KACZYNSKI HAILS SIGNING BY GOVERNOR CORZINE OF BILL ABOLISHING THE DEATH PENALTY IN NEW JERSEY

“Those of us who have struggled against the death penalty as an inefficient, inhumane, unworkable and unnecessary response to crime join in saluting the state of New Jersey, which today became the first state to legislatively abolish capital punishment.

“The New Jersey action follows closely on developments in New York State, which achieved de facto abolition in October when the state‘s highest court removed the last inmate from the Unit for Condemned Persons at Clinton Correction Facility in Dannemora NY. New Jersey acted after the report of a state-appointed commission that recommended abolition.

“New York legislators chose not to reinstate the death penalty after a groundbreaking series of public hearings that brought forth testimony from criminologists, law enforcement and corrections personnel, family members of murder victims, religious and civic leaders, and several wrongfully convicted men who had served long sentences in prison for murders they did not commit.

“The New York legislators learned, as their New Jersey colleagues did, that the death penalty is too expensive and biased in its application and subjects the family members of victims to decades of post-conviction legal wrangling that forces them again and again to confront the deaths of their loved ones.

“We salute New Jersey legislators and Governor Jon Corzine for their foresight and leadership in the growing public awareness that life without parole is the preferred maximum penalty for those convicted of the most serious crimes.

“We hope both New Jersey and New York will now move to invest the savings from the failed experiments in capital punishment – experiments which have cost New York taxpayers $200 million since 1995 – in programs that can assist victims and their families, improve law enforcement, upgrade the state of criminal defense services and involve youngsters in productive activities that can help them avoid entanglement with the criminal justice system in the first place.”