Update: NJ abolishes the death penalty
I told you on Tuesday about the NJ Dems’ push to give up on the law and scrap the death penalty. Now, it’s official:
New Jersey will become the first state in four decades to abolish the death penalty under a measure lawmakers approved Thursday and the governor intends to sign within days.
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.
Victims’ families have been frozen out of the debate.
The measure would spare eight men on the state’s death row, including Jesse Timmendequas, a sex offender convicted of murdering 7-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994. That case sparked a Megan’s Law, which requires law enforcement agencies to notify the public about convicted sex offenders living in their communities.
Marilyn Flax, whose husband Irving was kidnapped and murdered in 1989 by death row inmate John Martini Sr., said she seethes at the thought Martini will remain alive “while my innocent, loving, adoring husband lies in a grave.”
“I feel the system has spit on me, has slapped me and I am fuming,” Flax said.
Republicans said that’s why they would vote against the bill.
Assemblyman Richard Merkt said the bill was “a victory for murderers and rapists.”
“It does not benefit families. It does not benefit New Jersey society. It does not benefit justice,” he said.
Senate Republicans had sought to retain the death penalty for those who murder law enforcement officials, rape and murder children, and terrorists, but the Senate rejected the idea.
Democrats control the Legislature.
Actions have consequences.
***
Read about the murder of Irving Flax.
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NJ abolishes the death penalty for those guilty of unspeakable crimes; but not for the unborn.
Compassion.
mind you, most people in my state support the death penalty. but of course, we only pay the taxes and tolls….what do we know.
Just another area where the Dems don’t believe people should take responsibility for their actions. How can we make the madness stop?
Those that received the death penalty should get the death penalty. NJ has just screwed the pooch and People will start taking matters into their own hands.
You wouldn’t even know they had the death penalty in this state since it hadn’t been used since 1963.
Ironically, this sort of liberal legislation is one of the strongest justifications of capital punishment.
You have to execute the criminally dangerous lest liberals let them loose, as they so often do.
Criminals: “Squee!”
Something tells me the murder rate is about to go sky high in the Garden State.
When a state enacts the death penalty, it doesn’t apply to crimes committed before the law went into effect.
When a state abolishes the death penalty, it shouldn’t apply to crimes committed prior to the abolition.
Why do death penalty opponents get to have it both ways?
Can NJ voters pass an initiative to reinstate the death penalty?
Or do they need to wait until they can elect enough death penalty supporters to the legislature?
One of their arguments is that DNA has proven the innocence of many who have been executed. OK, how ’bout cases where DNA has proven guilt?
The arrogance and disrespect that the NJ politicians have for their citizenry is astounding. This vote reflects the mindless culture, or better yet, cult of liberalism.
Life without parole is a joke. Most of these murderous thugs will eventually be paroled somewhere down the line - when someone judges them too old to be a danger to society.
Everyone here should be aware of the story of a man sentenced to death row in a Texas prison for the torture, rape and murder of 3 teenagers. Thanks to the judiciary, his first death sentence was commuted to life in prison - and he was subsequently paroled. After being paroled he killed a number of young women. He was caught, tried, convicted and sentenced a second time. Fortunately, Texas didn’t make a mistake the second time and this man is now long dead at the hands of the executioner.
Only in a very sick mind is a real dead victim of less value that a real live murderer. I can only say “May God have mercy on the souls of the NJ politicians”.
This will create a magnet like Vermont is for child predators.
NJ and Massachusetts, why conservatives live there I’ll never know
Are you sure, Michelle?
You had my thoughts too-
It should grandfather in, they should execute those who were convicted and sentenced to death.
New Jersey, just the right place to abolish the death penalty ya know, such a low crime rate and all. Foolish arrogant twits.
No.justice.even.available.
The Democrats first 100 days + will set us back 100 YEARS!, and they’re not done.
Evil has moved in, and it brings company.
Kenneth Allen McDuff is one of the most hated and reviled names in Texas criminal history. Often called “the Poster Boy of Capital Punishment,” he is the only man in US history to be sentenced to death, released from death row and then sentenced to death again and executed for a different crime.
