Both Committees and the Senate Down in New Jersey

Earlier today, the New Jersey state Legislature's Law and Public Safety Committee, the last of two committees I mentioned in the way of passing a law to repeal the New Jersey death penalty, approved the legislation. Even more importantly, the New Jersey Senate voted 21-16 to repeal New Jersey's capital punishment statues. The Senate was considered the more difficult of the two houses for the legislation to pass through; the NJ State Assembly votes next week, where Democrats hold sway 50-30. After its likely passage there, it will receive an even more likely signature from death penalty opponent Governor Corzine.

The Democrats have been the primary supporters of the legislation, but four Republican Senators crossed party lines in voting for it earlier today. Three of them are either retiring or defeated and, as a result, not returning to the Senate next term, freeing them from the possibility of feeling their pro-death penalty constituents' wrath. Some criticized the fact that the voting and debating on this issue took place in a lame-duck session, saying that it is underhanded to decide on such serious issues during this period, which some see as less than completely serious.

In any case, New Jersey has now set itself on a course to almost certainly abolish capital punishment within the week. It will be the first state to do so in the modern era, and indicates an unprecedented initiative by a legislative body (almost all previous restrictions of the death penalty have come from executive or judicial action). The legislative body is generally considered more a "body of the people" than the executive or judicial, so action by it against capital punishment may indicate more of a shift in attitudes among the hoi polloi than among the elites that comprise the upper two branches.