New Jersey Looking To End The Death Penalty 
Saturday, December 15th, 2007

The state of New Jersey is moving towards becoming the 14th state that does not execute prisoners.  The State's General Assembly approved a bill on Thursday that would eliminate capital punishment entirely.  The bill is waiting for Governor Jon S. Corzine to sign the measure, which could happen as soon as Monday.

Gov. Corzine is signing the bill, and said in a news conference "it will be very, very prompt...I'm sure it will be within the next week."

Although the State of New York used a court ruling to find the death penalty unconstitutional in 2004, and the Governor of Illinois issued a moratorium against it, New Jersey will officially be the first state to flatout outlaw the death penalty since the U.S. Supreme Court set new framework for the capital punishment system in 1976.

I'll tell you at least eight people who must be thrilled about this:  they are currently sitting on death row in New Jersey.  One way or the other, they'll now be looking at life imprisonment instead.

New Jersey's 8 Death Row Inmates
Marko Bey:  Marko Bey was sentenced to death for two murders in 1983. He beat, strangled, sexually assaulted, and killed 19-year-old Cheryl Alston, whose nude and battered body was found in a vacant lot near the boardwalk in Ocean City, New Jersey.  Three weeks after the first murder, he assaulted and killed 47-year-old Carol Peniston. He was indicted and received a second death sentence the same year.  He was 17- and 18-years old when he committed the crimes; he confessed after physical evidence tied him to both crimes.	David Cooper:  A jury ruled in 1995 that David Cooper deserved the death penalty for the July 1993 kidnapping, rape, and strangulation of 6-year-old Latasha Goodman, under the porch of an abandoned house. The prosecution said that Cooper lured the girl out of her aunt's back yard with talk of ice cream and candy.  Cooper's lawyer admitted his client killed the girl, but said that it was an accident. It took the jury less than two hours to find Cooper guilty.
Ambrose Harris:  Harris was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 1992 after kidnapping and killing 22-year-old artist Kristin Huggins.  According to testimony, Harris decided to carjack someone because it was raining.  He abducted Higgins, locked her in the trunk of his car for hours, anally raped her, shot her twice in the head, and buried her. His female accomplice during the crime testified against him.  He was also accused of the assualt of at least four other women. In court, Harris spit on the floor, cussed out the judge, and proclaimed his innocence.  His lawyers argued he should be spared the death penalty due to his abusive upbringing. In 1999, Harris stomped another death-row inmate in NJ State Prison - Robert "Mudman" Simon - to death.  His lawyers argued self defense, and a jury acquitted him.	Nathaniel Harvey:  Harvey was convicted of, among other things, armed robbery, kidnapping, and the sexual assault of Irene Schnaps in 1985.  He entered her garden apartment through an unlocked patio door in a burglary attempt, but woke Irene while stealing her watch and jewelry.  A scuffle ensued and Harvey beat and choked her to death, for as long as an hour. Though he's still sitting on death row, Harvey's death sentence was overturned by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1990, saying the jury should have been asked to decide whether or not Harvey intended to kill Schnaps, or only to cause serious injury.
Sean Kenney:  Kenney, formerly known as Richard Feaster, was sentenced to death for shooting 24-year-old gas station attendant Keith Donaghy to death with a sawed-off shotgun to rob him of $190 in October 1993. In the robbery slaying, Kenney also killed 55-year old gas station employee Richard Pine, by stabbing him and slashing his throat a half-mile from the first killing.  On that murder charge, a separate trial, he received life in prison. The defense argued that he was unable to control his impulses; the prosecution disagreed, saying the "facts of the case show it was the result of intelligent planning."	John Martini:  Martini is a four-time-killer who was sentenced to death for the murder of his 58-year-old friend, businessman Irving Flax, for $25,000 ransom in 1989.  Martini took the ransom, and then fired three shots into Flax's head for fear that Flax would identify him.  He left the body in a shopping center. Martini appealed the death sentence in the State Supreme Court twice and lost both times, but then admitted his guilt and asked to be executed.
Jesse Timmendequas:  He is the infamous child rapist and murderer who inspired Megan's Law.  Timmendequas was sentenced to death for the July 1994 rape and murder of his seven-year-old neighbor Megan Kanka.  He also plead guilty to the attempted aggravated sexual assault of a five-year-old girl, and the sexual assault of anoter seven-year-old girl. At the time of Kanka's murder, Timmendequas lived with two other convicted sex offenders across the street from the Kankas.  He lured Megan into his house by telling her he had a puppy.  After he raped her, he beat and strangled her to death, raped her corpse, put it in a wooden toy chest, and dumped it in a nearby park.	Brian Wakefield:  Wakefield was sentenced to death for killing retired couple Richard adn Shirley Hazard in January 2001.  He invaded their home randomly to rob them, then stabbed them, beat them, and set them on fire. He plead guilty, and showed no emotion when the verdict was read - the jury sentenced him to die by lethal injection after 3 1/2 hours of deliberations. What the victims' family has to say: Sharon Hazard-Johnson, the daughter of Wakefield's two victims, said that instead of abolishing the death penalty, lawmakers should make it work. "Why would you lower the bar for murderers instead of enforcing the law for victims?" she said.  Sharon e-mailed the entire 120-member Legistature a video clip celebrating the lives of her parents.

The majority of New Jersey voters oppose the bill.  Who, of the above, is considered the most dangerous?  Ambrose Harris.  He beat and stomped a notorious cop killer to death in view of corrections officers. Comments > >

More News >>