New Jersey Senate Votes to Abolish the Death Penalty

The New York Times has, "New Jersey Nears Repeal of Death Penalty."

The New Jersey Senate voted Monday to make the state the first in the country to repeal the death penalty since 1976, when the United States Supreme Court set guidelines for the nation’s current system of capital punishment.

Approval in the Senate was seen as the biggest obstacle to the repeal, and in the end, it passed 21 to 16, receiving the bare minimum number of votes required in the 40-seat chamber. Three senators did not vote.

Legislators on both sides of the debate said they expected the measure to pass easily on Thursday in the General Assembly, where Democrats hold 50 of the 80 seats.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat and a staunch opponent of the death penalty, has said he would sign a measure ending executions.

“Today New Jersey can become a leader, an inspiration to other states,” Senator Robert Martin, a Republican from Morris Plains who voted for the bill, said during Monday’s debate.

For those opposed to capital punishment, New Jersey’s repeal would represent a victory that has eluded them in the modern history of the death penalty. Though legislatures across the country have tried to abolish capital punishment since 1976, none have succeeded. This year alone, the legislatures in Nebraska, Montana, Maryland and New Mexico have debated bills to repeal those states’ death penalties, but each measure failed, often by a slim margin.

New Jerseyans Favor Life Without Parole Over The Death Penalty

I like to post some good news stories from each state and from around the world. Here is a news release from the state of New Jersey.
New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

The goal of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NJADP) is to win public and political support for the elimination of execution as a form of punishment in New Jersey. It is our conviction that the death penalty is by its nature unjust in application and immoral in principle.
Quinnipiac Poll Finds Majority of New Jerseyans Favor Life Without Parole Over The Death Penalty
Public Support continues to Trend Away from Executions

TRENTON – A Quinnipiac University poll released today shows that New Jerseyans prefer - by a 10-point margin - the punishment of life in prison without parole over the death penalty.

By a 51 to 41 % margin, the poll found that New Jerseyans believe that life in prison without parole is the more appropriate punishment for murder.

"This poll demonstrates that a majority of New Jerseyans agree with the conclusion of the distinguished Death Penalty Study Commission, which is that the death penalty in our state is a failed experiment in every respect and should be replaced with the tough punishment of life in prison without parole," said Celeste Fitzgerald, program director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

The poll results reflect a continued trend away from the death penalty, with an additional 6% of voters choosing life without parole over the death penalty from the last poll conducted by Quinnipiac University in 2003.

This trend away from capital punishment is also seen nationally. Last year for the first time, the national Gallup poll reported that Americans now prefer life without parole over the death penalty. According to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington DC, in 2006, death sentences in the U.S. dropped to their lowest annual level in 30 years

NJADP has campaigned since 1999 for an end to the death penalty. It is the core group of more than 200 New Jersey organizations and 10,000 members representing a wide variety of groups and interests.