NCJ Number
86826
Date Published
1982
Length
154 pages
Annotation
Testimony on a New Jersey bill to reintroduce the death penalty is supported by the State attorney general and representatives of the law enforcement community and opposed by a public defender, religious groups, Amnesty International, the Puerto Rican Congress, and the Association on Correction.
Abstract
New Jersey Senate Bill No. 112 reinstates capital punishment against the perpetrator of an intentional murder and any person who hired the perpetrator to commit the crime. Further, the bill provides for a separate post-conviction proceeding to determine whether the death penalty will be imposed on a convicted murderer eligible for that sanction. In this proceeding, certain aggravating and mitigating factors are to be considered. Procedures for review of the death penalty sentence are provided. The bill is supported by the attorney general and a representative of law enforcement on the ground that the premeditated taking of a human life is so heinous that its gravity can only be expressed by and impressed upon society by the taking of the offender's life. More lenient sentences are believed to detract from the seriousness of the offense. Opponents of the bill argue that the death penalty has not proven to have a beneficial utility that outweighs the state's obligation to protect the offender's right to life. Further, it is argued that the state enters into the very act for which the offender is being punished: the premeditated murder of a human being. Various written materials submitted by opponents of capital punishment are included.