McDuff was born in 1946 in Rosebud, a small town in central Texas. Early on he displayed antisocial behavior and was often in trouble at school. He was a confirmed bully, always trying to intimidate weaker students, but he was also a coward and would back off if a victim showed no fear and fought back. His teachers’s efforts to discipline McDuff were hampered by his mother Addie, a bossy and domineering woman who steadfastly refused to believe that her son could ever do anything bad. Addie’s distorted view of her son would persist until the very end.
McDuff dropped out of high school early on and went to work with his father John Allen (J.a) pouring concrete. When he wasn’t working he was out drinking, fighting, womanizing and racing around in a succession of cars, all of which he eventually wrecked. He was also into burglary, and in 1965 he was sent to prison on 14 separate counts of it. He was releasd after less than a year and had clearly not learned the lesson.
McDuff had no real friends, being almost universally disliked and feared by people in Rosebud, but he had a few hangers-on, mostly young men who were impressed by his grandiose stories and who were not especially intelligent. One of these was an 18-year-old named Roy Dale Green. On August 6, 1966, McDuff and Green were driving amilessly around central Texas, as was their habit. In the Forth Worth suburb of Everman, they spotted a car parked at a baseball diamon. Green claimed later that he thought that he and McDuff were only going to harass and scare the people in the car, but McDuff obviously had other ideas. In the car was Robert Brand, 17; his girlfriend, Edna Louise Sullivan, 16; and Brand’s cousin, Marcus Dunnam, 15. They were taking a break after giving Louise lessons on parallel parking.
McDuff and Green approached the car, ordered all three out and abducted them, locking the boys and the girl in the trunks of both cars. Green drove one car and McDuff the other, taking their captives to a secluded area where McDuff shot the boys point-blank in the head while they knelt in the trunk begging for their lives. Afterward, Louise Sullivan was raped several times by both men, and also with the broken handle of a broomstick. After that, she was made to kneel with her head on the ground while Green restrained her and McDuff slowly strangled her by pressing the broomstick across her throat. The next day, Green heard about the crime on the radio and broke down and confessed, and he and McDuff were arrested. Green received a lesser sentence in exchange for testifying against his partner. McDuff insisted on taking the stand and did not impress the jury at all. He was sentenced to die for the murder of Robert Brand.
The death sentence was overturned when the US Supreme COurt abolished capital punishment in 1972, and at about the same time, the case of Ruiz vs. Texas was calling attention to poor conditions and overcrowding in Texas prisons. Because of the reforms resulting from this case, hardly any prisoner was serving out his full sentence. McDuff was convicted of bribery, a felony, while in prison after he offered a parole board member $10000 for an early release. But even this did not stop him from winning parole in October of 1989. Three days later, the body of Sarafia Parker was found. While McDuff was never officially connected to her death, she is believed to be his victim.
While on parole McDuff made no attempt to even pretend he had been reformed. He was convited of making terroristic threats after trying to pick a fight with a group of black teenagers, and also for DUI and public drunkenness. He became addicted to crack cocaine and spent most of his time hanging out with people on the very fringes of society. Even though he was enrolled at Texas State Technical Institute where he was studying to be a machinist, he spent most of his time getting high and drunk, picking up prostitutes and regaling his hangers-on with embellished accounts of his exploits. He talked obsessively about obtaining guns with which to rob and kill crack dealers, but his entourage just brushed off the bragging as beer talk. It wasn’t.
In October of 1991, McDuff’s car ran a roadblock in Waco. Police and other witnesses observed a woman in the passenger seat, her hands behind her, apparently trying to kick out the windshield. For unknown reasons, the car was not stopped and the woman, later identified as a 37-year-old prostitute named Brenda Thompson, was never seen alive again. Just a few days later, another prostitute, 22-year-old Reginia “Gina” Moore, vanished without a trace. On December 29, 1991, McDuff and a life-long alcoholic named Alva Hank WOrley were driving around Austin Texas looking for drugs. Worley would later testify that McDuff several times pointed out attractive women and implied that he would like to “take them.” Eventually they spotted Colleen Reed, a 28-year-old accountant, washing her black Mazda at a car wash. McDuff grabbed her and forced her into their car. Witnesses heard her screams and called police but it was too late. Reed was driven out of town and raped by both men. Worley said later that eventually she tried to resist McDuff, possibly by biting him, and that McDuff struck her so hard Worley thought he heard bones breaking and Reed appeared to be unconscious or dead. Worley was dropped off soon after this and McDuff disposed of the body.
