Breaking: NJ Assembly votes to abolish death penalty

[RB TexLa]

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) The New Jersey Assembly has approved legislation to abolish the death penalty.




http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071213/ts_alt_afp/usjusticeexecutionrightsnewjerseyadopt_071213222941

NEW YORK (AFP) - The New Jersey state assembly voted Thursday to abolish the death penalty, a spokesman said, making it the first US state to outlaw capital punishment in four decades.

The law passed by 44 to 36 votes, assembly spokesman Joe Donnelly told AFP. The governor of the northeastern state, Jon Corzine, has vowed to sign the measure into law by January.

[blm]

1. Good.

.

[malaise]

2. Great news n/t

[aikoaiko]

3. If it the will of the people, then I'm happy for NJ

Unfortunately, one of the side effects of taking death penalty off the table is that when you wish to offer a plea bargain to a murderer, it has to be less than life in prison.

[tekisui]

4. Or lowering the sentence from potential multiple life's or

life w/out chance of parole to life.

I am in favor of giving up that bargaining chip. The state should not have the authority to take another's life.

[DemGa]

5. Progress...n/t

[Lucinda]

6. Good to hear.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. Good.

It may or may not be the case that there are some criminals so evil that murdering them is justifiable.

It is certainly not the case that the state should adopt a policy of murdering such people, because it is inevitable that if it does so it will get it wrong sometimes and murder other people too.

There are no criminals so evil that imprisoning them for life is unjustifiably lenient.