Missouri Catholic Conference Applauds the New Jersey Commission Report Calling for Abolition of Capital Punishment: Missouri should look at its death penalty system.

January 5, 2007, JEFFERSON CITY, MO – A 13-member commission that included two prosecutors, a police chief, the Attorney General, a former state Supreme Court justice and representatives of victims organizations, religious leaders and other legal experts has recommended that New Jersey repeal its death penalty statute.

The report issued by the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission found flaws in a wide variety of areas including the risks of executing an innocent person; geographic disparities and uneven application; the negative impact on victims’ families and the high costs of the death penalty, as compared with sentencing to life without parole. Noting that the death penalty has never been shown to deter crime, the commission recommended included that New Jersey replace the death penalty with life without parole and that any cost saving resulting from the abolition of the death penalty be used for benefits and services for survivors of victims of homicide.

According to Larry Weber, Executive Director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, the Missouri General Assembly should carefully consider the recommendations of the New Jersey report when it deliberates on anti-death penalty measures this session.

“The New Jersey report gives a scathing indictment of the death penalty system and uncovered gross flaws and problems that are common to other states as well,” noted Mr. Weber. “New Jersey’s system is just like Missouri and other states in that it is run by fallible human beings who sometimes make mistakes even under the best of circumstances. New Jersey which had not carried out an execution in four decades was considered to have a careful system—yet the commission still found flaws. Surely Missouri should reconsider whether the death penalty in our state is still appropriate.”

The New Jersey Study Commission was empanelled as part of legislation that placed a one-year moratorium on executions in New Jersey pending the outcome of the study. The commission held four months of public hearings from July through October 2006 and heard from more than four dozen witnesses. The vast majority of witnesses painted a picture of a system that was broken. More than a dozen murder victim’s family members and advocates testified that the death penalty hurts and divides surviving family members and diverts funds from victim’s services that they need.

The commission’s actions come as the death penalty is coming under increasing scrutiny around the country because of flaws in the system. In 2006 the United States Court of Appeals halted executions in Missouri to examine the lethal injection protocol used by the state. Last month, executions were halted by the Governor of Florida and by the courts in California and Maryland. In 2006 the U.S. recorded the lowest number of executions in a decade, as a total of ten states effectively have executions on hold as aspects of their capital punishment laws are examined. Research by the Death Penalty Information Center indicates that the number of death sentences imposed in 2006 will be the lowest since the death penalty was reinstated 30 years ago. Opinion polls show that the public now favors life without parole over the death penalty.

The Missouri Catholic Conference opposes the death penalty as it disregards the sanctity and dignity of human live and teaches violence as a solution to crime. The MCC has supported legislative efforts in the past to halt executions while a study of the state’s death penalty system could be conducted similar to the New Jersey moratorium.

The New Jersey report is posted at:
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/committees/njdeath_penalty.asp

The 2006 Missouri Bishops Pastoral on the Death Penalty can be found at:
http://www.mocatholic.org/News/BishopsStatement/DeathPenalty2006.pdf