TRENTON, New Jersey (Reuters) - New Jersey on Thursday became the first U.S. state to legislatively abolish the death penalty since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.
TRENTON, New Jersey (Reuters) - New Jersey on Thursday became the first U.S. state to legislatively abolish the death penalty since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.
Lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled state Assembly voted 44-36 in favor of a bill to scrap the death penalty and substitute it with life in prison without the possibility of parole for those found guilty of the most serious crimes.
The vote followed approval by the state Senate on Monday, and the measure was expected to be signed into law next week by Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, a foe of capital punishment.
!ADVERTISEMENT!New Jersey, which has not executed anyone since 1963, becomes the 14th state without a death penalty at a time when its use is declining in most of the 36 states -- plus the federal government and U.S. military -- that retain it.
"If someone commits a heinous crime, we need to excise them from society like a cancer, and I believe we can do that without the death penalty," said Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, a leading backer of abolition.
Nationwide, the United States executed 53 people in 2006, the fewest in 10 years, and the tally is expected to fall further this year. The number of death sentences handed down by the courts fell 60 percent between 1999 and 2006, according to research group the Death Penalty Information Center.
Exonerations of convicts based on DNA testing have fueled concern about the risks of executing innocent people, and doubts persist about the death penalty's effectiveness as a deterrent to murder and other serious crimes.
In a 2-1/2-hour debate, most Democrats spoke in favor of repealing the death penalty while Republicans urged the Assembly to retain it.
'BARBARIC RELIC'
Republican Marcia Karrow urged lawmakers to reserve the death penalty for "monsters" like the man who murdered a relative of one of her constituents.
"He eviscerated her, a beautiful young woman, and he treated her like an animal," Karrow said.
Republican Assemblyman Richard Merkt called the abolition a victory for murderers and rapists and accused legislators of ignoring the wishes of voters.
But Democrat Wilfredo Caraballo, the bill's leading sponsor, said the death penalty means there is always a risk that innocent people could be executed.
An opinion poll published on Tuesday found 78 percent of New Jersey voters would keep the death penalty for the worst criminals, such as serial killers or child murderers. But a Quinnipiac University poll also found 52 percent preferred life without parole for people guilty of first-degree murder.
Eddie Hicks, whose 26-year-old daughter was murdered in 2000, welcomed the vote and called the death penalty a "barbaric relic." Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also applauded the decision.
The U.S. Supreme Court has imposed an effective moratorium on the death penalty pending its decision, due by mid-2008, on whether the method used for lethal injection -- the means of execution in all but one state -- is legal given the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."
Death penalty opponents say prisoners may be subjected to extreme pain by the cocktail of drugs used to kill them but cannot cry out because one of the substances causes paralysis.
The eight men on death row in New Jersey will now be able to request that their sentences be commuted to life imprisonment. If they fail to do so within 60 days, they may still be executed when appeals are exhausted.
(Editing by Michelle Nichols and Xavier Briand)
