Death-penalty ban sent to governor

By GREGORY J. VOLPE, Home News Tribune Online, From the Web, January 10, 2006

TRENTON — An official yearlong moratorium on capital punishment is one step away from reality after the full Assembly approved a measure yesterday to create a Death Penalty Study Commission.

The commission would study the economics, ethics, impacts and possible alternatives to the death penalty in a report due Nov. 15.  The bill also enacts a moratorium on executions until January 2007.

The Assembly approved the measure 55-21, with two lawmakers voting to abstain, without debate.

While not an explicit abolishment on the death penalty — which hasn't been used in the state since 1963 — the measure has spurred debate on whether the death penalty should remain in New Jersey.

Death-penalty opponents say capital punishment should be replaced by life without parole because it has a costly, drawn-out appeals process that is hard for victims' families and because of the chance of executing someone who is later found innocent.

The think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective started the volleys with a report last fall that showed the death penalty has cost New Jersey taxpayers $253 million — with no executions — since it was reinstated in 1982.

Assemblyman Christopher J. Connors, R-Ocean, a member of the Assembly Judiciary Committee and a supporter of the death penalty, shares the concern that the extended appeals process is difficult for victims' families, but said he hopes the study commission will find a "more efficient and effective way of carrying out capital punishment."

Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey, who voted for the measure when the Senate approved it 30-6 last month, is expected to sign the moratorium into law, his spokeswoman Kelley Heck said.

The death penalty already is on a court-ordered moratorium in New Jersey on technical grounds until the state adopts new execution procedures.

gvolpe@gannett.com