New Jersey Senate Passes Bi-partisan Bill to Suspend Executions, California to Consider Similar Bill in January

Bipartisan vote is part of growing national trend to examine death penalty flaws
For Immediate Release: December 15, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO - The New Jersey Senate voted 30-6 to temporarily suspend all executions in the state and examine flaws in the death penalty system. Legislators expressed concern about the risk of executing the innocent and racial and geographic bias in the administration of the death penalty. California will consider a similar measure to temporarily suspend executions, the "California Moratorium on Executions Act" (AB1121) on January 10.

The New Jersey moratorium bill now moves to the Assembly for a scheduled January vote. If the bill passes the Assembly and is signed by the Governor Richard J. Codey (D) as expected, New Jersey will become the first state in the country to legislatively mandate a suspension of executions. Illinois continues to operate under a moratorium ordered by former Governor George Ryan (R), and Maryland briefly suspended executions as the result of an order from former Governor Parris Glendening (D).

New Jersey’s action comes amidst a growing chorus of concern about the death penalty across the country. Texas prosecutors recently reopened the case of Ruben Cantu after the Houston Chronicle ran an investigative series that revealed Cantu was likely innocent of the crimes for which he was executed. Cantu, who was a juvenile at the time of the crime, was only 26 years old when he was executed in 1993. In Missouri, prosecutors are re-investigating the case of Larry Griffin, who was executed in 1995, in light of evidence that he, too, was innocent. “The evidence cannot be ignored: we have committed the ultimate mistake and executed an innocent person in this country,” said Natasha Minsker, Director of Death Penalty Policy for the ACLU of Northern California.

In the last month, serious concerns about the death penalty have been raised by successful gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the editorial board of Alabama’s largest newspaper, and the President of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Here in California and in North Carolina, the legislature has empanelled a bi-partisan commission to study the flaws in the criminal justice system, including the administration of the death penalty. The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice has just begun meeting and has to report its findings to the legislature by Dec. 31, 2007.

“More and more Californians are beginning to recognize that executions must be temporarily halted to ensure that innocent people are not being wrongfully convicted and sentenced do death for crimes they did not commit,” said Stefanie Faucher, Coordinator of the statewide coalition Californians for Moratorium on Executions. “New Jersey’s problems are not unique. California is no stranger to wrongful convictions, incompetent lawyers, racial bias, and other systemic problems.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, "A Public Policy Institute of California survey in February 2004 found that 57% of the electorate supports the death penalty. But when given the choice between having first-degree murderers executed or jailed for life without chance of parole, support for the death penalty dropped to 38%."

To date, five counties, 11 cities and more than 450 groups in California have called for a moratorium on executions. Nationally, nearly 4,000 organizations, businesses, faith communities, and political bodies have called for a moratorium, including 144 city and county councils.