
State & Federal
New Jersey
News & Developments
News
Jan 12, 2018
Experience Shows No “Parade of Horribles” Following Abolition of the Death Penalty

States that have recently abolished the death penalty have not experienced the “parade of horribles” — including increased murder rates — predicted by death-penalty proponents, according to death-penalty experts who participated in a panel discussion at the 2017 American Bar Association national meeting in New York City. Instead, the panelists said, abolition appears to have created opportunities to move forward with other broader criminal justice reforms.
Read MoreDec 28, 2017
Judge Finds New Jersey Federal Capital Defendant Intellectually Disabled, Bars Death Penalty
A New Jersey U.S. district court judge has barred federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against Farad Roland, finding that Roland is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for capital punishment. After an eighteen-day evidentiary hearing featuring sixteen witnesses, Judge Esther Salas ruled on December 18 that Roland — accused of five killings in connection with a drug-trafficking gang — had “abundantly satisfied his burden of proving his intellectual disability by a preponderance of the evidence.” In 2002 in Atkins v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court held that subjecting individuals with intellectual disability to…
Read MoreDec 18, 2017
New Jersey Marks Tenth Anniversary of Abolition of Capital Punishment
On December 17, 2007, New Jersey abolished the death penalty. On the tenth anniversary of abolition, the editorial board of the New Jersey Law Journal writes, “On the Death Penalty, New Jersey Got it Right.” The editorial board wrote, “Abolition has proven its worth, in that there has been no surge of murders, a significant decline of prosecution and appeal expenses, and the elimination of unremediable judicial mistakes. [Abolition] was and remains both the right thing and the sensible thing to have done.” In August 1982, New Jersey reenacted the…
Read MoreJul 23, 2012
INNOCENCE: State Supreme Court Takes Lead on Eyewitness Identification Errors
One of the principal causes of wrongful convictions in death penalty cases and other felonies is mistaken eyewitness testimony. On July 19, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued instructions designed to help jurors better evaluate the reliability of eyewitness identifications. A judge is now required to tell jurors before deliberations begin that stress levels, distance, or poor lighting can affect an eyewitness’s ability to make an accurate identification. The new instructions also warn that factors such as the time between the commission of a crime and an identification of a…
Read MoreMay 30, 2012
NEW VOICES: New Jersey Attorney General Does Not Want Death Penalty Back
Jeff Chiesa was recenty sworn in as New Jersey’s new Attorney General. He formerly served as chief counsel and executive assistant to Governor Chris Christie. In discussing his priorities, he said he would not support reinstatement of the death penalty. Chiesa said his opinion on the topic had evolved over the years and he would not support restoring it in the state. New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007, becoming the first state to enact such legislation in more than 40 years. “You can’t be wrong about it,…
Read MoreDec 05, 2011
STUDIES: Eyewitness Identification Comes Under Supreme Court and Scientific Scrutiny
The U.S. Supreme Court recently considered Perry v. New Hampshire, a case questioning the validity of eyewitness testimony when the identification was made under unreliable circumstances. At the same time, years of scientific study on the accuracy of human memory are pointing to the need for reform in the use of eyewitness evidence in criminal cases. Barbara Tversky, a psychology professor at Columbia University, whose experiments on memory were reported in the journal Cognitive Psychology, noted, “Memory is weak in eyewitness situations because it’s overloaded. An event happens so fast,…
Read MoreJan 13, 2011
NEW VOICES: “Police Officials Argue Death Penalty Doesn’t Make Us Safer”
Four law enforcement officials from various countries who came together in Washington, D.C., in 2010 for a groundbreaking international dialogue on the death penalty recently published an op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News regarding their discussion. From their experience, they discounted the argument that the death penalty deters potential offenders.
Read MoreDec 11, 2007
New Jersey Abolishes the Death Penalty
New Jersey Abolishes the Death PenaltyOn December 17, 2007, Governor Jon Corzine signed a bill that abolishes the death penalty in New Jersey and replaces it with a sentence of life without parole. On Sunday, December 16th, Corzine commuted the sentences of the eight men on death row to life without the parole sentences. (“NJ Bans Death Penalty” Associated Press, December 17, 2007). The New Jersey Assembly approved this bill to replace the state’s death penalty with a sentence of life without parole by a vote of 44 – 36 on December…
Read MoreAug 18, 2005
Important Court Decisions in New Jersey and Louisiana
The Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court in State v. Jimenez announced new procedures on August 17, 2005 for deciding claims of mental retardation by a defendant facing the death penalty: (a) the State must be put to the burden of proving the absence of mental retardation when a colorable issue is presented; (b) the State’s burden is to prove the absence of mental retardation beyond a reasonable doubt; © the jury must be the factfinder; and (d) a defendant may never be put to any burden of…
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Notable Commutations/Clemencies
In 2007, the sentences of all 8 inmates on death row were commuted to life without parole the day prior to the abolition of the death penalty in New Jersey.
Inmates commuted: David Cooper, Ambrose Harris, Nathaniel Harvey, Sean Kennety, John Martini, Jessie Timmendequas, Marko Bey and Brian Wakefield.
Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement
A state appeals court ruled in 2004 that New Jersey’s procedures for administering the death penalty were unconstitutional. The state rewrote the procedures but never finalized them, and they expired in 2005.
In 2005, New Jersey lawmakers voted to suspend executions while a study commission examined the fairness and expense of the state’s death penalty. Governor Richard Codey signed the bill on January 12, 2006.
In 2007, a bill to replace the death penalty with life without the possibility of parole passed the state Senate and General Assembly and was signed by the governor.
New Jersey was the first state to legislatively abolish the death penalty since 1965.
Other Interesting Facts
The first electric chair was invented by Harold P. Brown and Arthur Kennelly at Thomas Edison’s New Jersey laboratory in 1888.
No executions were carried out in New Jersey between reinstatement in 1982 and abolition in 2007.
New Jersey was the first state to impose a moratorium on executions through legislation.


