No death row inmates would be executed until a special...

No death row inmates would be executed until a special commission takes a second look at the state's capital-punishment system under a bill passed by a state Assembly committee, on December 2002.
The bill recommends a temporary moratorium on executions until a proposed commission completes an 18-month study on the death penalty. The legislation represents a big victory as well as a gamble for opponents of capital punishment.
The 4-0 vote, with one abstention, by the Assembly Committee on Law and Public Safety marks the first time that a bill backed by anti-death penalty forces has been moved to a full vote.
The bill is set for a full Assembly vote according to sponsor Assemblyman Alfred E. Steele, D-Paterson. If approved, sponsors will lobby for a companion bill in the Senate currently awaiting hearings.
New Jersey has not had an execution since Ralph Hudson, of Atlantic City, was electrocuted in 1963 for the murder of his wife. But capital-punishment opponents say several of the state's 13 death row inmates are running out of appeals and face execution within three years.
On December 12, 2002, with 13 people on death row in New Jersey and against the hopes of death penalty opponents, the state Assembly postponed a planned vote on creating a commission to study executions in the Garden State.
The current proposal dropped a provision in the original bill calling for a temporary suspension of all executions. The study would examine whether the death penalty is cheaper than prison sentences and, if it is applied fairly, how effective the appeals process is and whether it is ethical.
Lawmakers are now slated to vote January 13.
"I think anytime you take a person's life, and it may be with good reason, you've got to make sure everything worked right. You've got to make sure it's fair and just," said Assemblyman John Burzichelli, D-Paulsboro. "I think now is the time to revisit all of that."
Death penalty opponents New Jerseyans for a Death Penalty Moratorium, which has been active on behalf of the measure, said the sanction risks innocent people being put to death.
"Aside from the moral issues ... we need the study and a moratorium because the system is broken in so many ways," said Lois Teer Seeligsohn, spokeswoman for NJDPM. "The death penalty does not work. It does none of the things the originators thought it was going to do."According to Seeligsohn, the cost of executing a prisoner is four times that of issuing a life sentence.
Gov. James E. McGreevey has not ruled on the bill, according to spokeswoman Ellen Mellody. She said McGreevey will not make a formal ruling until the bill has cleared both houses of the state Legislature.
Under the bill, no executions would take place until the commission reports back.
On January 2003, the Assembly voted into law by 54 votes in favour, 10 against and one abstention, the bill which would put underway a one year study on the death penalty.
The following cities approved moratorium resolutions: Camden, Chesilhurst, Highland Park, Borough of Princeton, Summers Point.