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 ...
Here's a link to the study.
http://www.thejusticeproject.org/press/reports/pdfs/21740.pdf
Thanks, that makes sense...I started to think about it after I asked for proof & lawyers did pop into my mind. It just irks me to think of somebody like Richard Biegenwald alive when he killed someone I went to school with. Makes me feel sick & I feel he ought to have been killed years ago.
because they discovered that it wasn’t working! haha
I keep praying they do something intelligent in NJ so those nice folks will have a lot of respect for that part of the country and stay there. Please, if you have extra employment send it to NJ. Send all you can afford,
Somebody should tell the voters of Newark that this means that the coward who shot those three college-bound African-American teens in the head execution-style will escape capital punishment.Voters of Newark? That's a laugh.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
It’s hardly a laugh. The voters of Newark decide every NJ election.
The problem is that the political intelligence in NJ is, and has been, going the other way for a long time. Increasing taxes drives away business and increasing property taxes drives consumers away to other states. Not only this but the politicians have not be held accountable for their deplorable family lives. Thus it is a spiraling downcycle.
Imprecatory prayers are therefore in order. An imprecatory prayer, as I understand it, is to pray that the sin would burn itself out - this is much a virus being burned out of the body. If the temperature does not go up, then the virus continues it's attack. But if the temperature rapidly goes up then (Lord willing) the virus is eliminated.
I recommend praying that the problem of liberal taxation and spending would get so bad that it cannot be ignored any more. That no one, not even the politicians would be able to dismiss sins horrible effects in New Jersey and repent; such that the state would undergo a political, financial and spiritual revival.
I am so HAPPY that I don’t live in sh—hole states like NY, NJ, Mass.
I wasn’t laughing at the impact Newark voters have on NJ elections, I was laughing at the thought that there was any question which way Newark voters will vote on any issue or candidate.
They will always choose left. There’s never any doubt.
>>I heard on the radio there hasn’t been an execution in NJ in over 40 yrs. Might as well repeal it.<<
Or they could just start actually *using* it.
fat chance that’s gonna happen.
I know. My first reaction to this whole thing was also, “they never use it so why not just repeal it.” But now I feel that smacked of the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mentality and I couldn’t be more disgusted with NJ (and that’s saying something).
There are monsters sitting on NJ’s death row. I believe more states will soon be following NJ’s pitiful lead in abolishing the death penalty.
I’m a little wobbly on death penalty anyway. I realize usually someone who makes it to death row has a rap sheet a mile long, BUT, our system is imperfect, ppl are exonerated sometimes years later, and I’m not exactly anxious to give the gubmint a license to kill. So maybe that’s why it doesn’t bug me. That said, I favor the toughest penalties possible for murderers, rapists, etc.
It was a terrible murder. He is a monster & we need to use the death plenty IMHO.
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