Thread: New Jersey Senate approves abolishing death penalty

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/topstories/ ... storylist=

12/10/2007, 4:32 p.m. EST
By TOM HESTER Jr.
The Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The New Jersey Senate on Monday approved making the state the first to abolish the death penalty since it was reallowed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, pushing toward law a measure that would spare the life of the sex offender whose crimes sparked Megan's Law.

The Senate voted 21-16 to approve the bill slated for a Thursday vote by the state Assembly.

With the support of the Democrat-controlled Legislature and Democratic governor, the bill is expected to be signed into law within a month.

The measure would replace the death sentence with life without parole.

New Jersey has eight men on death row and hasn't executed anyone since January 1963.

Among the death row inmates who would be spared is Jesse Timmendequas, a sex offender convicted of murdering 7-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994. That case sparked Megan's Law, which requires law enforcement agencies to notify the public about convicted sex offenders living in their communities.

It's NJ, figures! You'd think with the advances in DNA, the chances of an innocent person put to death would decrease dramatically. So now, instead of having the death penalty as a deterrent, taxpayers will waste how many more dollars keeping these scum alive?

UNBELIEVABLE!

While I believe in the death penalty in theory - until we get our legal system straightened out - I am not sure this isn't a good move.

Remember the DA kept some DNA evidence hidden in the so-called Duke Rape trial?

The people who run the legal system are not above manufacturing evidence - including rearranging DNA evidence.

I'm not sure it costs any more to house one for life than it does to house them for 15-20 years and pay for appeal, after appeal, after appeal on death row.

Just me, but having seen such incompetence, and deliberate skullduggery in the justice system - I'm on the side of caution in this.

Costs of carrying out the death penalty are obscene and need to change.

http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizati ... ey=2358&t=

Just portions of article posted:

Price of death penalty has many questioning the punishment

News-Sentinel March 14, 2006

Convicted murderers Michael Morales and Ricky Ortega have both spent more than two decades behind bars. But the cost of delivering justice to the two men responsible for the brutal death of Tokay High School student Terri Winchell in 1981 likely differs by millions of dollars.

Sentenced to life in prison without parole, Ortega has cost California taxpayers some $800,000 in prison costs alone since 1983.

State and federal taxpayers have paid some $250 million to unsuccessfully carry out the death sentence handed down to Morales over two decades ago, based on the average costs of 11 executions over 27 years, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. ..............

Capital punishment by the numbers

$7.4 billion: 2006-06 budget for the California Corrections Department.

$250 million: Average cost of 11 executions in 27 years.

$114 million: Costs of death penalty to taxpayers.

$34,150: Average annual cost of housing an inmate in state prison.
9,000: Average number of pages of court transcripts in capital cases.

645: Inmates on death row.

$200: Cost of lethal injection chemicals.

49: Average age at time of execution.

33: Death Row inmates who died of natural causes.

17.5: Average time spent on Death Row.

13: Inmates executed in California since 1978.

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Originally Posted by nntrixie

While I believe in the death penalty in theory - until we get our legal system straightened out - I am not sure this isn't a good move.

Remember the DA kept some DNA evidence hidden in the so-called Duke Rape trial?

The people who run the legal system are not above manufacturing evidence - including rearranging DNA evidence.

I'm not sure it costs any more to house one for life than it does to house them for 15-20 years and pay for appeal, after appeal, after appeal on death row.

Just me, but having seen such incompetence, and deliberate skullduggery in the justice system - I'm on the side of caution in this.

It's a moot point.

New Jersey has never come even remotely close to executing anyone since capital punishment was reinstated in 1982.

Originally Posted by nntrixie

While I believe in the death penalty in theory - until we get our legal system straightened out - I am not sure this isn't a good move.

Remember the DA kept some DNA evidence hidden in the so-called Duke Rape trial?

The people who run the legal system are not above manufacturing evidence - including rearranging DNA evidence.

I'm not sure it costs any more to house one for life than it does to house them for 15-20 years and pay for appeal, after appeal, after appeal on death row.

Just me, but having seen such incompetence, and deliberate skullduggery in the justice system - I'm on the side of caution in this.

I'm with Trixie on this and guess what, so is Ron Paul. It's the only position he's changed his tune on since 1988...

It's a moot point.

New Jersey has never come even remotely close to executing anyone since capital punishment was reinstated in 1982.

Then this is non news?

It is news.

Capital punishment statutes, even in states where no condemned prisoner is executed, drive sentences upward.

DAs can threaten someone by prosecuting him in a capital murder case and extract a plea that forces him to accept a life sentence.

States where life without parole is the harshest punishment lever other punishments downward. There is no such thing, in reality, as "life without parole." As long as there are parole statutes on the books for violent criminals you're faced with the prospect of one of them being released and committing more heinous acts.

I understand - kinda joking.

I didn't see the prefix you added to the word "news" above.

Sorry about that.