New Jersey is one of 18 states to have banned the death penalty.
(Eric Risberg | The Associated Press)
TRENTON -- Nearly nine years after New Jersey banned the death penalty, a pair of state lawmakers introduced a bill this week seeking to restore it for serious crimes committed in the state.
Here are five things to know about the proposal and the Garden State's ban:
1. New Jersey made history with its ban.
In December 2007, the state Legislature voted to make New Jersey the first state to abolish the death penalty in 42 years. The state Assembly voted 44-36 to give the bill final legislative approval.
Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat and death penalty opponent, signed the measure into law days later, replacing capital punishment with life in prison without parole.
The effort was successful despite polling that showed 62 percent of Americans favoring the death penalty and 53 percent of New Jerseyans opposing its ban in the state.
Still, proponents of the ban said was the death penalty not only outdated and inhumane but also never used in the state.
Plus, lawmakers said getting rid of capital punishment would save money. The cost of the state keeping inmates on death row at the time was $72,602 a year for each prisoner -- compared to $40,121 a year to keep them in prison, according to a state commission.
2. The law spared the lives of a handful of inmates.
There were eight inmates on death row in New Jersey when Corzine signed the law. One of the most notorious was Jesse Timmendequas, a sex offender convicted of the 1994 murder of Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old Hamilton girl whose killing led to the passage of "Megan's Law."
Another was John Martini, convicted of kidnapping and killing Fair Lawn businessman Irving Flax after receiving $25,000 in random money.
Another was Brian Wakefield, who was convicted of invading an Atlantic City couple's home, beating and stabbing them, seeing their bodies on fire, and going on a spending spree with with their credit cards.
3. A majority of states still have the death penalty.
New Jersey is one of 18 states without the death penalty. The District of Columbia has also banned it.
The 18 are: Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
There are 32 states still have some form of capital punishment: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.
4. The new bill was a response to recent events.
The proposal introduced Monday says the death penalty would apply to "extreme" New Jersey crimes -- such the murder of a police officer; the murder of a child in commission of a sex crime; deaths caused by an act of terror; killings committed by those who have previously been convicted of murder; and for serial killers.
The sponsors of the measure said it was spurred by recent terror attacks and fatal ambushes of police officers across the U.S.
One sponsor, state Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) said added that "it has to be used very sparingly, only in circumstances where there is clear proof" such as a confession or DNA evidence.
5. The measure's future is uncertain but unlikely.
Similar efforts to revive the death penalty in the state have failed in recent years. For the new measure to become law, both houses of the Democratic-controlled state Legislature would have to pass it, and the governor would need to sign.
But Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Center for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said that's "highly unlikely."
Dworkin said not only was the death penalty expensive and never used, but the advancement of DNA technology showed that prisoners who people were "convinced were guilty were in fact innocent."
"It remains a popular issue among the public, but I just don't think it's the top issue for a majority of issues," he said. "There are a whole bunch of other issues in New Jersey beyond this."
NJ Advance Media staff writer S.P. Sullivan contributed to this report.
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