In the most part of the western world, Meghan's killer would be considered a pathological case. The community would provide for him (yes, "three meals a day", that's what Western countries usually afford) and would take care of him. Burt since you can't provide for your elder and your veterans....

Info from
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777460.html

It's great to see the US holding the line on this along with the great defenders of freedom and democracy that include: China, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Sudan.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Death Penalty Worldwide
According to Amnesty International, 133 countries have abolished the death penalty. During 2006 25 countries, 91% in China, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, and the United States alone, executed 1,591 people compared to 2,148 in 2005. More than 3,861 people were sentenced to death in 55 countries. More than 20,000 prisoners are on death row across the world. See also U.S. Figures.

Death Penalty Outlawed (year)1
Albania (2000)
Andorra (1990)
Angola (1992)
Armenia (2003)
Australia (1984)
Austria (1950)
Azerbaijan (1998)
Belgium (1996)
Bermuda (1999)
Bhutan (2004)
Bosnia-Herzegovina (1997)
Bulgaria (1998)
Cambodia (1989)
Canada (1976)
Cape Verde (1981)
Colombia (1910)
Costa Rica (1877)
C?te d'Ivoire (2000)
Croatia (1990)
Cyprus (1983)
Czech Republic (1990)
Denmark (1933)
Djibouti (1995)
Dominican Republic (1966)
East Timor (1999)
Ecuador (1906)
Estonia (1998)
Finland (1949)
France (1981)
Georgia (1997)
Germany (1949)
Greece (1993)
Guinea-Bissau (1993)
Haiti (1987)
Honduras (1956)
Hungary (1990)
Iceland (1928)
Ireland (1990)
Italy (1947)
Kiribati (1979)
Liberia (2005)
Liechtenstein (1987)
Lithuania (1998)
Luxembourg (1979)
Macedonia (1991)
Malta (1971)
Marshall Islands (1986)
Mauritius (1995)
Mexico (2005)
Micronesia (1986)
Moldova (1995)
Monaco (1962)
Montenegro (2002)
Mozambique (1990)
Namibia (1990)
Nepal (1990)
Netherlands (1870)
New Zealand (1961)
Nicaragua (1979)
Niue (n.a.)
Norway (1905)
Palau (n.a.)
Panama (1903)
Paraguay (1992)
Poland (1997)
Portugal (1867)
Philippines (2006)
Romania (1989)
Samoa (2004)
San Marino (1848)
S?o Tom? and Pr?ncipe (1990)
Senegal (2004)
Serbia (2002)
Seychelles (1993)
Slovak Republic (1990)
Slovenia (1989)
Solomon Islands (1966)
South Africa (1995)
Spain (1978)
Sweden (1921)
Switzerland (1942)
Turkey (2002)
Turkmenistan (1999)
Tuvalu (1978)
Ukraine (1999)
United Kingdom (1973)
Uruguay (1907)
Vanuatu (1980)
Vatican City (1969)
Venezuela (1863)


Death Penalty Outlawed for Ordinary Crimes2 (year)
Argentina (1984)
Bolivia (1997)
Brazil (1979)
Chile (2001)
Cook Islands (n.a.)
El Salvador (1983)
Fiji (1979)
Israel (1954)
Latvia (1999)
Peru (1979)


De Facto Ban on Death Penalty3 (year)4
Algeria (1993)
Benin (1987)
Brunei Darussalam (1957)
Burkina Faso (1988)
Central African Republic (1981)
Congo (Republic) (1982)
Gambia (1981)
Grenada (1978)
Kenya (n.a.)
Madagascar (1958)
Maldives (1952)
Mali (1980)
Mauritania (1987)
Morocco (1993)
Myanmar (1993)
Nauru (1968)
Niger (1976)
Papua New Guinea (1950)
Russia (1999)
Sri Lanka (1976)
Suriname (1982)
Togo (n.a.)
Tonga (1982)
Tunisia (1990)


Death Penalty Permitted
Afghanistan
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Botswana
Burundi
Cameroon
Chad
China (People's Republic)
Comoros
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Cuba
Dominica
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Ghana
Guatemala
Guinea
Guyana
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Korea, North
Korea, South
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Lesotho
Libya
Malawi
Malaysia
Mongolia
Nigeria
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian Authority
Qatar
Rwanda
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Saudi Arabia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Somalia
Sudan
Swaziland
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Trinidad and Tobago
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

I think that the state killing its citizens (it's enough that they regularly steal our money and destroy our rights) is extremely problematic when criminals can be put away for life with no danger to others. There is also the generally high level of government incompetence to be considered; e.g. all of the people who have been cleared of rape charges due to DNA evidence.

