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Thread: New Jersey Capital Punishment News

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    New Jersey Capital Punishment News

    Shooting death of Lakewood, NJ cop spurs political talk of reviving death penalty

    New Jersey did away with its death penalty in 2007, but Lakewood's representative in the state Senate said the cold-blooded killing of a township police officer is a striking example of why the punishment should be restored.

    However, Republican Sen. Robert Singer said he and other GOP lawmakers feel capital punishment "has no chance" of coming back with Democrats holding the majority in both houses of the Legislature.

    "There's types of crime that rise to that level of punishment, whether it's the killing of a Lakewood police officer, a mass shooting in Arizona, certain crimes against children, when just spending the rest of a life in jail is not right when the person deserves the death penalty," Singer said.

    There hasn't been any movement on three capital punishment bills sponsored by Republicans in the current legislative session.

    A Democratic senator, Raymond Lesniak of Union County, faulted Singer for "politicizing such a tragedy."

    "The death penalty won't bring back the slain officer, nor would it have prevented this and other tragedies," Lesniak said. "In fact it has been shown that the death penalty only contributes to more violence. States like Texas and Florida which have frequent executions have the highest murder rates."

    Police arrested Jahmell W. Crockam, 19, of Lakewood, in the Friday shooting death of township Police Officer Christopher Matlosz. Following a 38-hour manhunt, Crockam was apprehended in Camden early Sunday morning.

    Former Gov. Jon Corzine signed a death penalty abolition law in January 2007 but the vast majority of death sentences under the former law were overturned on appeals. No one has been executed in New Jersey since 1963.

    A state panel that had studied the issue leading up to the change said the punishment did not meet evolving standards of decency, the legal system couldn't ensure an innocent person would not be executed and the state could potentially save money if the sentence was replaced with life without parole.

    Celeste Fitzgerald, head of a group that lobbied for the change, said the reasons why lawmakers rolled back the law remain valid.

    Matlosz's killer, if convicted, "will receive a sentence of life without any possibility of parole and that is the appropriate sentence for this kind of crime," said Fitzgerald, director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

    Singer said the death penalty issue is a personal one for him.

    Singer said his family "has been a victim of violent crime twice," including when his daughter, Sarri, suffered a broken shoulder and a perforated eardrum in a June 11, 2003, bus bombing in Israel. Sixteen people died in the attack.

    Singer from the Senate floor argued against eliminating capital punishment when the Legislature took it up in 2006.

    Singer said Lakewood residents are still reeling from the news of the cop-killing. He said he spoke to a group at a Martin Luther King Day event in Lakewood on Monday.

    "I mentioned to everyone that it's a terrible loss for policemen who protect us and it's terrible that a Lakewood resident allegedly did it, a double-crime for our town. This is a 19-year-old kid who's been charged. It's frightening. We have to do more to make sure the young people get the message that violence is wrong."

    http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/2...+death+penalty

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    Lawmaker drafts bill to OK death penalty for cop killers

    State Sen. Robert W. Singer is drafting legislation that would allow the death penalty to be imposed for the murder of an on-duty law enforcement officer.

    The announcement comes less than a week after Lakewood Police Officer Christopher Matlosz was shot three times at close range after he stopped to question a Lakewood resident. Authorities have charged Jahmell W. Crockam, with the murder of Matlosz, 27.

    "Life in prison isn't good enough" punishment for such a crime, said Singer, R-Ocean, a former Lakewood Township committeeman.

    Singer's proposed legislation would also allow the death penalty for the murder of a child and for the commission of a terrorist attack that results in fatalities, he said.

    State Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth, said Wednesday that she, too, favors bringing back the death penalty for certain "heinous offenses" such as the killing of a police officer.

    Both Singer and Beck opposed the repeal of the death penalty, which was abolished in New Jersey in 2007.

    In the wake of Matlosz's murder, several other area officials have also called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in certain cases.

