Oh The HORROR!!

Imagine, just imagine a state that doesn't have the DEATH PENALTY!! Oh my God, it's so horrible to even ponder the idea. NOT!! New Jersey is about to do just that!!

N.J. Senate Moves to Ban Death Penalty

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 expect to become law within a month.

The state Senate approved a measure to replace the death sentence with life without parole, which would spare the life of a sex offender whose crimes sparked Megan's Law. 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.

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.

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 a 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 inmates currently on death row are the worst of the worst in our society, and to offer them the opportunity of life is a disgrace to their victims, the jurors that deliberated their fate and the majority of New Jersey residents who still support the death penalty," they wrote.

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 death penalty is barbaric and fatally flawed beyond repair," said Sen. Shirley Turner, a Democrat who sponsored the bill.

The Kankas, though, said the commission was biased.

"If there is any individual that deserves the death penalty, it's the animal that did this to Megan," they wrote. "To abolish this would be an injustice to our family."

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

The vote by the Democrat-controlled Senate was 21-16. Republicans had sought to retain the death penalty for those who murder law enforcement officials, rape and murder children, and terrorists, but the Senate rejected the idea.

A vote by the full Assembly was scheduled for Thursday. If approved, the bill goes to Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a death penalty opponent, for his signature. Corzine has until Jan. 8 to sign the bill.

The Supreme Court in 1972 struck down 40 state death penalty laws but did not ban capital punishment as cruel and unusual. Some justices at the time thought their decision would end the practice.

By 1976, though, officials in 35 states had adopted laws to comply with the ruling. A more conservative court upheld some of those laws, and a half-year later executions resumed.

Megan's Law sparked a national notification movement. In 1996, Congress passed a law requiring all states to notify the public when a sex offender moves into their community.

According to the group Parents for Megan's Law, 614,000 sex offenders are registered nationwide.

I will never understand the pro-death penalty argument, and I don't care to. Sure, you want revenge. You want these monsters to die. But, what purpose does it serve other than the fact that they're dead? If you really want to make them pay, let them rot in prison for the rest of their miserable lives on THEIR DIME!! Let them sit there and think about what they've done, not that all of them will care. Make them have to look at pictures of their victims each and every single day.

The death penalty serves absolutely no purpose. It doesn't deter crime. Do you honestly think that the death penalty deters crime? Do you honestly think that someone who is bound and determined to kill, kidnap, or rape someone is going to cancel their plans because they could face the death penalty if they go through with them? It deters NOTHING!! You could abolish the death penalty. You could keep the death penalty. It doesn't matter!! There will always be some kind of crime taking place no matter what the maximum punishment is!!