New Jersey abolishes racist death penalty

On Dec. 13, the New Jersey state legislature voted to abolish the death penalty. In a 44-36 vote, it was decided that instead, the most severe punishment in the state would be life imprisonment. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed the bill into law on Dec. 17.

New Jersey is the first state to repeal the use of the death penalty since its reinstatement by the U.S. Supreme Court in

The movement against the racist death penalty has pushed the issue onto the political stage throughout the country.

1976. New Jersey re-established the death penalty in 1982, but has not used it since 1963.

While this development is only a step toward the complete abolishment of the death penalty throughout the United States, the great impact of this action should be recognized. There are currently eight people on death row in New Jersey, all of whom will now be spared.

Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, 1,099 people have been executed in the United States. The death penalty is used constantly and excessively by advocates of “law and order” who cite capital punishment as a crime deterrent. But even a New Jersey special commission reported in January 2007 that the use of the death penalty is not a crime deterrent.

Iowa and West Virginia discontinued the use of the death penalty in 1965. State legislatures in Colorado, New Mexico and Montana all have put forward bills to abolish the death penalty.

The recent developments to some extent can be attributed to the grassroots movement against the death penalty in the United States. This movement gained its most vibrant momentum around the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal in the 1990s. Mumia, an African American political prisoner, has been on death row since 1982. This movement spread throughout the United States and the world, pushing back two government attempts to execute him.

Fighting against the death penalty goes beyond morality or “the image” of the United States internationally. It is part of the larger struggle against the repression of working-class people in the United States, especially people of color. African Americans are the most common victim of the racist death penalty imposed by the U.S. capitalist state.

Complete abolition of the death penalty in the United States is necessary. It would take away one of the main tools of terror used to hold down the working class under capitalism. The vote in New Jersey can be seen as a catalyst to achieve abolition throughout the country.