Flurry of reforms proposed in wake of Newark murders
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 08/17/07
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEWARK — The execution-style murders of three college students 12 days ago continued to reverberate through state and local government yesterday, with the announcement of more measures aimed at stanching the gun violence that has plagued New Jersey's largest city.

The day was highlighted by an appearance by Gov. Jon S. Corzine, Attorney General Anne Milgram and Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker to outline several proposals for cracking down on the prevalence of illegal guns in the city.

The news conference had barely ended before New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner announced the appointment of a retired judge to review procedures used to set bail for one of the principal suspects in the killings, 28-year-old illegal immigrant Jose Carranza.

Also yesterday, two state assemblymen lobbied for special public hearings in Newark to address violent crime and reactivating an anti-gang task force.

Killings in Newark have risen more than 50 percent since 2002, with about 90 percent committed with guns, according to the Essex County Prosecutor's office.

Referring to the Aug. 4 murders of Terrance Aeriel, 18; Iofemi Hightower, 20, and Dashon Harvey, 20, Corzine spoke yesterday of "using a horrific tragedy as strong incentive to make change," and later conceded "we are not doing enough."

A day earlier, Corzine announced an agreement that will allow police in New Jersey to have direct access to a database maintained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to track the origin of all guns used in a crime in the Garden State.

New Jersey will become the first state to trace all guns recovered in crimes, according to an ATF spokesman.

On Tuesday, Booker and Police Director Garry F. McCarthy unveiled a program that will ultimately blanket an eight-square-mile area encompassing Newark's most violence-prone neighborhoods with more than 120 high-powered surveillance cameras and gunshot detection devices.

"We want to rid our streets of illegal guns and the resulting gun violence, but it is obviously clear that this is a challenge and a problem that cannot be accomplished alone," Booker said yesterday. "We have a problem in New Jersey that is not a Newark problem. It is a state problem with the rise in gun violence within our communities."

The measures proposed yesterday include:

— a city ordinance requiring the registration of all firearms in Newark and penalize gun owners who don't report when their guns are lost or stolen

— a separate ordinance regulating gun retailers by controlling where they are located and working with them to help identify illegal purchasers, known as straw buyers.

— a law requiring anyone convicted of a crime involving a gun to register with the city.

— the formation of a special court in Newark to expedite cases involving gun violence

In Trenton, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said retired Judge Arthur N. D'Italia will conduct an independent review of Jose Carranza's prior criminal cases and the procedures used to set his bail in those cases.

Carranza, along with two juveniles, has been charged in the Aug. 4 shootings of the three college students in a schoolyard. Two others, 24-year-old Rodolfo Godinez and a brother who has not been identified because he is a juvenile, are sought in a manhunt that's extended to Virginia and points south.

Carranza is an illegal immigrant from Peru, but authorities never checked his immigration status after he was arrested in October following a bar fight, and earlier this year on aggravated child sexual assault charges.


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