This week the New Jersey Assembly voted 55-21 to suspend all executions in the state and examine flaws in the death penalty system, including the risk of executing the innocent, racial and geographic bias, and the needs of victims’ family members.
The Senate passed the bill 30-6 in December, and it now goes to acting Governor Richard J. Codey, who has promised to sign it before he leaves office. New Jersey will then become the first state in the country to legislatively mandate a suspension of executions. Illinois continues to operate under a moratorium ordered by former Governor George Ryan (R), and Maryland briefly suspended executions as the result of an order from former Governor Parris Glendening (D).
“The New Jersey legislature joins the growing number of Missourians and others across the country who recognize that the death penalty is broken,” said Rita Linhardt, of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty (MADP). “It risks executing the innocent, is unfairly applied, and is plagued by arbitrariness and error.”
In Missouri, three men have been exonerated after having spent years on death row, Clarence Dexter, Eric Clemmons and Joe Amrine. The conviction of one Missouri man executed 10 years ago, Larry Griffin, has been opened by the St. Louis circuit attorney. Virginia Governor Mark Warner last week ordered DNA tests to investigate the possible innocence of Roger Coleman, executed in 1992, and in Texas, Ruben Cantu, executed in 1993, was the subject of a recent Houston Chronicle investigative series showing he was likely innocent.
In Missouri, three men whose convictions and death sentences have been overturned and ordered back for re-trial due to possible wrongful convictions – Danny Wolfe, Leamon White and Walter Barton – are still not out of danger. Richard Clay is very close to getting an execution date despite credible evidence of innocence. And there is another man besides Larry Griffin who was probably innocent, Roy Roberts, executed in 1999.
A recently executed man, Marlin Gray, and his co-defendant Reggie Clemons, who is approaching getting an execution date, had and have claims of reasonable doubt.
“We need to look at how it is that innocent people can be executed, or almost executed, why the supposed safeguards are not safe,” said Linhardt. “Missouri lawmakers need to join the trend and enact a moratorium with a study commission to look at these problems.”
Moratorium bills were introduced last legislative session in both Missouri’s House and Senate. Eight Republican and eight Democratic representatives co-sponsored HB 408; five Democratic senators co-sponsored SB 303. Similar legislation will be introduced in Missouri’s legislature in the near future.
For more information on Missouri’s death penalty, visit www.moabolition.org. For a national list of organizations calling for a moratorium on executions, visit www.ejusa.org. For information on New Jersey’s death penalty, visit www.njadp.org.