This is my first blog entry and I wanted it to be a special one. I have taken great pride in being a Jersey boy, even though the state could teach the Bush Crime Regime a thing or two about corruption. In any event I am even prouder that the NJ state senate (well 21 of the 40) had the courage to repeal the death penalty. Governor Jon Corzine is supposed to sign the ban into law shortly. http://www.nj.com/...
For those not familiar with American capital punishment, there are currently 12 states--Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia--that have banned the use of capital punishment. Illinois joined suit in 2003. These states opted not to use capital punishment even after the Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that the then-new form of execution--lethal injection--was permissible in the landmark ruling Gregg v. Georgia, which reversed the 1972 ruling Furman v. Georgia. New Jersey re-instated the death penalty in 1982, but never executed any of the 13 prisoners since. In fact the state's last execution was in 1963!
The Supreme Court's recent string of putting parameters on who can be executed is a good start, but it is not enough. According to a recent statistic, the US along with China, Iran, Iraq and North Korea, accounted for some 90% of the world's executions in 2005. New Jersey has a great chance to set a good example and restore some of America's moral authority and make history in the process, as it would be the first state to abolish its death penalty after putting it back on the books in the aftermath of Gregg.