McDuff had briefly held a job at a Quik-Pak market near the TSTI campus in Waco, and was paired with a more senior employee named Aaron Northrup. Northrup’s 22-year-old wife Melissa also worked at the store, and McDuff evidently took a liking to her. He told several friends that he wanted to rob the store and “take” the girl who worked the night shift there. Again, nobody took him seriously. On March 1, 1992, Aaron Northrup became concerned when Melissa failed to return home from her shift at the Quik-Pak, and a police investigation was launched. McDuff’s car was found near the store, and Northrup’s car was located in a wooded area in Dallas County. Eyewitness accounts placed McDuff in the area of the abduction and also at the site of where Colleen Reed was kidnapped.
A month later, a fisherman found Melissa Northrup’s body in a gravel pit near where her car had been recovered. She had been bound hand and foot and probably strangled. She was two months pregnant. At about the same time, a worker on his lunch break found a badly decomposed body in the woods near the TSTI property. She was a prostitute named Valencia Kay Joshua, who’d last been seen in February on the campus, looking for McDuff’s dorm room.
By now, McDuff was out of Texas. He never revealed how he was able to get a new car and fake ID, but he was then in Kansas City, Missouri, working as a garbage collector. Texas Rangers and US Marshals began hunting him in earnest after Melissa Northrup’s body was found, and on May 1, 1992, he was profiled on “Americ’s Most Wanted.” Just a day later, a co-worker contacted police to say he knew where the fugitive was. The garbage truck was pulled over during its regular run and McDuff thus became AMW’s 208th successful capture.
McDuff stood trial first in the Northrup case. He was disruptive and obnoxious in court, tried to act as his own lawyer, and could never give a satisfactory account of his whereabouts on the night the young woman was killed. He was sentenced to die for her murder, and then stood trial for the Reed murder, even though her body had not been found. McDuff was even more disruptive during this trial than he had been before, probably because the judge was black and McDuff was a classic bigot. He was convicted of Reed’s killing on the basis of strong circumstantial evidence eyewitness accounts, Worley’s testimony and five of Reed’s hairs found in his car. He received a second death sentence.
After McDuff’s arrest, Texas launched a massive overhaul of its prison system to try and ensure that nobody like him ever won early parole again. The tightened parole rules, prsion-building projects and improved monitoring of parolees are collectively known in Texas as McDuff Laws. Only in the fall of 1998, as his date with the executioner drew closer, did McDuff reveal the location of Reginia Moore and Brenda Thompson. When his directions failed to produce Reed’s remains, he was taken out of prison under tight security and even tighter secrecy and driven to the location where he’d said he had left Reed. He provided a more detailed set of directions and Reed’s remains were quickly found.
McDuff’s time ran out finally on November 17, 1998. Just after six P.M he was put to death by lethal injection in the Huntsville prison. Justice had been served, 32 years too late.
publiuswarmac9999#15 Happens to often.
Does New Jersey have concealed carry? I think the good people there are going to have to learn how to defend themselves… soon.
I am amazed at how gleeful people here are at the idea of killing someone. You people seem to think it will make some difference in the crime rate there. It won’t. I know I am in the minority, but while killing someone who did wrong might make you feel better, it doesn’t provide justice. It doesn’t bring the person that they killed back to life. The death penalty is an outdated form of justice - as outdated as crucifixion, the guillotine, firing squad, public floggings, etc.
You people seem to think that if we don’t kill people then they got away with something. Life in prison protects society because it prevents someone from being a repeat offender. That’s the goal of the justice system - to keep society safe.
Killing someone who is already in prison will not keep society any safer. I know I am in the minority, but I am conservative and I respect human life.
I’m not defending anyone who was given the death penalty as I expect them to never see the light of day. . . I just don’t think that summarily killing them is appropriate for a civilized society.