    The Freehold Township Committee unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday night urging state lawmakers representing Monmouth and Ocean counties to draft a bill that would give juries the option of the death penalty for someone convicted of murdering an on-duty law enforcement officer.

    "When it's OK to kill a cop, I think we as a society have a huge problem," said Mayor David M. Salkin.

    Salkin said he had met Matlosz when the young man worked for the township as a special police officer.

    "He was just a nice guy. It's a real shame," Salkin said.

    http://www.app.com/article/20110119/...or-cop-killers

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    Ocean Gate (NJ) council votes to back death penalty for cop killers

    In the wake of losing one of their own police officers in a tragic car accident in November, the Borough Council unanimously voted Wednesday night on a resolution to support the death penalty for killers of law enforcement officers in the line of duty.

    The issue hit close to home with the January murder of Lakewood Police Officer Christopher Matlosz, and the resolution supports re-establishing the death penalty for the "cold-blooded, calculated murder" of police officers.

    "I believe it's important that some progress be made by the Legislature as a deterrent to commit such a heinous act," Police Chief Reece Fisher said Thursday. "It's time to change the trend in New Jersey so that it protects and favors police officers trying to do their job. We need to protect our first line of defense in the state."

    Borough Mayor Paul J. Kennedy said the town has been hit with several local tragedies in the past few months, including the death of borough Officer Jason Marles, who was killed in an accident on Thanksgiving, and a triple-fatal car accident in nearby Pine Beach. The other driver in the Marles' crash has been charged with vehicular homicide and drunken driving.

    "We've been trying to put (a resolution) together all along and try to get back to normal ever since what happened with Jay (Marles)," said Kennedy. "We all feel very strongly that we've all got to step up and get back the law. Cops are here to protect and serve the communities without knowing what's going to happen to them day to day."

    Kennedy said such a law might not act as a deterrent to hard-core criminals in the gangs, who he said "are driven to a different way of thinking. But the ones that are on the fence about it, they might think twice about it."

    In January, Freehold Township adopted a similar resolution. Both resolutions call for legislation similar to what is being drafted by State Sen. Robert W. Singer, R-Ocean, in response to the murder of Matlosz.

    http://www.app.com/article/20110224/...or-cop-killers

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    Jackson council supports bill proposing death penalty

    JACKSON — Members of the Jackson Township Council have passed a resolution supporting a bill filed in the state Legislature that proposes the use of the death penalty for killers of law enforcement officers.

    Sen. Robert Singer (R-Monmouth, Ocean, Mercer, Burlington), whose district includes Jackson, has introduced a bill that could result in the death penalty for murderers of on-duty police officers, as well as for the killers of children, and terrorists whose actions cause deaths.

    The council sent its resolution to state officials, to Jackson Police Chief Matthew Kunz and to Jackson PBA Local 168.

    The resolution states that in 1976 the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the death penalty and turned the decision over to the individual states.

    In 1982 New Jersey re-established the death penalty and approximately 50 people were sentenced to death for premeditated murder. Most of the cases were overturned. No one was executed.

    In 2004 the New Jersey appeals court ruled that the procedures for administering the death penalty were unconstitutional, and on Dec. 17, 2007, Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill repealing the New Jersey death penalty.

    Following the recent murder of Lakewood Police Officer Christopher Matlosz, Singer introduced his bill proposing the establishment of the death penalty for cop killers.

    Councilman Ken Bressi supported the resolution but said he believes the death penalty should apply to anyone who has been found guilty of killing somebody in cold blood.

    Council President Scott Martin said Singer’s bill is a step in the right direction.

    During the public portion of the meeting, resident Gene Davis commended the council for passing the resolution.

    “I think it is important that you endorse the death penalty for killers of law enforcement [officers],” Davis said.

    Resident Gary Black commended the council for passing the resolution and said he supports the death penalty, but he would like to go further.

    “The way guns are prevailing and the way crime has been running away, it’s time to think about the death penalty for all the killers who take lives,” he said. “[We should be] doing this to save lives. I mean a real death penalty and not the New Jersey death penalty, which seems to be old-aged.

