[WCADP-list] New Jersey legislature votes to end death penalty

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New Jersey legislature votes to end death penalty

Thu Dec 13, 2007 4:48pm EST

TRENTON, New Jersey (Reuters) - New Jersey on Thursday became the first U.S.
state to legislatively abolish the death penalty since the Supreme Court
reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Lawmakers in the Democrat-controlled state Assembly voted 44 to 36 in favor
of a bill to scrap the death penalty, and substitute it with life in prison
without the possibility of parole for those found guilty of the most serious
crimes.

The vote follows approval by the state Senate on Monday and the measure will
now be signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, an opponent of
capital punishment.

New Jersey, which has not executed anyone since 1963, becomes the 14th state
without a death penalty at a time when its use is declining in most of the
36 states -- plus the federal government and the U.S. military -- that
retain it.


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It's easy to support the death penalty when you don't have all the facts.
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