Death penalty moratorium in New Jersey

Amid growing national concern over flaws with capital punishment, the New Jersey Assembly approved a one-year ban on executions in the state and said it would study how the death penalty is administered. And California’s State Assembly is considering a bill that would enact a two-year moratorium on executions.

New Jersey became the first state to pass a death penalty moratorium into law through legislation when its assembly voted 55-21 on Jan. 9 to suspend executions in the state while a task force studies the fairness and costs of imposing capital punishment. The Senate had passed the measure in December. Gov. Richard Codey signed the bill into law on Jan. 12.

New Jersey’s moratorium will remain in effect until Jan. 15, 2007.

New Jersey is the third state to halt executions since capital punishment was reinstated. Since 2000, executions have been halted by executive order in Illinois and Maryland. Maryland’s moratorium has since been lifted.

The death penalty statutes in New York and Kansas were both found unconstitutional in 2004, but have not been remedied.

California is speeding up the pace of executions as public support for the death penalty is waning. A bill now before the California State Assembly would enact a moratorium on executions while a commission reviews the problem of wrongful convictions in the state.

A group of 40 police, current and former prosecutors, and judges at the state and federal level have urged California lawmakers to pass the legislation. These agents of the state machinery do not oppose the death penalty on the basis that it is a weapon of terror against the impoverished and oppressed. They argued instead that legal lynchings should be “just and fair” by killing those they deem “guilty.”

In the letter to the assembly, this group wrote, “Given that DNA testing and other new evidence has proven that more than 120 people who sat on death rows around the country were actually innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted, we agree that a temporary suspension of executions in California is necessary while we ensure, as much as possible, that the administration of criminal justice in this state is just, fair, and accurate.”

Assembly Bill 1121 calls for a moratorium on executions until Jan. 1, 2009—two years after the newly-established “California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice” is set to submit its findings to the legislature and governor.

The year 2005 was a year of extraordinary changes in the use of the death penalty in the United States.

There were fewer than 100 death sentences handed down in 2005. This is the lowest number of death sentences since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976 and it is down 60 percent since the late 1990s.

In 2005 the New York legislature refused to reinstate the death penalty after the state’s highest court struck it down. Texas became the 37th out of the 38 states which have the death penalty to adopt life without parole as an option for jurors. And the Supreme Court ruled states could not execute those arrested for capital murder as juveniles and 71 juvenile offenders were taken off death rows, 28 in Texas alone. The highest court also threw out the Texas conviction of Thomas Miller-El because of racial bias in jury selection. Miller-El is now in the Dallas county jail awaiting a new trial.

The New Mexico House of Repre sen tatives passed a bill to abolish the death penalty and lawmakers in Massachusetts overwhelmingly defeated a proposal by their governor for a “foolproof” death penalty.

Public support dropping

In October 2005, a Gallup Poll found 64 percent in support of capital punishment, the lowest level in 27 years. And a CBS News Poll found that when given sentencing options, only 39 percent chose the death penalty, 39 percent chose life without parole and 6 percent chose a long sentence.

Sixty people were executed in 2005, down 39 percent from 1999 when a record high of 98 people were put to death. On Dec. 2, the U.S. conducted the 1,000th execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. But this bitter historical milestone in the history of the death penalty comes at a time when the use of the death penalty in this country is steadily declining. Death sentences, the size of death row, executions and public support for the death penalty are all lower than they were five years ago.

Editorial writers, even across the South where the vast majority of executions take place, have recently criticized the death penalty. The Birmingham News wrote that “after decades of supporting the death penalty, the editorial board no longer can do so” based on practical and ethical reasons.

After a series in the Houston Chronicle exposed that Ruben Cantu, who was executed in 1993 was probably innocent, The Austin American Statesman editorialized, “We’re not talking about a few flaws, but rather deep inequities and defects that deny defendants the basics for a fair trial, including competent lawyers and investigators and thorough and rigorous appeals. ... We can’t bring Cantu back. But his case can yield constructive lessons about how to fix Texas’ capital punishment system.”

But Texas death penalty activist Njeri Shakur answers, “The system is working just as it was intended—the racism and the anti-poor bias is at the foundation of the criminal justice system.

“The whole system is what needs changing because the one we now have does not work for us—it works for the rich, corporate elite. In a just society, people would not be in prison or be executed because they are poor or they are people of color. We have a lot of changes to make!”

Rubac is a long-time activist in the struggle to abolish the racist, anti-poor death penalty.