What was I, a Conservative rabbi, doing in common cause with those with whom I had clashed on many religious, moral and ethical issues - with the Catholic bishops of New Jersey on the matter of abortion; with the Green Party over their torpedoing the candidacy of Joseph I. Lieberman; with Amnesty International, who too often employ a disproportionately large microscope to human rights violations of Israel against the Palestinians; and with Ethical Culture on the whole necessity of God as grounding for a moral and ethical life?
The issue that brought us unlikes to the State Legislature and to the governor's office later in the day was Bill A-1853, which has been languishing in the Judiciary Committee for over a year. No public hearing has been scheduled to debate its merits, let alone post it for an Assembly vote. The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Alfred E. Steele (Democrat, Paterson), calls for a two-year moratorium on state executions, while their cost and effectiveness, including the alternative of life imprisonment without possibility of parole, are studied. The legislative agenda setters understandably resist furthering it when so many of New Jersey's voters endorse the death penalty. We were at the State House to persuade our legislators that the mood of New Jerseyans on the death penalty is changing and it is time to bring Bill A-1853 to the forefront.
A recent Quinnipiac University Poll of 1,004 New Jersey voters found that they favor capital punishment by 69 to 29 percent. But when the question was changed to if the penalty for murder being "life imprisonment with absolutely no chance of parole," 44 percent favor the death penalty while 43 percent favor life without parole, with 13 percent undecided. By a margin of 70 percent to 25 percent, the state's voters say a poor person is more likely than someone with more income to face the death penalty for the same crime. By a margin of 58 percent to 38 percent, they believe that A black person is more likely to face the death penalty than a white person. And the most telling finding of all is that 92 percent believe that in the last 20 years in the United States innocent people have been executed.
Aside from the practical hesitancy of executing an innocent person, a majority of those who oppose capital punishment express religious or moral objections to the state taking another person's life. Those who remain in the execution corner cite the perennial reasons of retribution and deterrent. But as popular psychology has overtaken law and order as a motivator, an additional rationale for the death penalty has trumped the vintage ones. ``Are not the victim and his or her survivors as precious as the perpetrator and that family?'' we hear. ``Closure from their mental anguish comes when the survivors know that the murderer has been executed.''
Speaking to the matter of closure at the legislative rally were June and Lorry Post of Cape May, whose daughter, Lisa, was stabbed to death by her husband 12 years ago as she was about to leave the marriage and take their little girl with her. Lorry Post acknowledged that ``there is still a strong hatred.'' But he resents those who exploit his anger as a father of a victim to argue for the death penalty, especially by contending that executing murderers brings 'closure' to the surviving family. "We know the agony of those who have suffered as we have and who feel they need this second killing in order to get on with their lives. However, there is nothing the state can do to relieve our pain." Real closure, victims say, comes with the knowledge that the killer has been imprisoned without chance of parole and thus prevented from doing more harm, while leaving a window to reverse incarceration in the event that new evidence like DNA establishes innocence.
And that was why I placed the resolution of the 1,400 Conservative rabbis worldwide calling for an end to state killing alongside those of 100 other organizations.
Legislators, the public mood is changing, A chance to debate Bill 1853 in public hearing, and eventually post it for a vote, is not only good democracy, but smart politics. Now is the time to bring the bill down from the legislative attic.