N.J. First State to Abolish Death Penalty by Legislative Vote
As expected, the New Jersey General Assembly has passed a bill eliminating the death penalty in the state.
Gov. Jon Corzine has agreed to sign the measure into law within the next week, the New York Times reports. When he acts, New Jersey will become the first state to abolish the penalty by legislative vote.
Sixty defendants have received death sentences in New Jersey since capital punishment was restored there in 1982, but all but eight were reversed on appeal, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. That record spurred one sponsor of the repeal measure to call the death penalty “nothing more than a paper tiger.”
Bills to abolish capital punishment in Montana and New Mexico have been approved by one chamber of their legislatures, but they have not advanced further, the Associated Press reports.
