New Jersey scraps death penalty

international | crime and justice | other press Sunday December 16, 2007 23:43 by wageslave

New Jersey's state assembly yesterday voted 44-36 to abolish the death penalty - the first state to do so since Iowa and West Virginia scrapped the punishment in 1965.

New Jersey's state assembly yesterday voted 44-36 to abolish the death penalty - the first state to do so since Iowa and West Virginia scrapped the punishment in 1965.

The move was prompted by a special state commission's findings that the death penalty was "a more expensive sentence than life in prison, had not deterred murder, and risked killing an innocent person".

Wilfredo Caraballo, a Democratic assembly member, said: "It's time New Jersey got out of the execution business. Capital punishment is costly, discriminatory, immoral, and barbaric. We're a better state than one that puts people to death."

rest of article:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/14/new_jersey_deat...alty/