Well no surprise here. Once again, the murderers and baby rapers always are the ones that deserve their rights. They should be housed, fed, given their cable television, make sure to have sex change operations if needed to make sure they are no longer “confused”, Allowed to acquire degrees ib akk sirts if various subjects ad study the law in order to spend the rest of their lives loading up the courts with frivilous cases trying to gain their freedom, not to mention running drug cartels within the penetentiary, running an inside black market, able to find love, marriage, partake in sports, find God, Allah, go to Church, Temple, Mosque, sing in the choir, go to the library, read comic books, study and partake in art and literature, learn to play a musical instrument, start a band,
shank an inmate, beat an inmate up rape a few inmates, intimidate inmates and take their property, gas the guards, shank a guard, find out where a guard lives and intimidate a guard and his family., kill a guard and have his family killed, work with a guard to smuggled goods into the prison…
Yeah. I think this is a much, much better option. I think Dakine, and Rusty, and Snausages, and all the others from the other day were right. I was obviously mistaken. This is far better a thing for someone who has taken at the bare minimum one person’s life if not more.
Now, the victim will no longer get to breathe air or do any of these things, and being the best friend of someone for 25 years who was ruthlessly murdered in is sleep in May, I can personally tel you that this is a pain that NEVER goes away, and I can tell you as a close personal friend of his mother and father who were my surrogate parents in high school that they will NEVER recover from this loss, but you know…hey…that murderous scum…he has his rights to think about and Lord knows he deserves to live just as comfortably as humanly possible and so do all these other fine upstanding citizens. They just made a few mistakes is all and they are misunderstood. If they were to just be given a chance to learn the right way to behave in polite society we know they will do OK. LEt’s listen to what the people have to say the other day. They are truly the prophets of the Criminal Justice system. Me? Why, I know nothing. I am merely an emotional whatever it was that tiny troll idiot…I mean Dakine said. After all, he always has a truly fact filled and logical response.
So chalk one up for the victims. This way, they will be able to know that they can live with the knowledge that while their friend and loved one is dead and gone forever, and the memory of the heinous, painful way they were ripped from this life, at least the murderous scum bag…I mean, the misguided soul will be able to rehabilitate himself and maybe find peace and a hobby.
Thank you Liberals. You have saved us once again from ourselves.
I am sure some will be surprised by this, but I’m just not really upset about this. I’m pro death penalty for a number of reasons. On the other hand, I am also a constitutionalist and states rights supporter. Beyond interstate transportation, interstate commerce and interstate crime I don’t like to see the feds involved in a state’s business or funding things that are not truly national in scope.
This is an act by the duly elected government of New Jersey. For people to say that they didn’t have a voice in the process is narrowly focused in that they had the opportunity to participate at the polls. That the current New Jersey state government would pass such a ban is of no surprise to anyone who has paid attention, even to those of us a thousand miles or more away.
I hope for the sake of the people of New Jersey that this does not lead to an increased capital crime rate. I also hope that the people think very carefully at the next election. Votes have consequences. Staying at home and choosing not to vote or choosing not to be engaged in the politics of your government also has consequences.
According to polling data I saw a majority of residents support the death penalty. I guess at the next election we will see how much they support it. The people can use death penalty support as a litmus test for state legislative candidates and the governorship and in a few years get it reinstated the same way today it was eliminated. It is up to them. In the meantime, I cannot imagine the agony of the victim’s families knowing the murders of their loved ones have received this reprieve.
And your emphasis on ‘never’ would indicate that it would not go away even if the criminal who committed the act were killed.
The agony of the families would not go away if the criminal were killed. Nobody will think, ‘oh, now I’ll just get life in prison instead of the death penalty so it’s a green light to commit that murder I’ve been planning.’ You can’t possibly believe that there is any person alive that thinks like that.
Let’s face it, as jwf said NJ hasn’t executed anyone since 1963, they really haven’t had a death penalty, it was a farce. Soon we’ll look like Europe where these people would be out in what 10 years? Even thought the people of New Jersey supported the death penalty by a wide margin the Dems that run the state know that no matter what they do they have a lock. Why actually do the peoples bidding, they’ll get re-elected no matter what…..
I do.
More importantly for me, I think it’s just desserts. Sorry, maybe I’m not enlightened enough.
Didn’t say I did think that, but thanks for playing.
It’s not about enlightenment or being ‘better than’ someone. This debate was way too one sided (to Michelle’s delight) and I would just like to offer a different perspective.
And deep diver, you didn’t say that so apparently you don’t believe it. . . but Aloha Guy does. I play because word games are fun:) Thank YOU for playing.
I hope for the sake of the people of New Jersey that this does not lead to an increased capital crime rate.
