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Death Penalty

N.J. First State to Abolish Death Penalty by Legislative Vote

Posted Dec 14, 2007 12:55 PM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

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.

Comments

1.

J.D.
Dec 14, 2007 6:28 PM CST

WHAT DO N.J. VOTERS THINK? They think that their “representatives” are detached elitists who aren’t listening to the N.J. citizenry:

* only 39% of N.J. voters support this plan to abolish the death penalty; 53% oppose it.

* 78% want the death penalty for the most violent of cases

Of course, even though only 39% support this proposal, the AP claims that N.J. is “sharply divided” on the issue! Ha, ha! If you don’t understand that the AP is made up of idiot leftists, you must be one yourself.

Meanwhile, Corzine’s poll numbers are predictably declining.

(Quinnipiac University poll)

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