New Jersey abolishes the death penalty

[Illiy]

Dec. 17, 2007, 2:44PM
New Jersey abolishes the death penalty

By TOM HESTER JR.
Associated Press





TRENTON, N.J. — Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law today a measure that abolishes the death penalty, making New Jersey the first state in more than four decades to reject capital punishment.
The bill, approved last week by the state's Assembly and Senate, replaces the death sentence with life in prison without parole.
"This is a day of progress for us and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response to the grievous, even heinous, crime of murder," Corzine said.
The measure spares eight men on the state's death row. On Sunday, Corzine signed orders commuting the sentences of those eight to life in prison without parole.
Among the eight spared is Jesse Timmendequas, a sex offender who murdered 7-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994. The case inspired Megan's Law, which requires law enforcement agencies to notify the public about convicted sex offenders living in their communities.
New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982 — six years after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions — but it hasn't executed anyone since 1963.
The state's move is being hailed across the world as a historic victory against capital punishment. Rome plans to shine golden light on the Colosseum in support. Once the arena for deadly gladiator combat and executions, the Colosseum is now a symbol of the fight against the death penalty.
"The rest of America, and for that matter the entire world, is watching what we are doing here today," said Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, a Democrat. "New Jersey is setting a precedent that I'm confident other states will follow."
The bill passed the Legislature largely along party lines, with controlling Democrats supporting the abolition and minority Republicans opposed. Republicans had sought to retain the death penalty for those who murder law enforcement officials, rape and murder children, and terrorists, but Democrats rejected that.
"It's simply a specious argument to say that, somehow, after six millennia of recorded history, the punishment no longer fits the crime," said Assemblyman Joseph Malone, a Republican.
Members of victims' families fought against the law.
"I will never forget how I've been abused by a state and a governor that was supposed to protect the innocent and enforce the laws," said Marilyn Flax, whose husband Irving was abducted and murdered in 1989 by death row inmate John Martini Sr.
The last states to eliminate the death penalty were Iowa and West Virginia in 1965, according to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
The nation has executed 1,099 people since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized the death penalty in 1976. In 1999, 98 people were executed, the most since 1976; last year 53 people were executed, the lowest since 1996.
Other states have considered abolishing the death penalty recently, but none has advanced as far as New Jersey.
The nation's last execution was Sept. 25 in Texas. Since then, executions have been delayed pending a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether execution through lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

[TXCharlie]

Good, we'll give all our murders a free bus ticket to NJ.

[armsmaster270]

liberal pussies

[countybear]

This is a day of progress for us and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response to the grievous, even heinous, crime of murder

Correction. This is a day of progress for those who commit the "grievous, even heinous, crime of murder", sir.

Among the eight spared is Jesse Timmendequas, a sex offender who murdered 7-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994. The case inspired Megan's Law, which requires law enforcement agencies to notify the public about convicted sex offenders living in their communities.

Now, Mr. Timmendequas' life is spared, to be lived out at a rate of $23,000.00 per year in your taxes, as a constant live reminder to little Megan's family of the brutality she endured before he ended her life, on no authority but his own deviant, licentious, selfish, violent bloodlust.

You call this progress, I call it yet more torture that this family must endure, only this time it is at your hands that the suffering continues.

The bill passed the Legislature largely along party lines, with controlling Democrats supporting the abolition and minority Republicans opposed. Republicans had sought to retain the death penalty for those who murder law enforcement officials, rape and murder children, and terrorists, but Democrats rejected that.

Remember this, my Democrat friends. The lives of your public servants, protectors, innocents, and children are worthless to your constituents. The most despicable and brutal of all criminals now know that their lives will be spared, as long as their crimes are committed in New Jersey. I wish you all luck with that.

Anything that makes the evildoer rejoice, makes the righteous grieve.

[lewisipso]

I may not practice but I am registered as a democrat. Although I don't like the idea the need exists I am a huge supporter of the death penalty and I always will be.
Not only does it need to exist it needs to be implemented on a regular basis.

[mack]

Unbelievable! It is hard enough to get them to carry out the death penalty with all the appeals. We had one guy that was convicted and given the death penalty. While he was waiting for his trial he was heard to say the when he got out he was going to kill the first woman he ran into. Thank god they found him guilty, but now he sits on death row and has only had his first appeal (denied thank god). He murdered women from MA to FL, so IF he somehow got released, there are a few more states happy to take him.