Although the state of New Jersey has not executed a criminal in nearly 45 years, the state’s legislature recently passed a bill officially abolishing the death penalty. To some, the bill seems like a mere formality, but political insiders consider New Jersey’s abolishment of capital punishment as a symbolic act that could have far-reaching consequences.
Critics of the death penalty are praising New Jersey’s move to repeal the death penalty law, pointing out that New Jersey is the first state to abolish capital punishment in the modern era. And New Jersey’s symbolic move could spread to other states, particularly those who still have the death penalty law on the books, but seldom if ever use it.
The New Jersey bill came after a special commission of the Legislature determined that capital punishment wastes hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, and is too emotionally draining on both victim’s and criminal’s families. By making the argument as much about financial waste as ethical concerns, the New Jersey bill managed to receive support from both conservative and progressive legislators, and was signed into law by Democratic Governor Jon Corzine.
But New Jersey is not the only state questioning the ethics, legitimacy and cost-effectiveness of maintaining a death penalty law. Both Maryland and New Mexico currently have bills in their Legislatures that would repeal death penalty laws. South Dakota also appears to be within a few votes of success on a law to ban capital punishment.
And even in traditional strongholds of capital punishment such as Tennessee and
Florida, there are now special state appointed committees similar to New Jersey’s investigating the effectiveness, cost and ethical concerns of capital punishment.
Nationwide, the number of criminals sentenced to death has seen a dramatic downturn over the past 10 years. And even in cases where the death sentence is handed down, less than 3% of death row inmates will actually be executed in a year’s time.
With the United States being the last of the so-called “industrialized” nations to maintain the death penalty as public policy, there is also growing international pressure to repeal capital punishment at the federal level. Countries as diverse as Canada, Germany, Australia, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands have all banned the death penalty many years ago, leaving the United States in the company of nations such as Saudi Arabia, China, and Libya when it comes to supporting capital punishment.
While New Jersey’s abolishment of execution is undoubtedly symbolic and will have no real consequences within the state itself, capital punishment opponents around the world see it as a step in the right direction — a direction that could finally bring the United States into alignment with its allies, and end capital punishment once and for all in North America.
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