In December 2007, New Jersey became the first state to leg­isla­tive­ly abol­ish the death penal­ty in 40 years. In com­ment­ing on the absence of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for one year, a num­ber of state pros­e­cu­tors found no prob­lems with the new sys­tem. ​“We have not viewed it as an imped­i­ment in the dis­po­si­tion of mur­der cas­es,” said Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio, who served on a state study com­mis­sion that reviewed the death penal­ty. ​“As a prac­ti­cal mat­ter, we have real­ly seen no dif­fer­ence in the way we con­duct our busi­ness in pros­e­cut­ing murder cases.”

Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow, head of the state asso­ci­a­tion of coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors, said elim­i­nat­ing the death penal­ty has not hin­dered pros­e­cu­tors in pur­su­ing tough sen­tences for the most violent offenders.

“We are still see­ing very aggres­sive sen­tences,” Dow said, cit­ing instances in which judges have imposed life sen­tences for mur­der. Even when the sen­tence is life instead of life with­out parole, soci­ety is being pro­tect­ed. Dow not­ed that a life sen­tence is 75 years in prison, 85 per­cent of which must be served with­out parole. ​“That’s almost the penul­ti­mate penal­ty,” she said.

Under the old sys­tem, some pros­e­cu­tors felt pres­sured to seek the death penal­ty, despite the lengthy, expen­sive tri­als and pro­longed appeals. ​“It was a very big drain on the lim­it­ed resources of law enforce­ment,” Dow said. ​“There were long delays in the res­o­lu­tion of the cas­es, mul­ti­ple appeals and very high costs asso­ci­at­ed with the han­dling of the litigation.”

Victims rep­re­sen­ta­tive Richard Pompelio agreed, ​“I don’t think it’s made much of a dif­fer­ence at all oth­er than that some of the cas­es that were lan­guish­ing out there are now get­ting tried,” he said. Pompelio is the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the New Jersey Crime Victims Law Center. ​“The impor­tant thing for crime vic­tims is that the process have an end, and with the death penal­ty there nev­er was an end,” he noted.

According to the New Jersey Star-Ledger, of the 23 cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment cas­es pend­ing when the death penal­ty was repealed, sev­en have thus far result­ed in sen­tences of life with­out parole. Four oth­er defen­dants, includ­ing three who plead­ed guilty, received sen­tences such as 50 years, 30 years with no parole, and four con­sec­u­tive life sen­tences. Twelve cas­es are pending.

(R. Larini, ​“A year lat­er, state assess­es jus­tice with­out death penal­ty,” N.J. Star-Ledger,December 15, 2008). See New Voices and Recent Legislation.

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