Still, I think that under very limited circumstances the death penalty should be invoked. Specifically, if someone with a life in prison sentence kills someone and can be found beyond doubt (a higher standard than beyond reasonable doubt) guilty, then they should be executed.

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But it's the truth. Yeah, you can find good people everywhere, but a developmentally disabled 18 year old boy isn't going to be given a 17-year prison sentence for having consensual sex with a developmentally disabled 15 year old boy in a blue state. There's a reason Kansas is a red state.

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What jsalt said.

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From your posts I'm sure you are too.

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What I said in my last post.

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To you and yours as well.

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I'm still going through the agendas with an eye on maximum conservative steam coming out of the ears potential.

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JSalt:

Agreed!!!!!

Happy Holidays.

DTG

PS- What if the car is new ??

In my ideal world, we'd execute ONLY people like him - the worst, most remorseless, most dangerous, most brutal killers. But since I don't trust any justice system enough to handle the responsibility of meting out death, I'd prefer the penalty were abolished.

Also the "what if it was your daughter" argument doesn't work. Justice can't be based only on the feelings of the wronged - it has to be fair and rational. The courts are not there to provide vengence for crime victims. A lot of people would probably like to see someone slowly tortured for scratching their brand new car - that doesn't mean it should be done.

Br6dr:

Enough with the Blue State vs. Red State mentality!!!

I wonder if you would feel the same if a family member was involved??



You are probably a decent well intentioned person but I question your judgment with this guy.


Happy Holidays!!


DTG

PS- What is your next "Cause Celeb" ? Landmines or the Civil War in Chad ??

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Morally, I'd have no problem with skinning Jesse Timmendequas alive and tying him to an ant hill. I'd just prefer that this country wasn't run with a knuckle dragging/sixth grade boy mentality. It's time to progress to a 21st century mentality. (Well, at least in the blue states.)

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Br6dr:


The man who raped , beat and strangled Megan Kanka with a belt will not be executed.

I am sure you are happy.

Now you can feel morally superior!!!

DTG






'Megan's Law' killer escapes death under N.J. execution ban
Story Highlights

NEW: Child killer Jesse Timmendequas, 46, is now off New Jersey's death row

New Jersey governor signs state ban on executions

Governor: "Government cannot provide a fool-proof death penalty"

Legislation replaces death penalty with life in prison without parole

TRENTON, New Jersey (CNN) -- The man who raped and killed 7-year-old Megan Kanka -- the 1994 crime that inspired "Megan's Law" -- is one of eight men whose sentences were commuted to life in prison this week as part of New Jersey's new ban on execution.

The Garden State on Monday became the first state in more than three decades to abolish the death penalty after a commission ruled the punishment is "inconsistent with evolving standards of decency."

Gov. Jon Corzine the day before commuted the sentences of eight men sitting on the state's death row. They will now serve life in prison without parole, according to the governor's office.

Among the eight is Jesse Timmendequas, 46, who was sentenced to death in June 1997 for Megan's murder.

Prosecutors said Timmendequas lured Megan to his home by saying he wanted to show her a puppy. He then raped her, beat her and strangled her with a belt. A day later, he led police to her body.

"Megan's Law," introduced after her death, requires that authorities notify neighbors when a sex offender moves into an area. Timmendequas had twice been convicted of sex crimes -- on 5- and 7-year-olds -- before he murdered Megan.

In signing Monday's bill, Corzine called it a "momentous day" and made New Jersey the first state to ban capital punishment since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976.

"It's a day of progress for the state of New Jersey and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response to the grievous, even heinous, crime of murder," Corzine said.

Society is not forgiving criminals, the Democratic governor insisted, but the law is necessary because "government cannot provide a fool-proof death penalty that precludes the possibility of executing the innocent." Watch Corzine sign the document ?

"Society must ask," he continued, "is it not morally superior to imprison 100 people for life than it is to execute all 100 when it's probable we execute an innocent?"

The state Assembly approved the measure Thursday by a 44-36 vote after the Senate OK'd it 21-16.

New Jersey has not executed a prisoner since 1963.

The new legislation replaces the death penalty with life in prison without parole. The bill was introduced in November after a state commission concluded capital punishment was an ineffective deterrent to crime.