    “We have got to stop these gangs, and while we can do all sorts of drug prevention, we have to say no more to violent criminals. It is time to put these people away — demons, as I call them. They are out there destroying life like wild animals. Enough is enough,” he said.

    http://tritown.gmnews.com/news/2011-...eath_pena.html

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    Push for revival of N.J. death penalty unlikely to gain traction

    A push to revive the death penalty in New Jersey is not likely to advance any time soon.

    The fatal shooting earlier this month of Jersey City Officer Melvin Santiago prompted Republican lawmakers to renew their call for capital punishment in the case of a police slaying.

    But Senate President Steve Sweeney said any legislative action on restoring the death penalty should not be a quick response to a specific killing.

    "The death penalty is honestly something that is honestly much bigger than just focusing on this tragedy," he said. "I mean this tragedy highlights why people feel the death penalty is important, but it's not going to be a response to this tragedy."

    New Jersey eliminated the death penalty in 2007 because it hadn't been used for decades, Sweeney said. Convicted killers stayed on death row indefinitely.

    He says lawmakers must deliberate much more about whether to bring it back.

    A lot of considerations will have to figure in those discussion, said Sweeney, D-Gloucester.

    "There's a lot of people that get killed in this state that shouldn't get killed. There's children that get murdered every single day. So we really need to talk. Someone said is it just of police? What about for children?" he said. "That's a discussion that really needs much more deliberation."

    (Source: Newsworks.org)
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    Fiocchi to Sponsor Death Penalty as Deterrent for Cop-Killers

    TRENTON - Assembly Republican Sam Fiocchi is calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty for anyone convicted of killing a law enforcement official in the line of duty. Fiocchi will sign on as a sponsor of A-2429, which reverses the ban on capital punishment that was enacted in 2007. Tuesday, an Illinois police officer was killed which follows the cold-blooded murder of a Texas police office last Friday.

    "These heinous and callous acts are intolerable and show a total lack of regard for those who protect the public,” said Fiocchi, R-Cumberland, Cape May and Atlantic. “Communities are in shock and families are emotionally scarred at the indefensible actions of individuals with such little respect for life. These senseless acts must stop and reinstating capital punishment for those found guilty will suffer the appropriate consequences under this bill.”

    Twenty-four officers have been murdered in the line of duty this year throughout the country. The bill which has been stalled in the Legislature since 2011 reinstates the death penalty in New Jersey for the murder of a law enforcement officer in the line of duty.

    http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/n...5da1502fc.html

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    NJ lawmakers seek reinstatement of death penalty

    A state lawmaker wants to reinstate the death penalty in New Jersey for certain crimes against children, police and corrections officers.

    Assemblyman Ron Dancer, R-Ocean, on Friday said he will introduce a bill to restore capital punishment for convictions of certain homicides, including the killing of a victim 17 or younger.

    Dancer said the legislation is a response to the murder Saturday of a 2-year-old Pennsauken boy, allegedly at the hands of his mother’s live-in boyfriend. Zacchery Tricoche, 24, is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly beating the toddler to death.

    "This is the type of case that demands that the death penalty be an option for the courts,” Dancer said in a statement.

    The bill would extend the death penalty to terror suspects and suspects who kill police or corrections officers.

    A similar bill sponsored by Assemblyman Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, would restore capital punishment for convicted murderers who commit another murder while in custody.

    The goal of that bill is to protect corrections officers from jailed felons who feel they have nothing to lose.

    The death penalty was repealed in New Jersey in 2007 in favor of life sentences without parole.

    Another bill, sponsored by Assemblyman David Rible, R-Monmouth, would restore capital punishment under wide list of aggravating factors that include defendants previously convicted of murder, those who torture the victim, those who place others besides the victim at risk of death, those who kill for money and those who kill to escape confinement or apprehension.

