NJ abolishes the death penalty, good or bad?
Dec 18th, 2007 | By Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. | Category: Blogs, Criminal & TrafficAs you may know the State of New Jersey abolished the death penalty just in time to save a few people’s lives. Do you think this was an act of god or a dumb maneuver? NJ is the first state to abolish the death penalty since 1976.
I know this is a controversial issue which many people have different opinions…perfect for a blog entry. So what do I think?
I favor getting rid of the death penalty. I think anyone who murders another human being is at least partially insane. I agree with the law that an insane person’s life should be spared. Is it really their fault? Do you think they wake up in the morning and want to be angry and kill someone? Couldn’t be a chemical imbalance that makes them this way? Studies have shown that the death penalty has shown little or no deterrent effect.
If the death penalty has little deterrent effect, what is the point? We all know that people make stupid and rash decisions without thinking. We all know people that are unstable. For me, life in jail without parole and without my freedoms and the opportunity to live life as I choose would be tantamount to a life not worth living.
Do you think someone who murders another is not at that instance at least partially insane? Obviously, he or she can’t control themselves when they make his or her decision to kill. What is insanity? I am sure not all people feel the same way I do. Lets here your view….
The death penalty is not handed out to the average murderer who, in a fit of rage, kills someone. Being the most serious and definitive punishment in our legal system, it is reserved for those convicted criminals whose crimes are so heinous that there is no hope of rehabilitation, or those where any lesser punishment would be viewed by most people as a travesty of justice. For instance, the pervert who raped and mutilated 7 year old Jessica whom Jessica’s Law is named after was sentenced to death, but because of elitist liberals like Corzine his punishment will not be carried out. These idiots are concerned more with lofty socialist ideals than with practical applications of the most serious of penalties. The death penalty is not a deterrent, nor is it a resolution. It is merely the end of the line for the sickest humans our society has ever seen. To take away this justice is to take away the very memory of poor Jessica and those like her.
Tim, so many people have been convicted and sentenced to death that were later found not guilty through dna and other evidence.
Barry Sheck and his peoples have gotten over 100 people off death row because of dna evidence.
if we kill these people we can never right the wrong.
Just the fact that one innocent person goes to jail for anything makes me sick to my stomach.
Furthermore, I believe the main reason innocent people go to jail is because the police lie, fabricate evidence, and hide exculpatory evidence.
So, we have the police acting ilegaly, then the courts sentencing people to death!
It is a horrible horrible situation and it is good that the death penalty be taken off the table.
Jim, what you say is basically true, however we should spell some facts out so other readers can make an educated decision on their feelings here. Barry Sheck is a co-founder of the Innocence Project (he also was on the defense team for OJ Simpson, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here and assume that he doesn’t always defend guilty people). The Innocence Project has in fact freed over 100 individuals from incarceration, although almost all of the released involved some sort of sexual assault, and approximately 25% were murderers. I can’t find how many of those 25% were actually on death row.
I think that everyone would agree with your feelings that even one innocent person going to jail is too many. However, the people being exonerated now were primarily convicted before the existence of DNA evidence and testing, so it is understandable that due to this new technology past mistakes in conviction can be righted and those deemed innocent should be freed. But an across the board moratorium in not necessarily justified. Besides, NJ hasn’t executed anyone since 1976.
I c an see your point vwith regards tro dna evidence and that it is now up to spped in recent cases…
however, i still have some doubt as to the validity of the police and the state in any case, let alone capital offense.
you mentuion the simpson case, this is a clear example of what i am talking about.
it was proven in the sim pson case that the blood at rockingham was from placed from an eyedropper, it was also proven that the blood was found after the weekend vanadder had the blood vials and disappeared for 2 days with them.
it doesnt pass the laugh test anbd the jury say right through it.
now, i give the other ee3ctective a pass, for trying to frame oj with the bloody glove, and that culd have been in or out, and was oytr , as it didnt fit, buit vanadder and the planting of blood at rockingham was clearly ilegal.
tim, did you follow the simpson case on a daily basis as i did?
the defense cklearly proved the blood eveidence at rockinham , oj’s residence was from an eyedriopper, and could not have been from a person bleeding or from blood dropping off a person or a persons body or clotrhes, .. it was proven beyond any doubt, that these blood drops were made from an eyedropper.
what more do you need, the guy, guilty or innocent, was being framed up, and this is ilegal .
