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New Jersey moves to end executions

TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey took a major step Monday toward becoming the first state to abolish the death penalty in more than 40 years, a change that is expected to become law within a month.

The state Senate approved a measure to replace the death sentence with life without parole. The bill has the support of the Democrat-controlled Assembly and the Democratic governor.

New Jersey has eight men on death row and hasn't executed anyone since 1963. It reinstated the death penalty in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions.

Among the death row inmates who would be spared is Jesse Timmendequas, a sex offender convicted of murdering 7-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994. That case sparked Megan's Law, which requires law enforcement agencies to notify the public about convicted sex offenders living in their communities.

Megan's parents, Richard and Maureen Kanka, have sent a letter to legislators urging them to retain the death penalty.

The effort to abolish capital punishment in New Jersey stems from a January report by a special state commission. It found the death penalty was a more expensive sentence than life in prison and has not deterred murder.

The bill has been supported by clergy and family members of murder victims who contend New Jersey's death penalty law has proven meaningless.

Fast facts

In other states

The last states to abolish the death penalty were Iowa and West Virginia in 1965, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Thirteen states currently don't have the death penalty.

[Last modified December 11, 2007, 01:52:26]