New Jersey Moves to Abolish Death Penalty

TRENTON, Dec. 10 — The New Jersey Senate voted Monday to make the state the first in the country to repeal the death penalty since the United States Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976 and established the nation’s current system of capital punishment.

Passage in the Senate was seen as the bill’s biggest obstacle, and in the end it was approved 21 to 16, receiving the bare minimum number of votes required.

Legislators on both sides of the debate expect the measure to pass easily on Thursday in the Assembly, where the Democrats enjoy a 50-to-30 majority, .

Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a staunch opponent of the death penalty, has repeatedly said he would sign a measure ending executions..

For those opposed to capital punishment, New Jersey’s repeal would represent a victory that has so far eluded them in the modern history of the death penalty.

Though legislatures across the country have tried to abolish capital punishment since 1976, none have succeeded. This year alone, the legislatures in Nebraska, Montana, Maryland and New Mexico have debated bills to repeal their death penalties, but each of those measures failed, often by a slim margin.

So far, opponents of the death penalty have succeeded only through court rulings, like a decision declaring New York’s capital punishment statute unconstitutional, or through moratoriums imposed by a governor, like in Illinois and Maryland.

“What New Jersey is going to do is have a Legislature-initiated repeal, and that’s different,” said Franklin E. Zimring, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has been critical of American capital sentence laws. “This is a degree of legislative action in the undoing of the death penalty which is a fairly significant step forward.”

Opponents of the death penalty said today that they hoped that New Jersey’s action would re-energize movements in states that have recently voted down abolition bills and serve as a catalyst for other states to revisit their capital punishment laws.

“Today New Jersey can become a leader, an inspiration to other states,” said Senator Robert Martin, a Republican.

Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said, “The New Jersey Legislature did the right thing. And we think we’ll be seeing more state legislatures saying, ‘we don’t want the death penalty.’ ”

While the Senate vote mainly broke down along party lines, four Republicans did break from the party leadership and vote for the bill. Three of them — Mr. Martin, James J. McCullough and Joseph A. Palaia — will not be returning to the Senate when the new Legislature is seated next month.

Earlier in the day, legislation to replace the death penalty with life in prison and no chance of parole was approved by the General Assembly’s Law and Public Safety Committee.

Because the vote was taken during a lame-duck legislative session, legislators who may have otherwise voted against the bill were afforded some political cover —a factor that probably tipped the balance. Mr. McCullough said today that he arrived at his decision over the summer after meeting with law enforcement officials and the family of a murder victim. “That’s the right thing to do. I’m an outgoing senator,” he said.

Opponents of the bill were sharply critical of Senate Democratic leaders for scheduling a vote during a lame-duck session, when issues of such serious moral and political importance are not usually debated.

“Why not let this go to the new session?” asked Senator Robert W. Singer, a Republican.

By JEREMY W. PETERS,The New York Times, December 11, 2007