NJ Abolishes Death Penalty. Was it Urgent?

December 14, 2007

I am not sure this has made the national news, but the New Jersey state Senate has abolished the death sentence replacing it with life in prison without the possibility for parole:

Assembly members voted 44-36 to replace the death sentence with life in prison without parole. The state Senate approved the bill Monday, and Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, has said he will sign the bill within a week.

A special state commission found in January that the death penalty was a more expensive sentence than life in prison, hasn’t deterred murder and risks killing an innocent person.

While there were 8 men currently on the death row in New Jersey, no one was actually executed since 1963.

While many in pro life movement welcome this news, abortion laws in NJ require more urgent attention. Currently NJ abortionists are not required to notify the parents of the girl and can offer the procedure to any girl of any age. According to New Jersey Department of Health between the years 1991 and 2004 there were 468,776 performed. These numbers are broken down by the week of gestation and show that 21,043 abortions were performed on 20th or later week of gestation.

Looking at the abolishment of the death penalty from this perspective raises the question how urgent was this decision? Don’t take me wrong, I welcome this decision, but the New Jersey legislature is not getting an applause from me. Since 1963 no death sentence was carried out in NJ, while at the same time in only 13 years almost 468,776 innocent lives were taken.

Other bloggers wrote following posts about this news:

Update: NJ Abolishes The Death Penalty- while I often read Michelle’s blog, I hate the fact that you need to be a registered user on her blog in order to leave a comment. Michelle, I see you are using WordPress as well if you have enabled the option where only registered users can comment, you should also enable the registration option. Just a suggestion. I have to completely disagree with you on this issue. Death penalty rarely if ever brings closure to the families of the victims.

Posted by Vlad in Abortion Laws, Death Penalty, New Jersey, Pro Life