    A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll last year found that 57 percent of respondents favored the death penalty for certain crimes. A 2007 Quinnipiac University poll found that 78 percent of New Jersey voters supported the death penalty for the most violent cases.

    Eight suspects on New Jersey’s death row saw their sentences commuted to life in prison in 2007 when the death penalty was repealed. They included Jesse Timmendequas, the serial pedophile convicted of raping and murdering 7-year-old Megan Kanka. The girl’s death led to Megan’s Law, creating sex-offender registries in New Jersey.

    According to the Death Penalty Information Center, New Jersey is one of 20 states that do not sanction capital punishment.

    The last person put to death by the state in New Jersey was Ralph Hudson, an alcoholic who stabbed his waitress wife, Myrtle, to death in front of a large crowd of diners at Captain Starn’s Inlet Restaurant on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. He was executed in the electric chair in 1963.

    http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/n...76fd76fec.html
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    N.J. lawmakers want to reinstate death penalty in 'extreme' cases

    By S.P. Sullivan
    nj.com

    2 state lawmakers are looking to reverse New Jersey's landmark ban on the death penalty and restore the punishment for serious crimes.

    On Monday, Senators Steve Oroho (R-Sussex) and Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) introduced a bill that would restore capital punishment in certain murder cases, citing recent terror attacks and fatal ambushes of police officers across the United States as examples of crimes warranting the death penalty.

    New Jersey eliminated capital punishment nearly a decade ago, and the measure would have to be approved by the Democrat-controlled state Legislature in order to pass. Previous attempts to roll back the prohibition have failed in recent years, and opponents who shepherded the state death penalty ban into law vowed to fight any effort at repeal.

    But its sponsors say recent events merit a fresh look at allowing capital punishment in "extreme" cases.

    According to a copy of the bill obtained by NJ Advance Media on Monday, it would restore capital punishment in cases including the murder of a police officer; the murder of a child in commission of a sex crime; deaths caused by an act of terror; killings committed by those who have previously been convicted of murder; and for serial killers.

    In a statement announcing the introduction of the bill, Oroho cited the case of Ahmad Khan Rahimi, the man accused of planting bombs in New Jersey and New York in a botched terror plot in September, in advocating for a return to capital punishment.

    But even if the bill were currently law, Rahimi himself wouldn't likely face the death penalty, because despite causing widespread panic and injuries, the string of bombings caused no fatalities.

    In an interview, the senator said the accused Elizabeth bomber was used as an example.

    "There could have been significant fatalities had it actually gone off as planned," Oroho said, adding that he hoped the possibility of capital punishment would serve as a deterrent to future plots.

    Sen. Ray Lesniak, a key sponsor of the legislation banning capital punishment in the Garden State, said on Monday that the testimony that led to its passage included the family members of major crime victims who opposed answering killing with more killing.

    He also said the specter of wrongful convictions should give pause to anyone looking to reinstate the death penalty.

    Van Drew, a Democrat who said he voted against the repeal of the death penalty, said there was "no question that it has to be used very sparingly, only in circumstances where there is clear proof" such as a confession or DNA evidence.

    Lesniak said he did not expect the bill to pass.

    "We haven't had the death penalty for almost 10 years now, and we're not going to back to the dark ages," Lesniak said.

    Ari Rosmarin, the public policy director for the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which fought for the death penalty ban, said capital punishment in New Jersey "is in the dustbin of history, where it belongs."

    "Lawmakers submit thousands of bills every year that will never see the light of day in an effort to generate a headline," Rosmarin said in an e-mail. "This is one of them."

    http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf...lty_in_ex.html
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    Brendan Byrne, former N.J. governor and elder statesman, dies at age 93

    By Ted Sherman
    nj.com

    Former Gov. Brendan T. Byrne, who left an enduring legacy in New Jersey that ranged from enacting the state's first income tax and the legalization of casino gambling to the development of the Meadowlands sports complex and preservation of the environmentally fragile Pine Barrens, died today.

    He was 93 years old.