I believe that the abolition of the death penalty in New Jersey is insane in and of itself. You need the threat of the death penalty in that state, look at Trenton, Camden and Newark, which are all listed in the top 20 of the most dangerous cities in the United States! New Jersey has 3 of the most dangerous cities in the country!!! Jersey is a hippy liberal state and always has been and the abolition of the death penalty is just another nail in its coffin if you ask me. These tree hugging democrats need to get their acts together and reinstate the death peanlty and clean up that state. If somebody murders somebody out of temproary insanity, it is just that temproary, they will more than likely not commit that act again, let them serve a jail sentence and go for psych evaluation, but somebody who murders in a robbery, rape or just because the person looked at them the wrong way are sick and need to be removed from society forever! These people are threats to our way of live as long as they continue to take a breath. There is always the possibility of escape when they sit in a jail cell, look at the two guys who just broke out of a New Jersey jail and are currently on the run. If they were put to death swiftly we wouldn’t have this scum on the streets right now endangering our safety. These 2 have nothing to lose, what do they have to go back to? They will kill again or commit crimes again in aheart beat without even thinking twice about it. They are scum and should be put to death, not allowed to sit in a jail cell, escape,and commit some more crimes upon their escape. If you kill, you should be killed and eye for an eye. Statistically crimes in other countries that have the mentality of an eye for an eye or have the death penalty have lower crime rates. If you steal, you lose you hand; if you rape, you lose your junk; if you kill you are killed! Society needs that threat of the death penalty. Bring it back Jersey or face the consequences. I give it 2 to 3 years and Jersey will be in the top 5 or top 10 for most dangerous cities not the top 20 and it will certainly not get any better with this hippy-liberal move.
KEVIN, I respectively do not agree with you. You amke some very very goodpoints, but i just do not agree as regard to the death penalty or what you have said here.
First, ever been to jail or prison, it is impossible to escape a high securioy prison in NJ, once you are convicted and setneced there.
As far as NJ being liberal State, well, that dont pass th elaugh test!!
The gestapo tactice of the police and the State are open and clear to anyone who wants to look at them.
NJ should not have the death penalty until the poilce and the State are clenseed from these tactics!
I do not see this happening, and in my opinion, the death penalty needs to be off the table until we have a ten year periord of time where no poilce person of State official is concivicted or reprimanded of misconduct!
personaly, i have had a bad experience with police misconduct, which i was able to tell a judge at at a county court house which i was called on a jury panel for… needless to say, i have not been called to jury duty since!
In 1998, I drove to house in a known , so called known, drug area of freehold boro. i PARKED MY CAR AND WENT UP TO THE DOOR, ASKING IF MY FRIEND WAS AROUND who had been working at the residence for home inprovements.
while i was walking back to my car , at the end of the walkeway to the house, the police pulled up and arrested me for loitering with intent to purchase a cds.
i went to the station and was told unless i admiited to this intent i would be going to county jail.
then after all this report making and strip search, the officer came up with a cigarett wrapper with some pot in it. now, this was 1998, i had not smoked pot since i tried it in hs since 1984.
the officer said i left it on the floor of the police car, that was recently washed at a car wash, and it had to be mine,
i screamed bloddy murder and insisted the sgt come in right away, as this was not mine, and it was not, i swaer on a stack of bibles and my fathers grave it was not my pot and i had not smoked pot in many many years… well, the sgt knew what was going on and called the patrolman out on it.
this is just the typical everyday action of a nj patrolman though, to try to frame people for things they did not do.
it is because of this personal expericence that i feel police are corrupted, and the death penalty needs to be off the table.
when the stakes are higher, the lies and corruption of the police become greater!’
see my point?
I’m not going to completely take the bait on this off-topic argument, but I read through the transcripts from Scheck’s examination of Dr. Henry Lee on this topic, and it did not clearly prove to me that the blood spots came from an eyedropper.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Simpson/leetest.html
Wasn’t dr lee the state’s witness.
i saw on tv, live, the defense expert, makjing blood patterns in court with an eyedropper, from the witness stand, and showed how the drops at rockingham were consistant with those made from and eyedropper and not from a person dripping of blood from his person.
this was big,
along with the bloody glove not being the right size
vanadder not being able to explain why he disappeared an entire weekend with blood vials then finding the blood at rockingham the following monday.
as well as furman lieing on the witness stand about the n word
the states caee had so many holes in it, was so weak, it was clear oj was innocent.
i belive karma takes over in murder cases like this, or in any case where someone broke the law, and the truth does come out.
look at several unsolvable cases
the son of sam- parking ticket
the guy in california who killed his wife, wharts hgis name, – the wifes body washerd up on shore
the washington dc snipers- what luck
in my opinion, if oj did it, there would of been no real doubt, there would of been hard evidence, and there wouldnt have been so many holes in the case against him.