During its first pub­lic hear­ing on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission heard tes­ti­mo­ny from wit­ness­es rep­re­sent­ing a broad spec­trum of opin­ions. Almost all those tes­ti­fy­ing spoke against retain­ing the death penal­ty. Among those who tes­ti­fied before the 13-mem­ber pan­el were legal experts, reli­gious lead­ers, mur­der vic­tims’ fam­i­ly mem­bers, and exonerees such as Larry Peterson, who spent 18 years in a New Jersey prison for a rape and mur­der he did not com­mit.

During the hear­ing, Peterson not­ed that he was grate­ful that jurors in his case chose not to hand down the death sen­tence sought by pros­e­cu­tors because ​“if you take a life, you can’t turn around and cor­rect the wrong that has been done.” It took Peterson’s attor­neys a decade to secure test­ing of bio­log­i­cal sam­ples using DNA tech­nol­o­gy. Those tests led to the rever­sal of his con­vic­tion and his release in May 2006. Barry Scheck, co-direc­tor of the Innocence Project in New York City, also tes­ti­fied about the issue of wrong­ful con­vic­tions dur­ing the hear­ing, not­ing, ​“It’s ridicu­lous …to assume that mis­takes will not be made. We have demon­strat­ed that there is a lot of error in the system.” 

On the day of the hear­ing, a report enti­tled ​“Innocence Lost in New Jersey” was released by New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. The report focused on 25 inno­cence cas­es in the state and list­ed 8 caus­es that lead to wrong­ful con­vic­tions, includ­ing eye­wit­ness error, false tes­ti­mo­ny, and a focus on win­ning instead of seek­ing jus­tice.

In oth­er tes­ti­mo­ny offered dur­ing the hear­ing, Lorry Post, who began his work to abol­ish the death penal­ty after his daugh­ter was mur­dered by her hus­band, said the cur­rent death penal­ty brings no final­i­ty, is unfair, wastes mon­ey, and risks killing inno­cent peo­ple. ​“It cre­ates a cul­ture of killings, and it’s a hor­ri­ble, hor­ri­ble thing, which almost match­es the hor­ror of what some of us have lost,” Post stat­ed.

The New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission was cre­at­ed by the state leg­is­la­ture, which vot­ed in January to halt exe­cu­tions in the state while the fair­ness and costs of impos­ing the death penal­ty are exam­ined. The Commission is to report its find­ings to law­mak­ers by November 15. No one has been exe­cut­ed in New Jersey since 1963.

(Philadelphia Inquirer, July 20, 2006, and Cherry Hill Courier-Post, July 20, 2006). Read an Executive Summary of ​“Innocence Lost in New Jersey.” Read more about the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission. See Innocence, Victims, and Testimony of DPIC’s Executive Director before the Study Commission.

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