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.