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The New York Times
n.y. / region
Corzine Signs Law
Abolishes Death Penalty
in New Jersey
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Jeff Zelevansky/Bloomberg News
Gov. Jon S. Corzine displayed the signed bill
repealing New Jersey's death penalty at the state capitol |
By JEREMY W. PETERS,
nytimes.com on the Web, December 17, 2007
TRENTON — Gov. Jon S. Corzine
signed into law a measure repealing New Jersey’s death penalty on Monday, making
the state the first in a generation to abolish capital punishment.
Mr. Corzine also issued an order commuting the sentences of the eight men on New
Jersey’ death row to life in prison with no possibility of parole, ensuring that
they will stay behind bars for the rest of their lives.
In an extended and often passionate speech from his office at the state capitol,
Mr. Corzine declared an end to what he called “state-endorsed killing,” and said
that New Jersey could serve as a model for other states.
“Today New Jersey is truly evolving,” he said. “I believe society first
must determine if its endorsement of violence begets violence, and if violence
undermines our commitment to the sanctity of life. To these questions, I
answer yes.”
New Jersey has not executed anyone since 1963, when Ralph Hudson was put to
death in the electric chair for stabbing of his estranged wife.
In 1982, six years after the United States Supreme Court allowed states to start
executing prisoners again, New Jersey re-established its death penalty. It
switched its method of execution to lethal injection and built a new execution
chamber at the New Jersey State Prison here, where death row is housed.
While juries have sentenced more than four dozen people to death since then, the
vast majority of those sentences were overturned on appeal. And even if
the state had wanted to follow through with an execution, it would not have been
able to.
The state’s legal procedures for execution expired in 2004. Those
procedures were rewritten but never finalized, and they ultimately expired in
2005.
The process of abolishing the death penalty moved forward at an unusually fast
pace. A bill replacing capital punishment with life in prison with no
chance of parole first passed a Senate committee in May, but did not advance any
further until this month. Leaders of both chambers in state Legislature
made the bill a top priority of the current legislative session, and vowed after
the November elections to vote on the issue before the end of the year.
In less than two weeks, the bill passed the state Senate and General Assembly
and was signed by the governor.
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