NOTE: A shorter version of this article appears in the January 2008 issue of Spark.
Friends, let us rejoice, the death penalty has been abolished in New Jersey. On December 17, 2007, Governor Jon Corzine signed into law a measure that repeals capital punishment and replaces it with life without parole. While I am certainly not qualified as an analyst, looking at the history and utilization of the death penalty statutes over the past forty or so years, it seems to me that the state has been headed toward abolition of the death penalty in that time.
In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the death penalty. In New Jersey a new constitutional statute was written and the death penalty was reinstituted in 1982; however, no one has been executed in New Jersey since 1963. The Legislature amended the death penalty statute fifteen times between 1985 and 2002, and in 2004 a judicial moratorium was put in place due to the lack of a proper lethal injection procedure. In 2005, questions about the effectiveness as a deterrent, cost feasibility, the morality of capital punishment, and others mounted, and in January of 2006 a New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission was created and a moratorium on the death penalty was imposed. A year later the Study Commission released its report, calling for the elimination of the death penalty for various reasons, including “inconsistency with evolving standards of decency,” “the risk of making an irreversible mistake,” and concerns about the cost. The moratorium on the death penalty was extended for 60 more days. Concurrently, bills were introduced in the Senate and Assembly and referred to the Judiciary Committees of each. The similar bills repealed capital punishment and replaced it with life without parole. In March, the moratorium extension came to an end; however, the judicial moratorium was still in place. Since 1982 juries have returned death sentences in sixty cases, however the court overturned many of these cases and at the time of the abolition of the death penalty eight inmates were on death row.
The group New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NJADP) has been actively educating people, with the goal of fostering public and political support for the abolition of death penalty in New Jersey, since 1999. Many Meetings in New Jersey, and a few outside of New Jersey, sent minutes to NJADP and became supporting organizations. Besides writing minutes, many Meetings, and individual Friends, have written letters, e-mails, and made phone calls to Senators and Assemblypersons encouraging them to support the bipartisan bills. Many have also written letters to the editor.
On April 14 at Representative Meeting, Friends approved a minute reaffirming NYYM’s support for the abolishment of the death penalty in New Jersey and elsewhere. The minute, written and approved by Manasquan Meeting, was approved by Shrewbury-Plainfield HYM and then Witness Coordinating Committee. Friends also directed the clerk to send a letter along with the minute to officials in New Jersey indicating the Yearly Meeting’s support of the abolition of the death penalty.
At the beginning of May the clerk wrote a letter and the letter and the approved minute were mailed to ninety legislators whose districts lie within the geographic area of NYYM, the governor’s office, New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and the New Jersey Council of Churches.
In May, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Senate version of the bill (8–2). At that time it seemed likely that no further votes would take place until after the elections in November. NJADP encouraged Friends and others to begin writing letters again in October and November. At the end of November, Ernie Buscemi and Christopher Sammond sent a letter on behalf of the Yearly Meeting to the Senate Budget Committee, which was to place the first of four votes, restating New York Yearly Meeting’s support for the abolition of the death penalty and encouraging the Committee to support the bill. On December 3, the Senate Budget Committee approved the bill (8–4). A week later the Senate (21–16, 3 abstentions) and the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee (5–1) passed the abolition bill. Finally, on December 13, the Assembly passed the bill (44–36). Four days later Governor Corzine signed the bill into law and New Jersey became a guiding light for the United States and the rest of the world.
Governor Corzine also commuted the death sentences of the eight inmates on death row. Friends are encouraged to write letters of thanks and appreciation to the legislators who supported and voted for the abolition of the death penalty.
As a life long resident of New Jersey, I am ever so grateful that in my adult life no one has been executed in my name and that it is the death penalty that has at last been laid to rest.
For further information: New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, www.njadp.org. The New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission Report: is at www.njleg.state.nj.us/committees/dpsc_final.pdf.