Unfortunately, it will lead to an increased capital crime rate. All you have to do is look at Virginia, which has the death penalty, and DC/Maryland which don’t.
You know what? I apologize. I just realized in my shorthand that I majorly insulted the Pro-Life movement for the Anti-Abortionists by referring to the anti-Death Penalty nuts as pro-lifers. For that, I truly apologize, and I do not want anyone to confuse the two, and it should have read “anti-Death Penalty” and not “Pro-Lifer”
My regrets.
Exactly. Apparently, the unborn are more deserving of punishment than criminals.
Can’t find the link right now, but article (within 3 months) said 50% of NJ’syans want to move out of state. Me and Vegas say it’s around 89% after this.
Also, Newark NJ was the carjacking capital of the nation for a while. Juveniles would purposely ram cop cars, knowing full well they would get off scott free.
Corzine does away with death, reprehensible scum everywhere rejoice and relish their next kill.
The black-hearted idiots sleep in ignorance of their evil deeds. May their errors be visited upon them 100 fold.
Anti-abortion…anti-death penalty…anti-euthanasia
Let’s hope this spreads across the country and the death penalty is revoked everywhere.
A few examples of wrongfully convicted people on Death Row…..
Virginia: Earl Washington, pardoned in 2000
* Spent 17 years in prison before receiving a full pardon. DNA testing proved his innocence of the rape and murder for which he was convicted. Washington, who suffers from mild mental retardation, came within one week of execution in 1985. He was released from prison in February 2001.
Arizona: Ray Krone, released in 2002
* Spent 10 years in prison in Arizona, including time on death row, for a murder he did not commit. He was the 100th person to be released from death row since 1973. DNA testing proved his innocence.
Sausage, please explain anti-euthanasia. I agree there are few things in this entire universe worse than wrongly imprisoning someone, but why let the ones that are DNA guilty live off our tax dollars?
Nothing will ever cease one’s pain of losing a friend or family member to a murderer. But I believe it will help their lives knowing that the indecent human being will not be able to hurt another person. Secondly, how can liberals be okay with abortion but not the death penalty? That just goes against all of my logic…
This because they have one of the highest unsolved murder rates in the nation. One less thing to discourage crime. Wonderful moonbats.
This is one classic example of:
USE IT OR LOST IT!
God blessed Texas.
I live in NJ - we moved here after my husband accepted a position with a pharmaceutical company here. Lots of pharma in NJ.
Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here.
Our time here is numbered. We don’t plan to make this place our home forever. My husband is a country boy and I reckon we’ll be moving down south eventually. I couldn’t be happier about that prospect.
Sidebar - We happen to reside in the most conservative county (yes it’s that bad, we are relegated to a county) in NJ. The property taxes were lowest too, coincidentally.
This just further solidifies and actually jump starts my quest to get the hell out of here as soon as possible.
I think it is hilarious that people seek to hold NJ up as a prime example of how to get things done. That’s sad. It shows that people don’t care if the system is circumvented, just get me the results that I want - stat. Everybody should be happy, except for those of us who did not want the death penalty abolished. Which seems like the majority.
1. HURRAY!
2.
Granted, Virginia’s murder rate is much lower, but the comparison doesn’t stick. Urban areas have much higher murder rates while rural areas are generally safer. DC is nothing but urban area and Maryland features PG County and Baltimore. Of course the murder rates are higher there.
But the murder rate of Virginia is almost double that of Massachusetts. It’s more than double that of Maine. Those states don’t have the death penalty? So couldn’t I say that the death penalty puts more people at risk?
That’s your logic, and it’s equally flawed no matter which side it benefits.
When states began reinstituting the death penalty, some states saw more murders, others saw less. What conclusion can be drawn from that other than that the death penalty isn’t a real deterrent? And if that’s the case, why risk killing an innocent person?
3. Since “pork” and balanced budgets are such a big topic here, let me show you the money quote from the Washington Post:
Liberals cutting costs! I’m surprised more people aren’t hailing this as progress!
I thought I lived in the most conservative county (Monmouth). Take a look at the gerrymandering NJ has engaged in to dilute the vote. I know we’re leaving this awful state…can’t wait, in fact. Maybe I’ll engage in the same fraud many NJians do - buy a house in FL and not pay income tax or this outrageous car insurance rate.
