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Illinois advocates join national leaders calling Local Experts Support New Jersey Panel Findings CHICAGO - Jan. 2, 2007 - The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP) announced today its support for the findings released by the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission. The New Jersey Commission recommends that the legislature replace the death penalty with the sentence of life without parole. "The New Jersey report provides a frank assessment of the flaws in the death penalty system, "said Jane Bohman, executive director of the ICADP. "The problems with capital punishment in New Jersey are the same problems that we face here in Illinois. The system is not working and we need our elected officials to take a serious look at this issue." State law created the 13-member commission and placed a one-year moratorium on executions in New Jersey, pending the results of this study. Before producing its findings, the Commission held four months of public hearings. The Commission heard from dozens of witnesses, including prosecutors, corrections experts, judges, police, religious and community leaders, the wrongly convicted, and average citizens. The vast majority called for a swift end to the state's decades-long death penalty experiment. "New Jersey's system is much like ours here in Illinois," Bohman continued. "The system drains millions of taxpayer dollars each year away that could otherwise be invested in social service and public works projects." Study commissioners included a police chief, two prosecutors, including one representing the state prosecutor's association, the attorney general, a former state Supreme Court Justice, representatives of victims' organizations, religious leaders, and other legal experts. Notably, the report highlights the negative impact of the death penalty process on victims' families. More than one dozen victims' families and advocates testified that the death penalty process compounded their pain by putting them through an extended process of trial, reversals, and retrials, and that life without parole would have been a better outcome for them. The New Jersey report is the latest marker in a growing trend away from capital punishment in the United States. Last month, executions were halted by the Governor of Florida and by the courts in California and Maryland. A recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center found that death sentences dropped for the fifth straight year in 2006, and public opinion now favors life without parole over the death penalty. "The evidence is clear," said Bohman. "Every state that studies the death penalty finds that it has failed. Each year in our state, dozens of capital punishment-eligible cases are successfully resolved without resort to the death penalty, giving finality to the families of victims and saving scarce public safety resources. Illinois should repeal capital punishment instead of wasting any more energy on this failed policy." The ICADP will release its annual report on the status of the death penalty in Illinois later this month. For more information on the New Jersey Commission report released today, visit: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/committees/njdeath_penalty.asp . About ICADP:The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP) was founded in 1976 as a grassroots membership organization committed to educating the public about the injustices in the Illinois capital punishment system. ICADP promotes humane alternatives to the punitive death penalty system serves as a clearinghouse for research and best practices and works to raise public awareness about the need to reform the broken system - or if it is beyond repair - end the practice. To access a copy of ICADP's annual report, or for more information, visit www.icadp.org . # # #
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