    The announcement of his death was made by Gov. Chris Christie, paying homage to "an extraordinary career of public service."

    Christie said he considered the late governor a mentor and a friend.

    "My life is richer for having known him as I am sure are the lives of every person who had the privilege to meet him," said Christie.

    A Democrat and two-term governor from 1974 to 1982, Byrne weathered periods of extreme unpopularity, was criticized as stubborn, stiff, and was widely seen as lacking in charisma.

    He enrolled at Princeton University on the GI Bill after his discharge in 1945, and earned a law degree from Harvard in 1951.

    Byrne entered public service in 1955 as an assistant counsel to Gov. Robert B. Meyner, who later appointed him as Essex County prosecutor.

    As prosecutor, he prosecuted a number of municipal corruption cases and a prominent underworld figure, annoying Newark's mayor, Hugh Addonizio.

    "Addonizio tried his damnedest to get the governor not to reappoint me," Byrne later recalled. The Newark mayor eventually went to prison on federal corruption charges.

    In 1968, he was named president of the New Jersey Public Utilities Commission and appointed to state Superior Court two years later by Cahill.

    October 1971: As a judge, he rules that current procedures for administering the death penalty in New Jersey are unconstitutional. (A new death penalty law would not be enacted until after Byrne's term as Governor ended in 1982.)

    http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf...rnor_dies.html

    Last line is from this http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf..._timeline.html

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    Colts Neck killings spur calls for death penalty in N.J.


    An aerial view of authorities responding to a massive fire in Colts Neck on Nov. 20. Paul Caneiro now stands accused of killing his brother, Paul, his sister-in-law, Jennifer, and the couple's two kids.

    Following the grisly deaths of a family in Colts Next last month, lawmakers in a mostly rural swath of northwest New Jersey are calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in the state.

    “The gruesome murder of the Caneiro family is proof that we must reinstate the death penalty," state Sen. Steven Oroho and Assemblymen Parker Space and Harold Wirths, all Republicans from District 24, said in a statement.

    Paul Caneiro, 51, is accused of killing his brother, Keith, 50, Keith’s wife, Jennifer, 45, and the couple’s two young children, 8-year-old Sophia and 11-year-old Jesse.

    Caneiro, of Ocean Township, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder. His attorneys have maintained he is innocent and that he loved his family dearly.

    Calling this the “most brutal” case in his career, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said last week that he would approve this as a capital punishment case, if it was an option in New Jersey.

    Caneiro faces 30 years to life in prison on each count of murder, along with additional prison time on weapons offenses and aggravated arson charges.

    In 1982, state Sen. John F. Russo, a Democrat from Ocean County, wrote the statute that reinstated the death penalty in New Jersey. Russo was motivated by the death of his 77-year-old father, who was fatally shot during a robbery attempt in Asbury Park on New Year’s Eve in 1970.

    In December 2007, the state Legislature voted to make New Jersey the first state to abolish the death penalty in 42 years. The state Assembly voted 44-36 to pass the bill, and Gov. Jon Corzine signed it into law days later.

    Oroho, Wirths and Space, who together represent parts of Sussex, Warren and Morris counties, made an attempt in 2016 to get legislation passed to reinstate the death penalty to no avail. Their current bills have yet to receive a committee hearing. District 24 is among the most conservative parts of New Jersey.

    Space said the “most effective deterrent out there” is the death penalty.

    Cases in federal court, however, can still be tried with the death penalty.

    In 2015, the Justice Department authorized former U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman to seek the death penalty against Farad Roland, a leader of a violent sub-set of the Bloods street gang in Newark. Roland, 33, admitted in January to having a role in five shooting deaths and accepted a plea deal that will have him behind bars for 45 years.

    “The Colts Neck murderer deserves nothing less than the death penalty,” Oroho said in the statement. “We can no longer ignore the public calls for action in gruesome cases like these.”

    https://www.nj.com/monmouth/2018/12/...lty-in-nj.html
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