New Jersey Senate Passes Bill to Suspend Executions; Bipartisan Vote is Part of Growing National Trend Away from the Death Penalty
To: National Desk, Congressional Correspondent, Legal Reporter
Contact: Shari Silberstein of the Quixote Center, 301-699-0042 ext. 119, 202-321-0653 (cellular) or sharis@quixote.org
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The New Jersey Senate voted 30-6 today to suspend all executions in the state and examine flaws in the death penalty system. The bill now moves to the Assembly for a scheduled January vote, where it is expected to pass. Once the bill becomes law, New Jersey will become the first state to legislatively mandate a suspension of executions. Illinois and Maryland have both imposed gubernatorial moratoria.
"The New Jersey Senate joins the growing list of Americans who recognize that the death penalty simply does not work," said Shari Silberstein, co-director of the Quixote Center. "Any thorough examination will reveal that system fails on all counts. It risks executing the innocent, is unfairly applied, fails victims and law enforcement, and wastes millions of taxpayer dollars."
Last month a new report by New Jersey Policy Perspective found that since 1982, New Jersey's death penalty has cost taxpayers over a quarter billion dollars more than a system where life without parole was the maximum sentence. Similar studies in other states have also found that the death penalty is significantly more expensive than a system without capital punishment.
New Jersey's action comes amidst a growing chorus of concern about the death penalty across the country. Yesterday, Virginia Governor and likely presidential candidate Mark Warner (D) ordered the review of 660 boxes of evidence after a DNA review of 31 cases exonerated two men wrongfully convicted of rape. Several weeks earlier, Warner commuted a death sentence after DNA evidence in the case was destroyed. Warner, a death penalty supporter who has carried out 11 executions, admitted that sometimes the normal procedures of the courts are not enough to ensure fairness in the judicial system.
Texas prosecutors and Missouri prosecutors have recently reopened cases after evidence revealed that those states might have executed innocent men. Voices including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Alabama's largest newspaper, and the President of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention have expressed new concerns about capital punishment. Legislatures in California and North Carolina have both commissioned studies of the death penalty, and earlier this year, the New Mexico House of Representatives voted to abolish the death penalty altogether.
"Americans are tired of wasting resources on programs that don't work. Our country is recognizing more and more that we are better off without the death penalty," Silberstein said. "New Jersey's problems are not unique. In many states, taxpayers are ready to close the door on this wasteful experiment. Elsewhere, states are stepping back, asking questions, and making changes. The death penalty is on its way out."
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The Quixote Center is a national organization founded in 1976. The Center's Equal Justice USA program pioneered the national grassroots movement for a moratorium on executions in 1997. Nationwide, over 4,000 national and local groups, businesses, and faith communities have called for a halt to executions, including 144 local governments. (For a complete listing, call 301-699-0042 or see the National Tally at
http://www.ejusa.org ).
http://www.usnewswire.com/
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