End to Death Penalty Urged

[marmar]

Published on Wednesday, January 3, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times
End to Death Penalty is Urged
A New Jersey panel says life in prison costs less and prevents the risk of an innocent person being executed.
by Henry Weinstein

A blue-ribbon commission recommended Tuesday that New Jersey abolish the death penalty and urged legislators to replace it with the sentence of life without parole.

The 13-member commission said the costs of the death penalty are greater than the costs of life in prison without parole and concluded that abolition of the death penalty "will eliminate the risk" of uneven sentencing in capital cases.

In addition, the commission said "the penological interest in executing a small number of persons guilty of murder is not sufficiently compelling to justify the risk of making an irreversible mistake."

The alternative of life without parole at a maximum-security prison would ensure public safety and serve the interests of society and families of murder victims, the commission said.

The commission was created by the Legislature, which placed a one-year moratorium on executions pending the outcome of the study. Members included two clergymen, two prosecutors, a police chief, a former state Supreme Court justice, a former president of the New Jersey Senate and a representative of an organization advocating for the families of murder victims.

Money saved by abolishing the death penalty should be used to "ensure adequate services and advocacy for the families of murder victims," the commission recommended.

John F. Russo, former president of the state Senate who sponsored New Jersey's capital punishment law, was the lone dissenter on the commission. He said cost was irrelevant and that the risk of executing an innocent person in New Jersey was minute.

"I believe that the fundamental problem is not the statute, but rather liberal judges and other individuals who have consistently disregarded the legislative will and refused to enforce the law as written," Russo said. ......(more)

The rest is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0103-55.htm