New Jersey may become first to repeal death penalty

A bill to replace execution with life prison terms cleared a Senate committee this week and is scheduled for a Dec. 10 floor vote. The Assembly also is expected to consider the measure this month. Governor Jon Corzine, an outspoken critic of the death penalty, said Friday he will sign the legislation.

“I think everyone knows how I feel,” Corzine, 60, a Democrat, told reporters at the Statehouse in Trenton.

Democrats, who control both houses of the legislature, have tried to repeal the state’s death penalty since 1999. Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, a sponsor who lost his bid for re-election last month, said the measure gained momentum after a state commission recommended in January that the penalty be abolished.

“One of the things about the death penalty that always bothered me is that it seems to lower us to the very level of the people we are trying to execute,” said Caraballo, a Seton Hall University law professor and Newark Democrat.

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