Equal Justice USA Press Release

New Jersey Senate passes bill to suspend executions

Bipartisan vote is part of growing national trend away from the death penalty

The New Jersey Senate voted 30-6 today to suspend all executions in the state and examine flaws in the death penalty system. The study commission will also look at whether or not the death penalty is worth maintaining at all in the face of mounting concerns and inaccuracies in its application.

The moratorium bill was the first in the country to pass with bipartisan sponsorship. It now moves to the Assembly for a scheduled January vote. If the bill passes the Assembly and the governor signs it as expected, New Jersey will become the first state to legislatively mandate a suspension of executions. Illinois continues to operate under a moratorium ordered by former governor George Ryan (R), and Maryland briefly suspended executions as the result of an order from former Governor Parris Glendening (D).

“The New Jersey Senate joins the growing list of Americans who recognize that the death penalty simply does not work,” said Shari Silberstein, Co-Director of the Quixote Center. “Any thorough examination will reveal that system fails on all counts. It risks executing the innocent, is unfairly applied, fails victims and law enforcement, and wastes millions of taxpayer dollars.”

Last month a new report by New Jersey Policy Perspective found that since 1982, New Jersey’s death penalty has cost taxpayers over a quarter billion dollars more than a system where life without parole was the maximum sentence. Similar studies in other states have also found that the death penalty is significantly more expensive than a system without capital punishment

New Jersey’s action comes amidst a growing chorus of concern about the death penalty across the country. Several weeks ago Virginia Governor and likely presidential candidate Mark Warner (D) commuted the death sentence of Robin Lovitt to life without parole after DNA evidence in Lovitt’s case was destroyed. Warner, a death penalty supporter who has carried out 11 executions, admitted that sometimes the normal procedures of the courts are not enough to ensure fairness in the judicial system.

Texas prosecutors recently reopened the case of Ruben Cantu after the Houston Chronicle ran an investigative series that revealed Cantu was likely innocent. Cantu, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was executed in 1993. In Missouri prosecutors are re-investigating the case of Larry Griffin, who was executed in 1995, in light of strong evidence that he, too, was innocent. The Quixote Center featured Griffin in our October 2000 report, “Reasonable Doubts: Is the U.S. Executing Innocent People?”

Anti-death penalty candidates won the only two governor’s races in 2005, in Virginia and New Jersey. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement last month restating their opposition to the death penalty and noting deep and irrevocable flaws in the system. Voices ranging from the editorial board of Alabama’s largest newspaper to the President of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention have expressed new concerns about capital punishment. Legislatures in California and North Carolina have both commissioned studies of the death penalty, and the New Mexico House of Representatives voted to abolish the death penalty altogether.

“Americans are recognizing more and more that we are better off without the death penalty,” Silberstein said. “New Jersey’s problems are not unique. State in every region of the country face wrongful convictions, incompetent lawyers, racial bias, and other systemic problems.”

“Americans are tired of business as usual,” Silberstein continued. “In many states, taxpayers are ready to close the door on this wasteful experiment once and for all. Elsewhere, states are stepping back, asking questions, and making changes. The death penalty is on its way out.”

The Quixote Center is a national organization founded in 1976. The Center's Equal Justice USA program pioneered the national grassroots movement for a moratorium on executions in 1997. Nationwide, over 4,000 national and local groups, businesses, and faith communities have called for a halt to executions, including 144 local governments. (For a complete listing, call 301-699-0042 or see the National Tally at www.ejusa.org).

For information on the national movement to suspend executions or on the Quixote Center’s Equal Justice USA program, visit www.ejusa.org.

For information on New Jersey’s death penalty, visit www.njadp.org.

###