New York Times weighs in on New Jersey death penalty debate

The New York Times recently had this to say about the goings-on in New Jersey:

A Barbaric Relic

It is amazing what legislators will resort to when they want to avoid taking a stand on a controversial matter, even when they know it is the right thing to do.

Exhibit A this month is the maneuvering the state Senate's top Democratic leaders engaged in to dodge a roll call vote on a bill to end New Jersey's death penalty.

The Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month cleared the measure for consideration by the full Senate, perhaps before the summer recess. Bu tsome Democratic leaders were alarmed that a vote to eliminate capital punishment might be construed as being soft on crime, so they surprised almost everyone by assigning the measure to the Senates budget committee.

And the budget committee, as one senator said, is where bills go to die.

The momentum to repeal capital punishment stems from a 13-member legislative committee's courageous recommendation last winter that NewJersey become the 1st state to abolish the death penalty since states began re-enacting it in the mid-1970s. The panel, which proposed replacing execution with life imprisonment without parole, included 2 prosecutors, a police chief, members of the clergy, and a man whose daughter was murdered in 2000.

Only one member, a former state senator who wrote the state's death penalty law, dissented. As the committee said at the time, capital punishment is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency.

It is also a barbaric relic of an earlier day and, it should be noted, a poor deterrent to crime, and it deserves no role in a civilized society. By retaining a death penalty, a state places itself in the company of nations such as North Korea, Iran and China that are notorious for their inhumane treatment. With the use of DNA in recent years, it has become increasingly clear that capital punishment poses too great a risk of irreversible error.

In its report, the legislative committee said that ending the death penalty, which has not been enforced in New Jersey since 1963, would actually save money since the state would no longer have to go through expensive and drawn out litigation and appeals. It was that suggestion of a budgetary impact that gave Democratic leaders the excuse they were looking for to pass off and sidetrack the bill.

In the interest of simple forthrightness and a little courage we urge New Jersey's lawmakers to reconsider this dodge and allow the bill to be voted on by the full Senate.

(source: Opinion, New York Times)