New Jersey Bans Death Penalty

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Gov. John S. Corzine ended 2007 by signing a measure abolishing capital punishment in the state.

The new law, which replaces the sentence of death with a sentence of life without parole, makes New Jersey the first state to abolish the death penalty in more than 40 years.

“Today New Jersey evolves,” Corzine said after signing the measure into law. “This is a day of progress for us and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response to the grievous, even heinous, crime of murder.”

New Jersey is the first state to end use of the death penalty since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Gov. Corzine put the law into action as he signed orders commuting the sentences of eight death-row inmates.

“I have been moved by the passionate views on both sides of this issue, and I firmly believe that replacing the death penalty with life in prison without parole best captures our state’s highest values and reflects our best efforts to search for true justice,” Corzine said.
Although New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982, six years after the Supreme Court reauthorization, no executions have been carried out since 1963.

Iowa and West Virginia, in 1965, were the last states to abolish capital punishment.