Here are some parting shots from Rome where the NJ death penalty repeal was the big story bouncing around old Europe this past week. And that's just the beginning of the story.
When Governor Corzine signs the bill, N.J. will be the first state in the land to repeal the death penalty legislatively. Nasty criminals face life without parole instead.
(Trenton)-- *Update* The vote just took place and it was 44-36 in favor of abolishing the Death Penalty in NJ. The bill now heads to the Governor's desk where he has already said he intends to sign it.
*Update* 4pm Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow: Let's keep the death penalty because "monsters" are "mean."
*Update* 3:45p. On and on it goes. Back and forth. Nice that most arguments are heartfelt and thoughtful. Now if only they could wrap it us since no one is adding anything new to the debate at this point. Thankfully I was just paid a visit from the Snickers fairy. Packed with peanuts, it can satisfy the hunger of even the crankiest of liberal bloggers.
*Update 7* 3:15p Sen-elect O'Toole just rose to offer a sound and thoughtful perspective. I don't agree with his point, but at least he doesn't feel the need to make it personal. People of good conscience can disagree. Can we live with that?
*Update 6*Assemblyman Carroll is quoting Antonin Scalia, chapter and verse to hammer home that liberals are crazy. Note to Carroll: if you come across as crazy chracterizing others as crazy, then the argument is lost. Just a thought.
OMG OMG!! Did Carroll just quote Lord of the Rings? From Scalia to Froddo and back . Wow. Well, at least the dude has some range!
Update 5 GOP Asm. Dave Wolfe just stepped up to prove that you can make a honest well meaning argument without sounding panic alarms all over the place. He shared an anecdote: recently at a cafe, we polled 10 constituents. Four were against- , four were pro-, and two others didn't know.
*Update 4* Bateman is being grilled by the death penalty fetishists in his party. Assemblyman Merck is leading the charge. To hear him talk, you might judge him a bit of a douchbag fear mongerer.
*Update 3*GOP Assemblyman Bateman is the bill's co-sponsor. Bateman: "When I joined this body 14 years ago, I never dreamed I would rise to make this pitch."
He is telling the story of a constituent (and crime victim) who was the catalyst of his change of heart on this issue. Like many of us, he used to feel differenty on this topic. But "we have an opportunity to day to chart a new course."
*Update 2* 2:35pm: Assemblyman Caraballo opens. This is his bill and his legacy.
*Update 1* It's 2:30p and we are finally underway. The first order of business: Senator -elect Bill Baroni's motion to remember "fellow Hamiltonian" Dr. David Rebovich who passed away recently. It was a nice gesture that also managed to dial back the intensity in the room. Clearly Rebovich is still much beloved under this roof.
The Death Penalty repeal is the big item on the docket today, but the most exquisite tension in Trenton centers around the Family Leave battle.
At this writing (1:45p) the Assembly is sitting for official portraits prior to votes.
I dare say that the Assembly Dems are squeezing a lot in today with votes and pix. All this after a long afternoon in caucus where family leave was the main course.
(Trenton)-- 3:23p Update 4. At long last, the OLS report is being laid out. Aftering 2+ hours of gutwrenching testimony (and some random verbal diarrhea from outgoing senator Asselta) the main event finally at hand. The part about costs. Then a vote. And then I can go home and reflect.
2:23p Update 3: the Catholic Church is making their position known loudly and proudly. Rock on, Bishop! Vote any minute! I swear!
2:05p Update 2, Lesniak is making a statement. The vote to release the bill is forthcoming.
Lesniak: "I have the votes."
*12:59p* Update! I pulled Sen. Ray Lesniak aside as he arrived to read the tea leaves. His reply: "tell Blue Jersey I have the votes."
The next step in the long march to abolish the death penalty in NJ happens in a few minutes. The Senate Budget Committee is hearing an economic impact study from the Office of Legislative Services. Morals notwithstanding, the death penalty is very very costly to maintain. And while life in prison w/out parole isn't cheap (~$32,ooo/year) the cost of capital punishment is even more. According to the OLS, the state would save just shy of $1.5m annually, mostly in public defender and judiciary trial costs by taking death off the table.
Anyway, in a few minutes the Committee will hear the OLS' report and hopefully release the bill to the full Senate for a vote, possibly next week. The momentum is palpable and the room is standing room only in here.
Sen. Bernie Kenny is the committee chairman, and it'll be interesting to see if he's fully recovered from his, umm, driveby whatever to make the trip. Hopefully he's fit and ready to vote, he's been a durably ally on this one for as long as I've been paying attention.
Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts and Assembly Speaker Pro-Tempore Wilfredo Caraballo are ready to do the right thing. The pair announced today -- at a press conference featuring Sister Helen Prejean, the anti-death penalty activist -- that they plan to push for a vote on a bill that would remove the death penalty from the statute books.
Roberts, in a press release, said the bipartisan bill sponsored by Caraballo (D-Essex) would go before the Assembly Judiciary Committee on Dec. 6 "so that it could be positioned for an Assembly floor vote on Dec. 13." The governor already is on record as supporting a repeal.
A similar measure, which also would commute the sentences of the eight men on death row to live in prison without parole -- has been approved by a Senate committee.