Since the Supreme Court's reinstatement of the death penalty, almost 1,100 people have been executed in 37 states. See the death penalty by state ?

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment, New Jersey joins 13 states and the District of Columbia that do not use execution as a means of punishment.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/17/death.penalty/index.html

N.J. Bans Death Penalty

By TOM HESTER Jr.
December 17, 2007

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ? Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law Monday a measure that abolishes the death penalty, making New Jersey the first state in more than four decades to reject capital punishment.

The bill, approved last week by the state's Assembly and Senate, replaces the death sentence with life in prison without parole.

"This is a day of progress for us and for the millions of people across our nation and around the globe who reject the death penalty as a moral or practical response to the grievous, even heinous, crime of murder," Corzine said.

The measure spares eight men on the state's death row. On Sunday, Corzine signed orders commuting the sentences of those eight to life in prison without parole.

New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982 ? six years after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume executions ? but it hasn't executed anyone since 1963.

The state's move is being hailed across the world as a historic victory against capital punishment. Rome plans to shine golden light on the Colosseum in support. Once the arena for deadly gladiator combat and executions, the Colosseum is now a symbol of the fight against the death penalty.

"The rest of America, and for that matter the entire world, is watching what we are doing here today," said Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo, a Democrat. "New Jersey is setting a precedent that I'm confident other states will follow."

The bill passed the Legislature largely along party lines, with controlling Democrats supporting the abolition and minority Republicans opposed.

"It's simply a specious argument to say that, somehow, after six millennia of recorded history, the punishment no longer fits the crime," said Assemblyman Joseph Malone, a Republican.
The last states to eliminate the death penalty were Iowa and West Virginia in 1965, according to the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

The nation has executed 1,099 people since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized the death penalty in 1976. In 1999, 98 people were executed, the most since 1976; last year 53 people were executed, the lowest since 1996.

Other states have considered abolishing the death penalty recently, but none has advanced as far as New Jersey.

The nation's last execution was Sept. 25 in Texas. Since then, executions have been delayed pending a U.S. Supreme Court decision on whether execution through lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

----------

Fast facts about the death penalty in New Jersey

_ Capital punishment was banned nationally by the U.S. Supreme Court between 1972 and 1976.

_ New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982; since then, 50 men and two women have been sentenced to death in the state.

_ Three men sentenced to death have died on the capital sentencing unit.

_ Forty-one on New Jersey's death row have had their sentences overturned in court.

_ Gov. Jon S. Corzine commuted the death sentences of the eight remaining on death row when the state banned the death penalty. The eight will remain in the maximum-security New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

___

Source: New Jersey Department of Corrections.

STATES WITHOUT THE DEATH PENALTY

Alaska
Hawaii
Iowa
Maine
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
North Dakota
New York
*New Jersey
Rhode Island
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin

ALSO
- Dist. of Columbia

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Then why have it as an option? It's significant because New Jersey will be the first state in 40 years to do this. Other states could follow New Jersey's lead.

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Insurance for protection? I thought the gun was for protection.

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The NJ Code does that already


Since NJ is plagued by so many predatory lawyers most of us legal gun owners carry liability insurance to protect ourselves from people like you..



Grovepath- This post was about the dearth penalty not guns!!

Shame on you

DTG

If you want to decrease guns in the state then you simply need to apply statutory liability to the gun owners: if your gun is used in a crime, you become criminally and financially liable, regardless of where you are.

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Eureka !!!

Great idea

I suggest that you go to Texas or North Carolina and ask then first .


I am sure they will comply

You suffer from Hoplophobia but I can cure you.

Night

DTG

Change the gun laws in all states -- the guns are coming from somewhere!

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Ok !!!! How ????


DTG

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It costs the state a fortune in court costs to keep a death Penalty that they don't use.

I think we need to: "Stop the bullshit and get rid of" the guns in NJ.

It's been defacto abolished for a long time, no one has been executed in NJ since 1963.


More "Feel Good Stuff" from Trenton !!!

Stop the bullshit and lets get rid of the Corruption and dual office holding in this State!!!



DTG

New Jersey Becomes First US State in 40 Years to Ban Executions

December 13, 2007

NEW YORK (AFP) ? New Jersey on Thursday became the first US state in four decades to vote to abolish the death penalty, in a move hailed by human rights activists as a step towards ending capital punishment.

