TRENTON, Jan. 2 — A legislative commission recommended on Tuesday that New Jersey become the first state to abolish the death penalty since states began reinstating their capital punishment laws 35 years ago. Its report found “no compelling evidence” that capital punishment serves a legitimate purpose, and increasing evidence that it “is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency.”
The report, whose lone dissenter was the original author of the state’s modern death penalty statute, came a year after New Jersey joined Illinois and Maryland in imposing moratoriums on executions, and amid growing unease among politicians and the public about capital punishment.
Eight other states, including New York, have also suspended executions in recent years, most because of court decisions. Maryland had lifted its moratorium in 2003, after a year, but a court essentially reinstated it last month.
Death penalty experts said that New Jersey was the first state to receive an official recommendation that capital punishment be abandoned, and it lands in a state where legislators have a Democratic majority along with a Democratic governor who supports repeal of the statute.
The Commission'e 100+ page report can be downloaded here.
New Jersey has not executed anyone since 1963 and has had a moratorium on executions since 2006, pending release of this study.
The study makes the following findings:
(1) There is no compelling evidence that the New Jersey death penalty rationally serves alegitimate penological intent.
(2) The costs of the death penalty are greater than the costs of life in prison without parole, but it is not possible to measure these costs with any degree of precision.
(3) There is increasing evidence that the death penalty is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency.
(4) The available data do not support a finding of invidious racial bias in the application of the death penalty in New Jersey.
(5) Abolition of the death penalty will eliminate the risk of disproportionality in capital sentencing.
(6) The penological interest in executing a small number of persons guilty of murder is not sufficiently compelling to justify the risk of making an irreversible mistake.
(7) The alternative of life imprisonment in a maximum security institution without the possibility of parole would sufficiently ensure public safety and address other legitimate social and penological interests, including the interests of the families of murder victims.
(8) Sufficient funds should be dedicated to ensure adequate services and advocacy for the families of murder victims.
and recomends:
...that the death penalty in New Jersey be abolished and replaced with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, to be served in a maximum security facility. The Commission also recommends that any cost savings resulting from the abolition of the death penalty be used for benefits and services for survivors of victims of homicide.
Given the infrequency of the use of the death penalty in New Jersey, the Commissions recommendations amount to little. Having a penalty on the books without using it nearly 45 years is tantamount to not having it all.
Still, I am pro-death penalty. I do not believe that life without the possibility of parole actually exists. Moreover, such a sentence may actually be more harmful to prison guards -- an inmate who is in for life can commit any crimes with impunity as his sentence cannot increase. I hope the legislature keeps the death penalty on the books. I believe it is an invaluable tool in the prosecutor's arsenal and I believe it is a legitimate punishment for the heinous crime of 1st degree murder.
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