If someone supported reinstatement of the death penalty in New Jersey in 1982, how can that person vote now to replace it? What has changed to support this reversal in position?
The death penalty landscape has changed dramatically in the past 23 years, and evidence now available strongly supports a change in position to support for the alternative punishment of life without parole. First, no executions have occurred in our State under the current death penalty statute, despite tens of millions spent on death penalty cases. Second, since the 1982 reinstatement of capital punishment, our courts and juries have become less and less supportive of New Jersey’s death penalty: • New Jersey juries have returned a death verdict in just 60 of the 197 penalty phase trials since 1982. • From 1982 until November 2004, 50 of those 60 death sentences have been reversed for serious error at some stage of state or federal proceedings. • From 1998 until 2005, juries handed down just six death sentences – and all of those sentences have been vacated or reversed. • Just last year, New Jersey’s Appellate Division unanimously suspended all executions, saying that several of the rul
Related Questions
- If someone supported reinstatement of the death penalty in New Jersey in 1982, how can that person vote now to replace it? What has changed to support this reversal in position?
- You say the death penalty in New Jersey has failed because so many convictions are being overturned. But don’t the reversals mean the system is working?
- How much does the death penalty cost per person?
