New Jersey Senate Passes Moratorium Legislation

Members of the New Jersey Senate have over­whelm­ing­ly passed a bill that would sus­pend exe­cu­tions in the state and cre­ate a new death penal­ty study com­mis­sion to exam­ine New Jersey’s death penal­ty. The bill, S‑709, passed by a vote of 30 – 6 and now moves to the New Jersey Assembly for con­sid­er­a­tion in January. Should the bill become law, New Jersey would become the first state in the coun­try to leg­isla­tive­ly impose a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty. The bill would require the for­ma­tion of a death penal­ty com­mis­sion com­posed of 13 mem­bers. The com­mis­sion would review the state’s death penal­ty and sub­mit its find­ings by November 15, 2006. Among the issues the com­mis­sion would exam­ine are racial and geo­graph­ic bias, cost and whether alter­na­tives exist that will both ensure pub­lic safe­ty and address the needs of vic­tims’ fam­i­lies. (NJADP Press Release, ​“New Jersey Senate Passes Bill to Suspend Executions, December 15, 2005) Read the press release. See Recent Legislative Developments.