Why is the New Jersey GOP so desperate to reactivate the death penalty in this state? Just the other day, republican state legislators responded to the death penalty study panel's recommendations by bleating some nonsense about pedophiles and cop killers.
Today republican state Senator Gerald Cardinale took the bloodlust up a few notches when he made the suggestion that New Jersey's death penalty would be more effective if we followed the Iraqi model.
Courier Post:
"I was very impressed with the death penalty in Iraq being implemented in a very short time after it was imposed," Cardinale said, referring to the swift hanging of Saddam Hussein less than a week after his appeals were denied.
I'll let that sink in for a second.
All the news this week about the death penalty being repealed in this state has been heart warming. I mean, not only is it morally disgusting to execute anyone, but as a matter of public policy, capital punishment is completely ineffective. Not to mention costly. And most people seem to think it may soon be a thing of the past here in NJ.
So why is the NJGOP so hellbent on taking such a hardcore posture on this issue? I mean, where does this fit into the republican's much-vaunted "culture of life?"
Hypocritical and hysterical. It's the sad, sorry story of the New Jersey Republican party.
Today the needle exchange bill is back on the docket in Trenton. The most recent holdup as been a block in the Health Service Committee. The bill's two biggest foes: Tom Kean Jr. (whose wanton stupidity has been well-chronicled on this site) and Ron Rice Senior (whose Newark constituency has HIV transmission rates higher than most 3rd world nations.) Courier Post:
In NJ, injection-drug use accounts for 25 percent to nearly 40 percent of HIV cases in the municipalities with some of the highest infection rates. Drug users often put their partners at risk, helping to increase heterosexual transmission, which is another top route of infection in NJ. We urge committee members to join state Sen. Robert Singer, R-Ocean County, and put aside their misgivings and useless rhetoric. Committee members should release these bills today and allow the full Senate to weigh in and, we hope, approve them. People's lives are on the line here.
Today's Star Ledger reports that Gov. Corzine signed an executive order yesterday creating a Division of Minority and Women Business Development "and directing all state agencies to help direct business to minority- and women-owned businesses."
"Today I'm pleased to announce that New Jersey will be using its purchasing power to help facilitate growth among New Jersey's minority- and women-owned businesses," Corzine said.
While some of the hottest Congressional races of this election cycle are happening next door in Pennsylvania, the same can't be said for us here in NJ, says today's Philadelphia Inquirer. In fact, the suggestion in this article is that the Garden State has been gerrymandered into a knot and we can look forward to incumbents carrying the day for the foreseeable future.
Have you heard the joke about why California has the most lawyers while New Jersey has the most toxic waste sites? (The punchline: we got to pick first.) No offense to lawyers, everyone should have a good one, but the joke does make a powerful statement about the effects of New Jersey's industrial past. That legacy has reared its caustic head once again, this time in Cumberland County where a six-acre radioactive waste dump is demanding some attention now that the Shieldalloy Metallurgical Corp. is taking it's deadly ways offshore to Brazil to cut costs and avoid further stringent regulations. First of all, there's the notion that we're dumping our crap in the laps of our Latin-American neighbors, which is disgusting. Secondly, what to do with the mess left behind?
The movement to ban the death penalty in this state benefits mightily from an out-of-state ally. Marylander Vicki Schieber, whose daughter Shannon was violently murdered in Philly back in 1998, has become a champion of persuing less-violent alternatives to punishing violent crimes and abolishing the death penalty. Mrs. Schieber and her husband Sylvester have been in NJ with New Jersey for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NJADP) to "win public and political support for the elimination of execution as a form of punishment in New Jersey. It is our conviction that the death penalty is by its nature unjust in application and immoral in principle."
If you're still the least bit unclear about the moral and public-policy repugnance of capital punishment, have a listen to the podcast I did with Kirk Bloodsworth, who was the first American ever to be exonerated from Death Row with DNA evidence.
Finally, if you're wondering why I didn't tell you how I really feel about Ron Rice Senior's emphatic stupidity and ignorance and denial vis a vis needle exchange in this state, well this is why: (from today's Press of Atlantic City) " If you think your ex-husband (or in Newark's case a State Senator) is a lying, cheating, scamming, con artist with no conscience and no soul, you're entitled to your opinion. But posting warnings about him on the Web amounts to cyberstalking, a Florida judge has ruled." So what does this ruling mean? Press of AC:
The case could have widespread ramifications for bloggers like Donna Andersen, of Atlantic City, whose Web site, www.lovefraud.com, dedicated to teaching the public to recognize and avoid sociopaths, contains profiles of several scamming, lying and occasionally murderous spouses whom Andersen believes are sociopaths, including her ex-husband.
Yesterday, New Jersey's Death Penalty Study Commission took testimony both for and against executions. Its report (with suggestions for the legislature) is due in November. At that point, the state legislature will vote to abolish capital punishment in New Jersey.
I'd like to see the death penalty abolished here in my state. So yeah, I'm totally biased. After interviewing Kirk Bloodsworth (who's the first American ever exonerated from death row with DNA evidence) I had no doubt whatsoever that the death penalty was both morally disgusting and ridiculous public policy. Let's hope enough of our legislators feel the same way to ban the death penalty in New Jersey.
