Death Penalty Divisive In N.J.
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine plans to sign a historic bill on Monday, outlawing the death penalty. The New Jersey state legislature this week became the nation's first legislative body to vote to outlaw executions since the Supreme Court re-opened the door to capital punishment in this country in 1976.
In Europe, where the death penalty is abolished, Rome will light up its landmark Coliseum to praise the move Monday, reports CBS News Correspondent Michelle Miller.
Eddie Hicks doesn't believe in the death penalty. Not even for his daughter's killer.
"For one thing, it won't bring my daughter back," Hicks says.
Jamila was shot dead seven years ago by a man in a fight with her brother. For Hicks, a life sentence would be true justice.
"Lock them up, slam the door behind them, and throw away the key," he says
The former Marine and retired firefighter felt vindicated when recommendations by a commission he sat on were accepted by New Jersey's legislature which voted to abolish the death penalty in the state.
Marilyn Flax's husband Irving was murdered in 1989 by his kidnapper, John Martini, who had killed three other people before. Martini was sentenced to die in 1991.
"He should have been executed many, many years ago. I am stuck in limbo with a lot of pain, a lot of anger a lot of frustration," Flax says.
New Jersey hasn't executed an inmate since 1963. Eight men currently reside on death row, and while many doubt the state would have carried out their sentences, the vote provides a legal alternative - life without the possibility of parole.
All but 13 states and the District of Columbia have the death penalty. There were bills to ban it in five other states this year; none passed. And executions across the country have declined by more than half since 2000.
"In practice, 40 out of the 50 states in the U.S. this year had no executions. There were 42 executions; almost all of them were in Texas," says Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
New Jersey found abolishing the death penalty would save the state millions in costly prosecutions and court-mandated appeals. Then there's the risk of making an irreversible mistake, as DNA and other new evidence clears more prisoners. Last week in North Carolina, death row inmate Jonathan Hoffman became the 126th exonerated since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in the 1970s.
"It's vengeance, it's not justice," Eddie Hicks says.
For now, in one more state, that is the prevailing view. While some families of murder victims staunchly disagree.
