New Jersey Abolishes Death Penalty

Gov. Corzine Signs Bill Banning Capital Punishment; First State To Do So In Four Decades

(CBS/AP)  Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law Monday a measure abolishing 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 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.

Since 1999, the first century monument Colosseum has been bathed in golden light every time a death sentence is commuted or a country abolishes capital punishment.

"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.

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

"Sparing the lives of brutal murderers only a week before Christmas will leave a hole in the hearts of surviving family members that will never heal," said Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, R-Morris.

Richard Kanka, Megan's father, noted Corzine signed the bill exactly 15 years to the day that death row inmate Ambrose Harris kidnapped, raped and murdered 22-year-old Lower Makefield, Pa., artist Kristin Huggins in Trenton.

"Just another slap in the face to the victims," Kanka said.

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.

New Jersey's Public Defender's Office, which represents all eight men, questioned whether Corzine had authority to commute death sentences to life in prison without parole.

"We have to discuss the implications of commuting a sentence to a sentence that did not exist at the time they were sentenced," said Tom Rosenthal, spokesman for Public Defender Yvonne Smith Segars.

But Rosenthal said none of the eight men are likely to get paroled should their former sentences stand. David Cooper, 37, would be the youngest before he was eligible for parole at age 78, assuming he was released at his first parole hearing.

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.

"Justice should have been served," said Sharon Hazard-Johnson, whose parents were killed in their Pleasantville home in 2001 by death row inmate Brian Wakefield. "I think we all know that justice has not been served."

Other states have considered abolishing the death penalty recently, but none has advanced as far as New Jersey.

The death penalty is on hold nationwide, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. There have been no executions since September, and none is expected until the Supreme Court decides some time next year if lethal injection amounts to a cruel and unusual punishment.

"The word will travel around the globe that there is a state in the United States of America that was the first to show that life is stronger than death, that love is greater than hatred, and compassion and standing for the dignity of the human person is stronger than the need for revenge," said Sister Helen Prejean, the Roman Catholic nun who wrote "Dead Man Walking."

According to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, 37 states have the death penalty.

States with the death penalty:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming.

States without the death penalty:

Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

Bills to abolish the death penalty were recently approved by a Colorado House committee, the Montana Senate and the New Mexico House. But none of those bills has advanced.

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.

[andor3]

"Murder is already outlawed there, Einstein."

And the death penalty is not allowed to be used currently in ANY state in the U.S., at least not by lethal injection (the only way in most states).

[fibonacci_]

At least youd kill all the rest, right! Yeaa! I want to rub their blood all over me.

[fibonacci_]

Keithle1, and you would say the same thing to a person wrongly convicted. Congratulations.

[keithle1]

"Cruel & unusual punishment" is what murderers do to their victims.

Don''t want the death penalty imposed on you? Might cramp your style? Ruin your day? THEN DON''T MURDER PEOPLE.

[chitown639]

Great!!! The Death Penalty should be eliminated in the U.S. It''s about time we caught up with the rest of the civilized world on this issue. Politicians wont be able to sale the falsehood of ''Getting Tough On Crime'' and championing the Death Penalty as a crime deterrent. As Americans, we like to think of our nation as the Worlds Last Super Power and Leaders of the Free World. But, when issues like the Death Penalty are use as a political football to play on our fears and bigotry, we find that we maybe just as backwards as some of the countries whose governments we deplore.

[fibonacci_]

Those of you for the death penalty should honestly consider that if you are against cruel and unusual punishment, the best way to kill people might be to drop a 300,000 lbs. slab of concrete on them, smashing them completely.

[tbweb]

Criminals who rape and murder kids should be used for medical experiments! Give them Aids and Cancer and try to cure them with the new drugs! If they live, are cured, its a way of paying their debt to society by using their bodies for medical experiments. Since murderers are not using their bodies for anything decent or useful, the medical community can. Give the poor lab rats a break, use human rats instead! For the really murderous freaks, give them Ebola, the ultimate lethal injection.

[yankeerebel7]

I was surpised but evidently the death penalty really does have a deterrent effect on crime. Just look at nation-wide figures.

[keithle1]

Wait til the first thug kills three cops.

Or some freak rapes & strangles seven pretty little girls of rich parents.

Wait til it''s your son or daughter who is murdered.

[libsluvsuvs]

Murder is already outlawed there, Einstein.

Posted by Iceman_1960 at 09:25 PM : Dec 17, 2007
+ report abuse

****give it time..these liberals would solve the crime problem by legalizing crime..THEN PRESTO..NO CRIME PROBLEM

[libsluvsuvs]

but you can''''t stop progress.

Posted by incog-nito at 09:54 PM : Dec 17, 2007
+ report abuse

**************

imagine how much ''progress'' we can have if we can only stop supporting these criminals for life..

"sweeping the garbage under a rug" is not progress its called denial

[cbville72]

The best thing is that you read about how it is more costly the execute someone than it is to have them incarcerated their whole life. Who came up with that stat?
If the system is working correctly (If you are tried, convicted and sentence to die with ONE appeal, then you get deep sixed within a month of the appeal being shot down), then it would not be more costly to kill these animals. The problem is there are appeal processes going on constantly. That is why its not a deterrent. If more people that got sentenced to die were actually killed, then it WOULD be a deterrent. Instead we have piece$ of $hit like Mumia Abu Jamall getting medals from liberal loving countries like FRANCE (they also named a street after him) instead of him getting stretched and squeeling like the no good piece of $hit that he is.

[incog-nito]

Sooner or later the U.S. will follow the rest of the civilized nations and abolish the death penalty also. You can try to slow it down, but you can''t stop progress.

[cbville72]

You know whats wrong with liberals? They think everything is a conspiracy.

Posted by pitbullpoint at 07:21 PM : Dec 17, 2007

Oh, like the conservative''''s favorite conspiracy: ''''The Liberal Media?''''

But it''''s different when it''''s _conservative''''s_ idea of a conspiracy. Then it must be accepted as fact.

But, that being said, what are you talking about? What is this alleged conspiracy?


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Posted by roger_inkart at 08:06 PM : Dec 17, 2007

Liberals think there is no such thing as a media bias until FOX news came on.

[mcv57]

God loves Justice, this is not justice. If I murdered someone, my only hope that my execution will be the only debt I paid, and peace would be granted to me in heaven. Its actually crazy to thing there is no hell.

[facts6]

If the death penalty is not a deterent, doesn''t that speak to the subhuman level of these creatures? They are mad dogs and need to be put down.

[iceman_1960]

"If it is such a great idea maybe the State of New Jersey should outlaw murder too while they are at it."
- Posted by jowand at 08:52 PM : Dec 17, 2007

Murder is already outlawed there, Einstein.

[jowand]

If it is such a great idea maybe the State of New Jersey should outlaw murder too while they are at it.

[toolmangler-2009]

Will the Non-DP states take our DP candidates? that way we won''t have to kill them, we can do a prisoner for prisoner swap. Sounds good to me...

[roger_inkart]

You know whats wrong with liberals? They think everything is a conspiracy.

Posted by pitbullpoint at 07:21 PM : Dec 17, 2007

Oh, like the conservative''s favorite conspiracy: ''The Liberal Media?''

But it''s different when it''s _conservative''s_ idea of a conspiracy. Then it must be accepted as fact.

But, that being said, what are you talking about? What is this alleged conspiracy?