The State Judiciary Committee voted by a margin of eight to two yesterday in favor of abolishing the death penalty, moving New Jersey closer to becoming the 13th state to abolish capital punishment.
Governor Jon Corzine has said that he will sign the bill into law if the Democrat-controlled state legislature approves it.
A small group of Princeton students representing the Princeton Justice Project's Coalition Against Capital Punishment (CACP) attended yesterday's Senate hearings, joining New Jersey Against the Death Penalty to show their support for the bill.
The hearing included testimony from both proand anti-death penalty advocates, as well as testimony from members of a state commission created to study the death penalty system in New Jersey.
The trip to the hearing in Trenton state house was organized by CACP members David Christie '10 and Sam Fox Krauss '10. Krauss is a staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.
Devon Ahearn '09 was one of six students who went to Trenton for the hearing. "There was a sizeable number of people from different interest groups," she said, estimating that about 80 people were in attendance at the hearing.
Those who were for abolishing the death penalty focused largely on practical concerns rather than moral ones. "That was one of the interesting things — there weren't any moral arguments made against the death penalty," Christie said.
In fact, he said, some supporters of the bill said they were morally in favor of the death penalty, but they recognized that it was not practical.
"The main argument was that it is highly inefficient and not economical," Ahearn added. "This new bill would be cost efficient but still tough on crime because more crimes would be made punishable by life without parole." She noted that they did not claim to be "morally opposed" to the death penalty.
The other group that supported the death penalty included a former prosecutor who was involved in restoring the New Jersey death penalty in 1982. "The state senator who spoke said that the system wasn't working perfectly, but instead of abolishing it we should try to fix it," Christie said.
State Senator Raymond Lesniak (D), a sponsor of the bill, argued that the death penalty extended the period of suffering for victims' families because the legal processes can take decades, Reuters reported.
"To be meaningful, justice should be swift and sure," Lesniak told the committee. "Life without parole, which begins immediately, is both of these; the death penalty is neither."
Senator Gerald Cardinale (R), who voted against the bill, argued that voters should make the final decision on the bill in a November referendum.
There are currently 11 people on New Jersey's death row, but there has not been an execution since 1963.
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