







MONEY FOR NOTHING?

The Financial Cost of

New Jersey’s Death Penalty





By Mary E. Forsberg

RESEARCH DIRECTOR





NOVEMBER 2005





INTRODUCTION





Feelings toward capital punishment have varied over time. Among democratic nations, few now impose it. In the United States, 38 states have death penalty laws while 12 have rejected the ultimate punishment in favor of other strong sentences, such as life without parole. Many death penalty states, including New Jersey, rarely impose it. The death penalty is an emotional topic but apart from the moral questions the death penalty evokes, apart from questions of whether it serves as a deterrent, apart from debate over whether it has a proper role in the administration of justice, the death penalty—when everything else is stripped away—is a matter of public policy.





And, as with any public policy, questions aretime of the Revolutionary War, treason, rape, piracy, sodomy and some property crimes were punishable by death in many of the colonies.2 The Duke’s Laws of 1665 in the New York Colony made offenses such as striking one’s mother or father, or denying the “true God” offenses punishable by death. At the same time, many opposed death sentences. Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and founder of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, challenged the belief that the death penalty was a deterrent. In 1794, Pennsylvania repealed the death penalty for all offenses except first degree murder.





In the early part of the 19th century, many states reduced the number of crimes punishable by death. By World War I, 13 states had abolished it altogether. But, by