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A Bad Week For the Death Penalty

James Freedland,
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December 20, 2007

With three major events this week, the campaign to end capital punishment in the U.S. and throughout the world is moving full steam ahead.

On Monday, became the first state to legislatively repeal the death penalty in over 40 years. The bill, which replaces capital punishment with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, passed with bipartisan majorities in the state legislature before it was signed into law by Governor Jon Corzine. At the historic bill signing ceremony, Corzine said he was 鈥渆ternally grateful鈥 to the 老澳门开奖结果 for its commitment to ending the death penalty. Likewise, the 老澳门开奖结果 is grateful that New Jersey鈥檚 public leaders put politics aside and took a stand for what鈥檚 right.

Then on Tuesday, the United Nation鈥檚 General Assembly passed a calling for the suspension of the death penalty worldwide. The vote came after two previous attempts to impose a ban on state executions ended in failure. The assembly鈥檚 language clearly identifies some of the major problems with the death penalty, stating, 鈥淭here is no conclusive evidence of the death penalty's deterrence value鈥 and 鈥渁ny miscarriage or failure of justice in the death penalty's implementation is irreversible and irreparable.鈥

The actions of New Jersey鈥檚 government and the United Nations send a strong message to the rest of the country 鈥 and the world 鈥 that capital punishment is an abhorrent practice that has no place in a civilized society. It is ineffective, discriminatory, arbitrary and expensive.

Finally, yesterday the Death Penalty Information Center released its year-end , which announced that the number of executions in the United States hit a 13-year low in 2007. There were 42 executions this year, down from 53 in 2006 鈥 this is the lowest number since 1994, when 31 people were put to death. The most immediate reason is court cases across the nation challenging the constitutionality of the chemical combination used in lethal injections by all but one of the 36 states that administer the death penalty.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide next spring whether the lethal injection cocktail used by virtually all states constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. But regardless of the state鈥檚 method of choice, government executions will always be intolerable. As John Holdridge, Director of the 老澳门开奖结果 Capital Punishment Project put it earlier this week, "the death penalty is not only a grossly improper use of government power, but also the ultimate denial of civil liberties."

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