The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on May 10, 2007, on legislation that would replace the state’s death penalty with a sentence of life without parole. If passed, New Jersey would become the first state since capital punishment was reinstated to abolish the death penalty legislatively. The bill stems from a January report issued by a special study commission appointed by the New Jersey legislature. The commission’s report overwhelmingly recommended abolition of the death penalty, noting that the state’s capital punishment system costs taxpayers more than life terms for prisoners, and that there is no evidence the death penalty deters people from committing murders.

“The death penalty simply doesn’t work as a deterrent and the risks and costs involved far outweigh any benefits it may bring to our society,” noted New Jersey Senator Shirley Turner, a supporter of the measure. “The fact is, there is no way to guarantee that an innocent man or woman would not be wrongly executed. As a society, we cannot risk the lives of the innocent to exact punishment on those who are guilty… . New Jersey has moved beyond the need for punishments based on revenge rather than justice. We are a decent, compassionate people who would rather see the most heinous criminals locked up for eternity than executed,” she said.

Governor John Corzine favors abolishing the death penalty, as do Democratic leaders of both the New Jersey Senate and House. Currently, there are nine men on the state’s death row. New Jersey has not had an execution since 1963.
(Associated Press, May 6, 2007). See Recent Legislative Activity, Costs, Deterrence, and Innocence.

UPDATE: At the conclusion of its hearing on legislation to replace the state’s death penalty with life without parole, the New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee voted 8-2 to release the measure to the full Senate for consideration. (Associated Press, May 10, 2007).