The Damocles’ sword now hangs over the head of death sentence! It seems so. In NJ it almost fell, and in NY it swings perilously.

As of now, the hangmen in New Jersey are preparing to call it a day. The state has stepped ahead of few other states and joins 13 others by abolishing the death penalty. Incidentally, 30 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court had legalized capital punishment. A Senate committee voted 8-2 in favor of the legislation. Now, the gallows have been replaced by a life in prison without parole.

The move follows the study by a state commission that in the last four decades no one was executed in NJ. Though capital punishments were heavy on the tax payers’ pocket, crimes continued to be committed. For Sen. Raymond Lesniak, the architect of the bill, and the person who was joined by eight others, says, it is a victory of the civilized society. But, for Sharon Hazard-Johnson who awaits justice for her slain parents, it is tears of frustration! However, Lesniak contended that abolishing in NJ will have no bearing on death sentences awarded by the federal system.

However, the bill may not get an easy approval. The opposition to the move continues. The opponents of the legislation say convicted killers will still escape from prison. But, in the face of it, if the bill passes, NJ’s current nine death-row inmates will have two months to choose whether it’s gallows or a resentence to life in prison.

The two legislators, who voted against the bill, argued that the death penalty should remain an option in view of terrorist activities. Agreeing to this contention, Sen. Joseph Kyrillos, said that the state should retain the right to capital sentences. He cited instances of murders by terrorists, slaying of law enforcement officials, and killing of children in sex crimes. New York Law School Professor Robert Blecker said the state commission study had failed to adequately study “revising the state's death-penalty law, rather than abolishing it.”

Death penalty was reinstated in NJ in 1982. However, the state has not executed anyone since 1963. The state Legislature suspended death executions in December 2005, at the time when it formed the commission to study the death-penalty.

The repercussions can be felt in other states, too. State senator Joe Griffo, earlier this month, began a campaign to fully reinstate capital punishment in New York.
Professor of Law at Albany Law School, Steve Gottlieb, a member of the Board of the New York Civil Liberties Union, in his article, Not Another Death Penalty, comments on the reinstating of the death penalty in New York state. “Security is a civil liberty,” says Gottlieb, who has authored Morality Imposed: The Rehnquist Court and Liberty in America. Gottlieb feels that “death penalty makes some folk so blood-thirsty, they can't stop to notice they've got the wrong guy.”

However, in contrast to Gottlieb, a SurveyUSA poll result released by WABC showed that NY adults “believe capital punishment is correct in some instances.” As many as 67% of the respondents felt NY should have a death penalty for those convicted of murder.

In addition, 71% support capital punishment for those convicted of killing police officers, and 79% would apply the death penalty to those convicted of killing people during an act of terrorism, stated angus-reid.com.

The United States has put to death 1,072 people since 1976, including 15 in 2007. New York reinstated death penalty in 1995. In June 2004, the NY Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s capital punishment is illegal.

The District of Columbia and 14 other states do not have death penalties. The states of Illinois and New Jersey have issued moratoriums on the executions.