New Jersey Abolishes the Death Penalty

New Jersey Abolishes
the Death Penalty
On December 17, 2007, Governor Jon Corzine signed a bill that abol­ish­es the death penal­ty in New Jersey and replaces it with a sen­tence of life with­out parole. On Sunday, December 16^th, Corzine com­mut­ed the sen­tences of the eight men on death row to life with­out the parole sen­tences. (“NJ Bans Death Penalty” Associated Press, December 17, 2007). The New Jersey Assembly approved this bill to replace the state’s death penal­ty with a sen­tence of life with­out parole by a vote of 44 – 36 on December 13. The Senate approved the same leg­is­la­tion by a vote 21 – 16 on December 10. This is the first leg­isla­tive abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty since it was rein­stat­ed in 1976. Iowa and West Virginia in 1965 were the last states to vote out cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment.

Among those tes­ti­fy­ing for abo­li­tion in the leg­isla­tive hear­ings was Vicki Schieber. Her daugh­ter, Shannon, was mur­dered in 1998. She and her hus­band stunned pros­e­cu­tors by request­ing that the defen­dant receive life in prison instead of exe­cu­tion. As a result, how­ev­er, he was sen­tenced far more quick­ly than if the death penal­ty had been sought. ​“The death penal­ty is a harm­ful pol­i­cy that exac­er­bates the pain for mur­dered vic­tims’ fam­i­lies,” she said. (The Star-Ledger, December 11, 2007).

The re-exam­i­na­tion of the death penal­ty in New Jersey is being mir­rored in oth­er parts of the country:

• New York’s death penal­ty law was declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in 2004. Since then, the last per­son has been removed from death row and the leg­is­la­ture has repeat­ed­ly reject­ed all attempts to rein­state capital punishment.
• Illinois is in the eighth year of a death penal­ty mora­to­ri­um, which was estab­lished in 2000 due to con­cerns about wrongful convictions.
• Death sen­tences in the United States have dropped by 60% since 1999. Even in Texas, death sen­tences have dropped sig­nif­i­cant­ly dur­ing the past decade.
• Executions around the coun­try are on hold as the U.S. Supreme Court pre­pares to hear a case regard­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure.
• Legislative stud­ies of the death penal­ty are under­way in California, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
• Public opin­ion polls show that life with­out parole is steadi­ly replac­ing the death penal­ty as the pre­ferred pun­ish­ment for murder.