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TechnoratiThe United Nations is expected to endorse a decision to place a halt on executions worldwide when the General Assembly convenes on Dec. 18 in New York.
In the 1976 landmark ruling, the Supreme Court lifted the ban on executions. New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982 although it has not executed anyone since 1963.
An opinion poll published two days before the Assembly vote showed a sharp division among New Jersey voters regarding the death penalty.
The Quinnipiac University poll found 53 percent oppose ending the death penalty and 39 percent support the ban. But when given the option of life in prison without parole, only 39 percent supported execution while 52 percent preferred life in prison without parole for people convicted of first-degree murder.
But by a 78 percent to 18 percent margin, a clear majority of New Jersey voters favored the death penalty for serial killers and child killers.
"People want justice, not revenge," said Clay F. Richards, the Quinnipiac institute's assistant director. People didn’t trust life penalty when it was first introduced years ago “because they saw so many murderers being paroled," he added.
"A life without parole sentence for killers right from the start would keep society safe, hold killers responsible for their brutal and depraved acts,” read a letter sent by family members of 62 murder victims to lawmakers in late November, urging passage of the ban.
In the letter, the family members emphasized how the lengthy process of capital punishment placed them in agony and left them in a limbo that often resulted in a life penalty.
Once signed by the governor, the bill gives inmates who are sentenced to death 60 days to waive appeals and petition to be sentenced to life in prison without parole. If such a petition is not made, inmates would still remain under the death sentence but would likely never face execution because the state’s capital punishment statute will be repealed.
But parents of one murder victim, whose offender sits on death row, urged the state Legislator to not strike down the death penalty. The murder of their 7-year-old daughter Megan Kanka by sex offender Jesse Timmendequas in 1994 gave rise to Megan's Law, which requires public notification when a convicted sex offender moves into a neighborhood.
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