Following a vote by the New Jersey Senate Budget Committee last week, the New Jersey Senate passed a bill Monday to abolish the death penalty and instead enforce life in prison without parole. If the full Assembly and the governor approves the bill, New Jersey will be the first state to abolish capital punishment since the 1976 national reinstatement by the U.S. Supreme Court. (Prior to that, in 1965, Iowa and West Virginia repealed their death penalty statutes). The New Jersey Assembly will vote on the bill Thursday.
Proponents of the law claim that capital punishment costs the state more than imprisonment for life without parole and does not statistically prevent homicide. Although New Jersey currently has eight death row prisoners, the state has not performed an execution since 1963.
Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/12/new-jersey-senate-passes-death-penalty.php
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/12/debate_on_abolishing_nj_death.html
