New Jersey Assembly Approves Legislation to Make it First State to Ban Death Penalty in 42 Years

AP via FOX News ^ | Dec. 13, 2007 | Staff

[muawiyah]

Just Democrats protecting themselves from a vengeful public.

Don't think for a minute any of this is done out of sympathy for the plight of currently condemned killers.

[krb]

We're a better state than one that puts people to death.

Oh come on. No you're not.

[SunkenCiv]

This should have a huge impact on NJ’s “justice” system.

[Malesherbes]

Does this mean that whacking is abolished too?

[Reaganite1984]

Idiots.

New Jersey Democrats.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

[britt reed]

1. I don't recall any of the candidate's in the recent election running on a "repeal the death penalty" platform.

2. If an individual cannot be put to death because a crime was committed prior to a death penalty being enacted, there is no reason an individual sentenced to the death penalty should be spared because it is repealed. Grandfather clauses should work both ways.

3. They showed audience reaction after the vote was tallied and there were two people happy and hugging each other, obviously relatives of someone on death row who had been spared.

[N. Theknow]

When criminals spend decades on Death Row, there is no such thing as a death penalty only a Stupidity Tax, vis a vis endless appeals, for a lack of resolve to stand up for victims.

[paulcissa]

"This should have a huge impact on NJ’s “justice” system.

NJ hasn't executed anyone in 40 years. This is more "BFD" legislation that changes nothing, but puts politicians names and faces in the newspaper. Trenton sucks.

[Robert A Cook PE]

The last New Jersey criminal put to death was over 40 years ago.

Obviously, they have had no murders in NJ since then. See, the NJ Senate committee says that the death penalty does not deter crime.

Of course, if you don’t USE the death penalty, it doesn’t deter crime very much .....

[papasmurf]

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm

In 2006, 53 inmates were executed, 7 fewer than in 2005.

Executions, 1930-2006

* In 2006, 53 persons in 14 States were executed -- 24 in Texas; 5 in Ohio; 4 each in Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Virginia; and 1 each in Indiana, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, California, Montana, and Nevada.

* Of persons executed in 2006: -- 32 were white -- 21 were black

* All 53 inmates executed in 2006 were men.
* Lethal injection accounted for 52 of the executions and electrocution for one.
* Thirty-eight States and the Federal government in 2005 had capital statutes.

Prisoners under sentence of death

The number of prisoners under sentence of death decreased for the fifth consecutive year in 2005.

Prisoners on death row, 1953-2005

* At yearend 2005, 36 States and the Federal prison system held 3,254 prisoners under sentence of death, 66 fewer than at yearend 2004.

Since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976, white inmates have made up more than half of the number under sentence of death.

Prisoners on death row by race, 1968-2005

* Of persons under sentence of death in 2005: -- 1,805 were white -- 1,372 were black -- 31 were American Indian -- 34 were Asian -- 12 were of unknown race.

* Fifty-two women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2005.
* The 362 Hispanic inmates under sentence of death at yearend 2005 accounted for 13% of inmates with a known ethnicity.
* Among inmates under sentence of death and with available criminal histories at yearend 2005: -- nearly 2 in 3 had a prior felony conviction -- 1 in 12 had a prior homicide conviction.
* Among persons for whom arrest information was available, the average age at time of arrest was 28; 1 in 9 inmates were age 19 or younger at the time of arrest.
* At yearend 2005, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 20; the oldest was 90.

Obviously, we see a decline in murders in the above, but, we would see even more...substantially more, if 2 of out 3 death penalties weren't overturned on appeal.

This is where the impediment to real progress in lowering the murder rates lie...

http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/061200death-penalty.html
http://www.prisonactivist.org/pipermail/prisonact-list/2000-June/002879.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEED7113FF93AA3575BC0A967958260
http://lifeontherow.proboards83.com/index.cgi?board=deathpenaltynews&action=display&thread=1197070597
http://www.aclupa.org/pressroom/200overturneddeathsentence.htm
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3805/is_200606/ai_n16618974

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks.

[SunkenCiv]

Obviously, they have had no murders in NJ since then.

LOL!

[SunkenCiv]

A special state commission found in January that the death penalty was a more expensive sentence than life in prison

That's because they won't privatize it.

[gracesdad]

“If you’re going to commit murder, NJ will be the place to do it now.”

Along with 12 other states.

[dfwgator]

"Other states are trying to abolish the death penalty. My state is putting in an express lane."

[dfwgator]

Does this mean that whacking is abolished too?

"Fuggedaboutit!"