TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey took a major step Monday toward becoming the first state in more than 40 years to abolish the death penalty, a change that is expected to become law within a month.
The state Senate approved a measure to replace the death sentence with life without parole, which would spare the life of the sex offender whose crimes sparked Megan's Law. The bill has the support of the Democrat-controlled Assembly and the Democratic governor.
New Jersey has eight men on death row and hasn't executed anyone since 1963. It reinstated the death penalty in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions.
The last states to abolish the death penalty were Iowa and West Virginia in 1965, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Thirteen states currently don't have the death penalty.
People are also reading…
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.
Megan's parents, Richard and Maureen Kanka, have sent a letter to legislators urging them to retain the death penalty.
"The inmates currently on death row are the worst of the worst in our society, and to offer them the opportunity of life is a disgrace to their victims, the jurors that deliberated their fate and the majority of New Jersey residents who still support the death penalty," they wrote.
The effort to abolish capital punishment in New Jersey stems from a January report by a special state commission. It found the death penalty was a more expensive sentence than life in prison and has not deterred murder.
"The death penalty is barbaric and fatally flawed beyond repair," said Sen. Shirley Turner, a Democrat who sponsored the bill.
The bill has been supported by clergy and family members of murder victims who contend New Jersey's death-penalty law has proven meaningless.
The vote by the Democrat-controlled Senate was 21-16. Republicans had sought to retain the death penalty for those who murder law enforcement officials, rape and murder children, and terrorists.
A vote by the full Assembly was scheduled for Thursday. If approved, the bill goes to Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a death-penalty opponent, for his signature.
