Posted on 05/07/2007 2:09:16 PM PDT by Coleus
New Jersey is set to consider becoming the first state to abolish the death penalty legislatively since capital punishment was reinstated 31 years ago. A Senate committee is slated Thursday to consider replacing the death penalty with life imprisonment without parole. The initiative stems from a January report from a special commission appointed by the Legislature. The panel determined New Jersey's death penalty costs taxpayers more than paying for prisoners to serve life terms and concluded there was no evidence the death penalty deters people from committing murders.
"There is increasing evidence that the death penalty is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency," the report said. Governor Corzine favors abolishing the death penalty, as do Democratic leaders of both houses of the Legislature. "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," said a death penalty foe, state Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer. "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."
The state has nine men on death row, but hasn't executed anyone since 1963. A death penalty moratorium was imposed in late 2005 when the law creating the commission was passed. Republicans plan to fight the legislation. "It is beyond reprehensible that they are even proposing that cop killers, child rapists and murderers and terrorists will not face the ultimate punishment if they commit their crimes in New Jersey," said state Sen. Nicholas Asselta, R-Cumberland.
Family members of murder victims have decried the report's findings. Marilyn Flax has recalled phone conversations with John Martini Sr., who was convicted in 1991 of kidnapping Fair Lawn warehouse manager Irving Flax and killing him after getting $25,000 of a $100,000 ransom. "The last words I heard from my husband, in a piercing, screaming voice, were 'Give him the money, or he'll kill me,' " she said. She said allowing Martini to live would be an insult.
"I just think it's a shame that people are going to have to pay year after year to keep these people in prison," said Maureen Kanka, who led a national movement for communities to be notified when sex offenders move nearby after her 7-year-old daughter, Megan, was murdered by a sex offender in 1994. Turner said money saved by abolishing the death penalty should go toward strengthening programs to help victims' families.
The proposed legislation would repeal the death penalty in New Jersey and replace it with life imprisonment without eligibility for parole. Current death row inmates would be re-sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in a maximum security prison. If lawmakers and Corzine implement the commission's recommendation, New Jersey would become the 13th state without a death penalty. New Jersey was the third state to impose a death penalty moratorium to study the issue, behind Maryland and Illinois.
"New Jersey has moved beyond the need for punishments based on revenge rather than justice," Turner said. "We are a decent, compassionate people who would rather see the most heinous criminals locked up for eternity than executed."
I think it ought to be up to the taxpayers of NJ. Nobody has asked me how I feel about it and I live here. I want to know why it costs more to kill them, that makes no sense to me at all. If they live a long life doesn’t that cost more? Shaking my head again...~P~
Leftists hate death for convicted murderers, but love it for babies, the elderly, the infirm, those on life support.
It is sort of a crude and brutal practice for a Christian nation.
I think it costs more to have them on death row because of things like legal appeals. I think death row inmates get a few layers of appeals. And if the person in indigent, the taxpayers pick up the tab for the appeals.
“Leftists hate death for convicted murderers, but love it for babies, the elderly, the infirm, those on life support.”
You nailed it!
Look for all the murderers to run to New Jersey, because they won't expect NJ to extradite them to a state that has the death penalty.
I think you are right. But I still don’t think Gov Corzine & his bunch ought to make the call. Put it to the people of the state of NJ. IMO the death penalty does deter more crime. In any case if NJ can can tax the he!! out of us for any reason they will.
I agree with you but there are very few of us here.
.
Obviously, since they sent Terri to her death via court ordered murder.
I know this happened in FL.
“I think it costs more to have them on death row because of things like legal appeals. I think death row inmates get a few layers of appeals. And if the person in indigent, the taxpayers pick up the tab for the appeals.”
Thank goodness! I have mouths to feed and kids to put through college too!
Actually, leftist don’t really hate the death penalty for convicted murderers. They just love the attention that protesting the death penalty gives them. If the death penalty is outlawed they won’t have one of their positions to cry about anymore - and that probably scares them.
Good point.
It's exactly the practice for a Christian nation. IMO, of course.
The barbarity does not bother me, and I believe in an eye for an eye retribution. That said and at the risk of being flamed, my hesitancy over supporting the death penalty is
what if the jury was wrong and the condemned is truly innocent ? Too may potential Nifing’s out there as prosecuters.
I'd be willing to take that risk. There's WAY more recidivistic murderers out there than there are Nifongs.
I think Nifong was an extraordinary case in the criminal area. He was not unusual in the civil, though - many of the high profile Spitzer prosecutions were essentially convict-for-any-reason-because-I-don’t-like-your-type politically motivated prosecutions. But in terms of criminal cases, it’s harder to get away with, because there are more protections, and this is why Nifong was forced to back down and is now looking at charges himself. He had to corrupt the entire state, including the medical examiner, to support him, and as things are now in the US, it’s hard to pull this off.
The point is to keep the system honest, but at the same time not make it so cumbersome that we can never get hideous people (like the creep here in Florida who raped a little girl and buried her alive) out of our world.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.