I’m sick of people assumingthe death penalty is about punnishment. It’s not. It’s about retribution. What a murderous thug owes society. The liberals think society owes them something. This is, by far, the most pathological logic out there. Society does not owe a criminal a lifetime of living on the dole. There is nothing - nothing that a murderous thug can offer society…and even if there is, I don’t care.
I defy any of you to offer ONE person executed since 1978 who’s subsequently been proven innocent. I expect to hear crickets. And even when you provide something that ties to make your case you fail. Never once did it occur to you that the reason people have been subsequently declared innocent, it’s been because they were sentenced to death and the extra scrutiny their case received becuase of that sentnce. You’ll find less people hve been exonerated from life in jail than actually received the death penalty.
But I guess to save the life of scum you relgTw innocent people to life in jail. Good job do-gooders. Way to look out for the innocent.
Um? What?
Here ya go.
So, that’s 246 exonerations of people not sentenced to death. So, your point doesn’t really make a lot of sense.
I don’t get it I guess New Jersey thinks this is “Progressive” isn’t that a kind of soup? oh that’s Progresso, I love Italian Soup! New Jersey in the pocket of big pharma?
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/247439/NJ_Parents_Warn_Against_New_State_Vaccine_Mandate
once again Rusty you come up short. I specifically said executed AFTER 1978. Your study purposefully leaves out the fact that those susequent exoneration are from prior to the moratorium.
Thanks to playing Rusty. You want to try again?
Since 1978. How many?
The answer is zero. Gooseegg. Nada.
Hooligan, I was responding to your claim that an innocent person is less likely to be exonerated if they aren’t sentenced to death since the case draws less coverage.
That article proves that isn’t the case.
You’re right that no one actually executed since 1978 has been exonerated in America. Partially because those cases are closed and the dead convict no longer has representation fighting for them. Also, admittedly, because DNA testing makes it less likely.
But to deny that the risk is there is naive. Why risk it if it doesn’t prevent crime?
I think a huge part of the problem here is that sentences almost never mean what they say they mean. “Death” usually doesn’t mean death as evidenced by New York and New Jersey. “Life without parole” seldom means life without parole, as several of you have cited examples to show. I think people on both sides of the death penalty could have a better good-faith argument if we could establish a little truth in sentencing first.
If I’m reading this correctly (and please tell me if I’m not) you’re advocating capital punishment partly on the grounds that the tighter standards of evidence will reveal improper convictions that might otherwise go undiscovered. Inherent in that belief would be an acceptance that some significant number of people are wrongly convicted of major crimes every year.
If that’s the case I don’t think the answer is to give such a broken system the authority to kill. A better idea would be to examine the system and figure out how to fix it.
Just FYI we don’t summarily execute people in this country. They’ve all had at least one trial and usually a decade or more of appeals.
I just want to toss this out there: it seems to me that whatever your religious beliefs are capital punishment is a waste.
If you believe in the afterlife then presumably someone who rapes and murders is going to hell. If he’s destined to burn for all eternity does it really matter if he lingers here another 20 years first?
If you don’t believe in the afterlife then putting someone to death is actually an act of mercy, as you spare him decades of potential misery behind bars.
I know it’s kind of off topic. Like I said, I just think it’s interesting food for thought.
Rusty, I meant rate. Comparing the number is fruitless since the are many more life sentences handed down than death sentences. But still you went on to prove that the rate of exoneration from deathrow is higher than that of other pisoners. Thanks.
Secondly a case is never closed. Defense Attys have the ability to contiuing proving someones innocence if provable. But if it’s not provable no amt of time will suffice.
Lastly I don’t care to use the death penalty as a method of detering crime. That’s not its purpose. It is meant to get rid of the most vile in our society. It’s for retribution. We’ll never know if t works as a deterance mechanism because liberals will never allow it to be fully employed despite the fact that not one person executed in my lifetime has proven to be innocent
Does anyone actually claim that it’s a deterrent anymore? I don’t recall seeing that argument recently (except insofar as it deters the person you execute).
That argument is all over this thread. People are speculating that NJ’s murder rate will skyrocket. Which is of course crazy.
well considering nj hasn’t used the death penalty in over 40 years I will not say this will result in higher crime. What I will say is that this will do nothing for NJs budget which is how it’s been sold. This will save just money for our politcians to send 10 times more. NJ is the most dysfunctional state in the union.
