New Jersey Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, Jr. (pic­tured) has announced that on December 13 mem­bers of the Assembly will vote on whether to reduce the state’s most severe pun­ish­ment to life in prison with­out parole. A spokes­woman for Senate President Richard J. Codey said the Senate is like­ly to take sim­i­lar action before the leg­isla­tive ses­sion ends on January 8, though a date has not been set for the vote. If approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jon Corzine, who oppos­es the death penal­ty, the move would make New Jersey the first state to vote to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment since the U.S. Supreme Court rein­stat­ed it in 1976.

Roberts made the announce­ment in Trenton after meet­ing with Sister Helen Prejean, author of ​“Dead Man Walking.” He called New Jersey’s death penal­ty a ​“flawed pub­lic pol­i­cy” that is cost­ly, dis­crim­i­na­to­ry, immoral and cru­el. He added that ​“the con­se­quences are irrepara­ble if mis­takes are made” and said that ​“the time has come” to con­sid­er the abo­li­tion mea­sure. Prejean praised the deci­sion and said that New Jersey is ​“going to be a bea­con on the hill.”

New Jersey rein­stat­ed the death penal­ty in 1982, but has not exe­cut­ed any­one since 1963. The Legislature imposed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in December 2005 when it formed a com­mis­sion that stud­ied the death penal­ty. The state has eight men on death row. 

(Associated Press, November 9, 2007). See Recent Legislative Activities and Innocence.

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