carry them out. The governor may intervene to commute a sentence or order a postponement to review some new aspect of a case.
Or the governor can do nothing and allow the lethal injection to be applied.
When asked if they would block Martini's sentence from being carried out, both Corzine and Forrester said they would have to examine the facts at the time.
"If somebody is already through the process and at the very end, it may be a different question depending on the facts of the case," Forrester said. "Anything I would do with regard to the changing of justice going forward wouldn't have an impact on [Martini's] particular case. I consider them to be separate and distinct problems."
Corzine spokeswoman Mendez said, "Because it is a hypothetical question, we would not be able to tell you what we'd do. I would need to emphasize, though, his opposition to the death penalty."
The next governor could use a back door to avoid making this decision.
All death sentences in New Jersey are on hold because death penalty opponents convinced an appeals court in February 2004 that the Corrections Department's policies for carrying out executions were flawed.
The court did not strike down the death penalty itself, just the way the state was going to carry it out.
One issue involved whether to have a defibrillator in the execution chamber, even though prison officials say they would not be able to revive someone after they receive the injection.
These issues could be addressed if the state wanted to do so. But if the governor were to tell the corrections commissioner to take his time responding to the ruling, then the court order would remain in place, and death-row inmates would just grow older.
That may be happening now, in fact. The department issued new draft regulations in September 2004, which death penalty opponents criticized as inadequate. The regulations have not been adopted, and a lawyer for the death penalty opponents said state law requires that regulations be adopted within one year of proposal or they have to be re-proposed.
None of this makes Marilyn Flax any happier.
The way she sees it, Martini is not the kind of poor, minority defendant railroaded by the system and sloppy cops and prosecutors that death penalty opponents prefer to highlight. He killed two people in Arizona and one in Pennsylvania before he came to New Jersey and kidnapped her husband and shot him in the head because he could identify his assailant.
"The law was designed for this type of killer," she said. "I keep thinking of his words, he said that they don't kill anyone in New Jersey. He's made a mockery of the system, and we've allowed him to do that."
Whether you call such talk a cry for vengeance or justice, this much is true: She's simply asking the state to enforce the laws it adopted. And there's no guarantee it will.
Our politicians do not care about the will of the people.
Is that true?
NO.
"Opposition to capital punishment has been growing around the country.."
Not in nearby Connecticut. In May, they executed serial killer Michael Ross - the first execution there in almost 40 years. Ross's first victim was my college roommate.
Any polls on the DP in NJ? Just maybe if Forrester were to come out strongly in favor it would gain him some traction. If he is waffling on the issue then he probably doesn't even deserve to get elected.
Here's a DUmmies thoughts on the death penalty...
Cyrano Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sat Oct-22-05 11:42 AM
Original message
How about limiting the death penalty to only those who believe in it?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5133403
That's actually, "Thou shalt not murder." Big difference.
Hmmm...seems Yawwwwwwwwwn's been zotted.
Well, judging by the situation with Stanley "Tookie" Williams, (Crips founder who killed four people) people like the government and Mike Farrell would much rather give killers Nobel Peace Prizes and rant about the "value" of the killer. Why would the Libs or Hollywood idiots care about justice when they can attach their name to another cause?
Thanks for the reminder of why I left Jersey at 18 and went to Alaska
Man, what a freak. Why doesn't she get on with her life after 16 years instead of obsessing over exacting her revenge? I suppose in a state where armed self-defense is all but forbidden, you have to do something with your emotional energy.
If someone killed one of my family members I'd want to exact revenge also. And since I can't legally do it, I'd have to watch over the State to make sure they carried out their obligation.
Anyone ever wonder *why* liberals are against the death penalty?
They don't have to worry...the people are more concerned about "reality TV" (sic) than the real world. Politicians know they can count on people not giving a damn about an issue two weeks after they first hear about it.
No mystery here. It's the same reason they're for abortion, against the war on terror, and for legitimizing perversions. They're opposed to anyone facing the music for their destructive conduct.
That is why Leftists champion the rights of criminals over the law-abiding, the rights of terrorists over Americans, the rights of irresponsible women over innocent babies, and the rights of the abnormal over the normal.
("Denny Crane: Gun Control? For Communists. She's a liberal. Can't hunt.")
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