the same action.





As of July 1, 2005, there were more than 3,000 death row inmates in the United States. (See Table 1 on page 22.) According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since 1976, nationwide, 994 persons have been executed while 121 death row inmates have been released after evidence of their innocence was discovered (as of November 16, 2005).





Since 1999, for a variety of reasons including the growing costs of capital prosecutions, there has been a dramatic decline in death sentencing. Executions also have declined. As use of the death penalty lessens, the amount of time consumed by the typical case has increased. In 1960, the average length of time between conviction and execution was about two years; in 2000, it was eleven and a half years.5

THEDEATH PENALTY IN NEW JERSEY

New Jersey first adopted the death penalty in 1796. It was the mandatory punishment for capital convictions—generally murder—in New Jersey until 1916, when it was made discretionary except in cases of treason.

An attempt to abolish New Jersey’s death penalty in 1915 was defeated in the General Assembly. Numerous other unsuccessful abolition attempts followed throughout the 20th century. Interest in the abolition movement increased during the 1950s and 1960s. After the Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in all states, the New Jersey Legislature tried four times to re-enact the death penalty between 1977 and 1979. All were thwarted by Gov. Brendan T. Byrne, who strongly opposed capital punishment.





It was not until Gov. Thomas Kean’s election that New Jersey had gubernatorial support for the