Jan. 12
NEW JERSEY:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Codey Signs Bill Suspending Executions in New Jersey
Bipartisan legislation imposes nation's first-ever legislative moratorium
on capital punishment; requires comprehensive study of State's death
penalty system
Governor Richard J. Codey today signed S-709/A-2347, legislation requiring
an immediate moratorium on all executions in New Jersey and creating a
study commission that will undertake a comprehensive examination of the
State's current death penalty system. The bill, which passed the Senate by
a vote of 30-6 on December 15th, was approved Monday by a vote of 55-21 in
the General Assembly. Codey's action marks the first time in the nation's
history that a State has enacted legislation imposing a moratorium on its
death penalty
"The enactment of this bill demonstrates the State of New Jersey's deep
concern that it's death penalty system isn't working," said Celeste
Fitzgerald, Director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death
Penalty, a statewide organization that advocates replacing the death
penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole. "By any
measure, the death penalty has failed the people of New Jersey, who have
come to know that it risks executing the innocent, is unfairly applied,
fails victims' families and law enforcement and wastes millions of
taxpayer dollars."
"This commission will be independent and bipartisan, and it will conduct
the State's first comprehensive analysis of its death penalty system,"
said Fitzgerald, who also noted that recent polls show that a large
majority of he State's residents support a moratorium and commission to
study the death penalty.
An April 2005 public opinion survey by the Rutgers Bloustein Center for
Survey Research indicates that fully 2/3 of state residents (63%),
including a majority of those who say they support the death penalty,
favor a temporary suspension of executions.
As required by S-709/A-2347, the new study commission shall be composed of
13 members and will submit its findings by November 15, 2006. It will
examine critical issues such as racial and geographic bias, cost, risk of
wrongful execution, and whether alternatives exist that will both ensure
public safety and address the needs of victims' families.
New Jersey's action comes amidst a growing chorus of concern about the
death penalty across the country. Cases have been re-opened in Missouri
and Texas because of evidence that those states may have executed innocent
men. A Virginia death sentence was commuted to life in prison without
parole after DNA evidence was destroyed in the case. And voices including
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the editorial board of Alabama's
largest newspaper, and the President of the Ethics and Religious Liberties
Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention have recently expressed
concerns about capital punishment.
New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NJADP) is a statewide
grassroots organization with over 10,000 members that since 1999 has
campaigned for an end to the death penalty in New Jersey. It is the core
group of more than 200 New Jersey organizations, representing interests
such as labor, justice, education, business, human rights, and virtually
every religious denomination in the state.
For more information, see www.njadp.org.
(source: NJADP)
