New Jersey votes on the Death Penalty

Today, New Jersey's state government begins deciding on the landmark legislation that would ban the death penalty.

The law, which would spare the eight men on New Jersey's death row (including child sex killer Jesse Timmendequas) is groundbreaking because it would be the first time one of the States of the Union had opted out of capital punishment since the Supreme Court first reinstated it.

The bill is likely to go through. New Jersey is a traditionally liberal state and the senate has a democratic majority (New Jersey's governer, John Corzine, is also a democrat.) In addition, the current death penalty law in New Jersey is essentially meaningless. Nobody's been put to death in this state since 1963.

But there are outspoken critics of the proposed abolishment. No voices are louder than those of the Kanka family, who lost their daughter Megan in 1994 to registered sex offender Jesse Timmendequas, (sparking the controversial Megan's Law.)

"If there is any individual that deserves the death penalty, it's the animal that did this to Megan," they wrote, regarding the proposed law. "To abolish it would be an injustice to our family."

But is that true?

After all, even if the Death Penalty was to be maintained in New Jersey, it hasn't been realised in almost 45 years. The Kankas can fight to bring this proposed abolishment crashing down - but it doesn't mean Jesse Timmendequas will ever feel the sting of a lethal injection.

There is already a de facto ban on the death penalty. All this proposed legislation is doing is legitimising it.

And that's no bad thing.