N.J. urged to remove death penalty
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
New Jersey's nine murderers now on death row should be spared execution and serve life in prison without parole, a panel concluded Tuesday.
In its 127-page report, the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission recommended abolishing capital punishment. It pointed out that the state hasn't carried out an execution since 1963 and said it found no evidence that the death sentence "rationally serves a legitimate penological intent."
Legislators and Governor Corzine indicated they would turn the panel's recommendations into law, making New Jersey the 13th state without the death penalty.
The study infuriated some victims' families and brought relief to others.
"It's just a very sad day for me and all victims of crime that believed that justice should be served by trial by jury, not trial by government official," said Marilyn Flax, whose husband, Fair Lawn warehouse manager Irving Flax, was kidnapped and slain in 1989 by John Martini, who is awaiting execution. "If I know that my husband's killer has a chance of getting out of jail, there's going to be blood on politicians' hands."
| DEATH PENALTY DEBATE
* * * Fast facts Costs for death row inmates: Office of the Public Defender: $1.46 million a year to argue 19 cases Department of Corrections: $975,000 to $1.4 million per prisoner over lifetime Administrative Office of the Courts: $93,000 for each special legal review Source: New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission report |
Survey: Some referred to the case of Thomas Trantino, who was sentenced to die for the 1963 slayings of Lodi Police Officers Gary Tedesco and Peter Voto. When the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty in 1972, Trantino was given life in prison, and the sentence endured even though New Jersey reinstated capital punishment in 1982.
Trantino was paroled by the state Supreme Court in 2002; today he lives in a Camden row house.
"I don't have a problem with life without parole if it's really life without parole," said Patricia Tedesco, the sister of Gary Tedesco. "But they always find a way out because we have an endless appeals process in this country."
One who disagreed was Lorry W. Post of Cape May, who founded New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty after his daughter was stabbed to death. Post had testified before the commission last year, and on Tuesday he said its findings "just made total sense."
"We're not looking to make it easier on murderers," said Post, a retired attorney. "We just don't want to be doing the killing the same as they do."
Increasingly, the panel found, capital punishment is at odds with "evolving standards of decency." Life imprisonment would ensure the public safety, the report said, and ultimately cost taxpayers less in housing and legal fees.
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"Any cost savings resulting from the abolition of the death penalty [should] be used for benefits and services for survivors of victims of homicide," the report said.
Celeste Fitzgerald, director of the anti-death penalty group, said that if legislators follow through, her work will be done.
"The commission asked all the questions, reviewed all the evidence, and then they issued an overwhelming verdict," Fitzgerald said. "We'll be happy to close our doors. This should signal the final chapter for us."
The 13-member panel -- whose members included clergy, a retired state Supreme Court justice and relatives of crime victims -- was created by the Legislature in 2005. The order to study the future of capital punishment came as public sentiment nationwide was building against the death sentence, particularly because DNA evidence was becoming a factor in successful appeals.
Of the 188 people exonerated by the New York-based Innocence Project, for example, 14 at one time had served on death row.
Death penalty opponents praised New Jersey a year ago when it became the first state to issue a moratorium on executions, allowing the commission to do its work. Last month, Florida suspended executions after a misplaced injection delayed the death of a condemned prisoner, and a federal judge ruled that California's system of lethal injection was flawed.
In New Jersey, lawmakers now have several options: to adopt the recommendations, come up with other ideas or take no action at all. A spokeswoman for Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, said he supported the panel's conclusions and expected to move legislation by July.
Governor Corzine, too, was pleased.
"As someone who has long opposed the death penalty, I look forward to working with the Legislature to implement the recommendations outlined in the report," he said in a statement issued by his office.
Some Republicans said they would not support any such legislation.
Sen. Henry P. McNamara, R-Wyckoff, said Trantino's killings of the police officers "still resonate in memories of the people of Bergen County."
"Embracing a recommendation to abolish capital punishment for criminals such as cop killers marks a dangerous and shocking policy choice by the ruling Democrats in Trenton," McNamara said.
McNamara also questioned the integrity of the commission's work, saying it was "based upon considerations such as trial costs and the vagaries of public polling."
Among 801 New Jerseyans polled in 2005, 61 percent said they favored execution for those convicted of murder, and 31 percent were opposed, according to the Bloustein Center for Sur-vey Research at Rutgers University.
The respondents' opinion softened when they were given a choice of sentences. When asked which they favored -- life imprisonment without parole, or execution -- 47 percent favored the prison term and 34 percent, execution.
A Gallup Poll released last month showed that for the first time in 20 years, Americans favored life without parole over execution for those convicted of murder. And in its 2006 annual report, the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center found that death sentences are at a 30-year low across the country.
E-mail: younge@northjersey.com
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