Honest debate is important if we ever hope to accomplish anything. In that spirit I’d like to clarify something.
Being anti-capital punshishment does not necessarily translate into soft on crime. I do not for one second think that “the misguided soul (should) be able to rehabilitate himself and maybe find peace and a hobby”. Quite the contrary. I think the fact that inmates have access to gyms, videogames and educations that would cost me tens of thousands of dollars is an outrage. The fact that so many members of the criminal class consider a stretch of jail time to be a status symbol shows that it is not nearly a fearsome enough place.
Being against the death penalty also does not necessarily mean I don’t think plenty of people deserve it. I have often read that something like half the violent crime in this country is committed by a mere 5% of the criminal population. Clearly the world would be better off if this group of hardcore recidivists was done away with.
My opposition to capital punishment comes from only one source: I believe the fact is that our system is deeply flawed. Although I believe most people act in good faith it’s undeniable that there are cops, prosecutors and judges who pursue their own agendas without regard to actual justice (I speak from experience here, my father is just such a person). History has also proven that the system is extremely succeptable to being influenced by money, or the lack thereof.
I just don’t think it’s wise to give something so self-evidently inefficient the power to legally kill. As conservatives we are proponents of limited government, thinking (with good reason!) that government cannot be trusted with too much authority. How then can we trust it with the authority to kill its citizens?
The only justifiable cost which should be expended to death row inmates is the cost of a .308 round. Any cost above that are costs incurred by the lefty’s legal wrangling to postpone the finding of a jury of the criminals peers.
On December 14th, 2007 at 8:26 am, 30 pcs of silver said:
I’ve heard that so long as you stay away from Camden, the south is a lovely place to live. So, just pick a place between Cherry Hill and Toms River, and you should be happy as a lark.
You have to be very careful about correlating releases from death sentences and assumptions of innocence. In far too many cases, the release is as a result of some liberal judge determining that there was a procedural error or abuse - regardless of whether there was one or not.
As to DNA exonerations, great - if they can be correlated with other evidence. But if the DNA confirms guilt, then there should be no change in the sentence other than to expedite its conclusion in the gas chamber, electric chair, or other means of execution. Frankly, the argument that life in prison is cheaper than the death sentence is really a bogus argument. Virginia has an expedited death sentence process and many of these vicious thugs go quickly to hell. (The only reason for high costs is the payment of lawyers fees for an interminable number of bogus appeals.)
My home state continues to slide. Now watch homicides in depressed areas like Newark, Paterson and Irvington rise like a rocket, causing thousands of times more death and heartbreak than that created by excecuting murderers would have done. I hope I’m proven wrong, but I cannot help but think that future statistics will prove that massive heartbreaking tragedy in the long run will follow this decision.
Newsflash, ThackerAgency:
The death penalty was tailor made for miscreants like McDuff. The only problem I have is they die too easy. I’m for killing them the same way they did their victims. Now THAT would be real justice. Save your sympathies for the victims.
Get this:
Wanna bet he has cable T.V.?
To those of you who talk about people who have been freed because of DNA evidence. To me this makes the case for the death penalty even stronger because DNA can give us conclusive proof of guilt.
Have the anti-death penalty advocates never heard of escape or parole? Charles Manson who was originally sentenced to death in California along with the members of his “family” get regular parole hearings, and there are many others like him who were originally sentenced to death who lived in states that overturned the death penalty who now regularly get parole hearings.
The death penalty may not prevent people from murdering others, but that is because it isn’t carried out enough, nor does it have any real
predictability people know getting the death penalty is like winning the Multi-million dollar jackpot. If people knew that if they murder an innocent person they had a 50 percent chance of getting the death penalty they would think twice.
Instead we live in a country where you can rape a 16 year old girl to death, put a pipe bomb in her mouth to destroy any dental records and get out of prison less then ten years later.
I respect life, and that is why I feel people who take the lives of innocent people on purpose need to have their lives taken away, so they can never do it again, so people who haven’t yet committed murder can see their future if they do, and so the survivors don’t have to go to parole board meetings every few years and relive the day someone they love was brutally murdered.