Should New Jersey Reinstate Death Penalty?

A gruesome murder discovered in Monroe Township last week has led to the arrest and arraignment of two men who, if convicted, would face life in prison without parole.

That sentence, however, was once just an option in New Jersey rather than the only solution. In 2007, the state’s General Assembly voted 44 to 36 to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole as a sentence for certain crimes.

Last week’s murder involved a Camden woman and mother of two being buried alive in a field by two men who have allegedly admitted to the crime.

The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty at the federal level in 1976, and New Jersey reinstated the practice in 1982. But the state’s last execution took place in 1963.

Capital punishment received additional scrutiny recently when an Oklahoma rapist and murderer’s lethal injection was botched due to a failed IV line which carried a drug combination considered to be inhumane, according to tulsaworld.com. Because of the bad experience, the state has bumped its next execution six months.

So, should New Jersey reinstate the death penalty?