In a dra­mat­ic shift from 1999, cit­i­zens in New Jersey now favor life with­out parole over the death penat­ly for those who com­mit mur­der. In a Rutgers University poll released on April 28, 47% of N.J. respon­dents pre­ferred life with­out parole rather than the death penal­ty. In a sim­i­lar poll six years ago, 44% of respon­dents chose the death penal­ty, while 37% sup­port­ed life without parole. 

Support for the death penal­ty declines even fur­ther if respon­dents are giv­en the choice of life with­out parole plus resti­tu­tion to the fam­i­lies of mur­der vic­tims. In that case, less than 30% pre­ferred the death penal­ty as the appro­pri­ate sen­tence.

​“Much has changed since I vot­ed to rein­state the death penal­ty twen­ty years ago,” said Senator Raymond Lesniak (D‑Union). ​“New tech­nolo­gies such as DNA and oth­er evi­dence have shown that peo­ple can make ter­ri­ble mis­takes. It’s increas­ing­ly clear that the very real risk of exe­cut­ing an inno­cent per­son, not to men­tion the expense and effort of try­ing to get it right, has led New Jerseyans to turn away form the death penal­ty.”

Senator Robert Martin (R‑Morris) agreed that new infor­ma­tion is dri­ving the trend away from sup­port for cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, ​“There is a grow­ing recog­ni­tion that the death penal­ty sim­ply can’t work. It’s a com­plex sys­tem that arbi­trar­i­ly selects defen­dants for death and cre­ates more stress and appeals, even as it is plagued by seri­ous error. Each new exon­er­a­tion reminds us of the unac­cept­able pos­si­bil­i­ty of wrong­ful exe­cu­tion. It’s no won­der that this poll shows peo­ple mov­ing away from it.”

(Press Release, New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, April 28, 2005). See Public Opinion and Life Without Parole.

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