The Democratic-controlled state assembly passed the law by a vote of 44 to 36, assembly spokesman Joe Donnelly told AFP. The state's senate voted earlier this week to ban executions in favor of a life term in jail without parole.

Jon Corzine, the Democratic governor of the northeastern state, has repeatedly expressed support for the measure and has vowed to sign it into law by January.

David Fathi, director of the US program at Human Rights Watch, described the passage of the bill as a "historic day."

"The elected representatives of a US state have definitively rejected the death penalty. We urge other states to follow New Jersey's example and abolish this cruel and archaic punishment," said Fathi.

Iowa and West Virginia were the last states to vote to abolish executions in 1965.

"It is a very significant event for a state that has had the death penalty on its books for decades. It's one more indication that the death penalty is on its way out in the United States," Fathi told AFP.

Although New Jersey has not executed anyone since 1963, it still has eight people on death row and came close to executing a prisoner two years ago, said Joshua Rubenstein, northeast regional director of Amnesty International USA.

It was one of the states that reinstalled the death penalty after the US Supreme Court overturned an earlier ban in 1976, but it has observed a freeze on executions since 2005 along with nearly two dozen other states.

"This vote marks a new chapter in our nation's 30-year experiment with capital punishment," Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said before the vote.

"New Jersey lawmakers are demonstrating sound judgment in abandoning capital punishment after learning of its costs, the pain it causes victims' families, and the risks the death penalty poses to innocent lives," he said.

Rubenstein said there was no question that the vote would help raise the issue in the US public consciousness at a time that the Supreme Court is already deliberating on the constitutionality of lethal injections.

The top US court began considering on September 25 whether the measure -- the most common method of capital punishment in the United States -- infringes the US constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."

Although one convict was executed the same day the Supreme Court announced its review, no other executions have taken place since then as states have adopted unofficial moratoriums pending a court ruling.

"We have now gone nationwide nearly three months with no executions," said Fathi. "This is the first time that's happened in about 25 years," he said.

"I think people will start to see that we can live without the death penalty and think the New Jersey abolition will be one more brick in that wall."

Both he and Rubenstein said they believed the days of the death penalty -- currently legal in 37 US states -- were numbered.

"Americans are increasingly understanding that we as a nation are isolated within the democratic community of nations when it comes to the death penalty," said Rubenstein.

"Ninety percent of judicial executions in the world today take place in countries like China, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia. Why should New Jersey, or Texas or Massachusetts be on that list?"

But for the father of Megan Kanka, who was viciously attacked and murdered in 1994 at age seven and whose killer is one of the eight men on New Jersey's death row, a repeal is a slap in the face.

"My daughter was raped, she was strangled, she was suffocated. She was also raped post-mortem and her body was dumped in a nearby park," Richard Kanka said, appealing to lawmakers to keep the death penalty on the books.

An opinion poll published this week showed New Jersey voters deeply divided on the issue, largely opposing lifting the death penalty outright and backing execution for the most violent murders.

But the study, by Quinnipiac University, also showed a majority preferred to see murderers given life sentences without parole rather than being executed.

Countries that still use the death penalty:

* Afghanistan
* Antigua and Barbuda
* Bahamas
* Bahrain
* Bangladesh
* Barbados
* Belarus
* Belize
* Botswana
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Chad
* China (People's Republic)
* Comoros
* Congo (Democratic Republic)
* Cuba
* Dominica
* Egypt
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Ethiopia
* Gabon
* Ghana
* Guatemala
* Guinea
* Guyana
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Iraq
* Jamaica
* Japan
* Jordan
* Kazakhstan
* Korea, North
* Korea, South
* Kuwait
* Kyrgyzstan
* Laos
* Lebanon
* Lesotho
* Libya
* Malawi
* Malaysia
* Mongolia
* Nigeria
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Palestinian Authority
* Qatar
* Rwanda
* St. Kitts and Nevis
* St. Lucia
* St. Vincent and the Grenadines
* Saudi Arabia
* Sierra Leone
* Singapore
* Somalia
* Sudan
* Swaziland
* Syria
* Taiwan
* Tajikistan
* Tanzania
* Thailand
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Uganda
* United Arab Emirates
* United States
* Uzbekistan
* Vietnam
* Yemen
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

NJ Senate approves abolishing death penalty

by Joe Donohue
The Star-Ledger
December 10, 2007

The state Senate this afternoon approved making New Jersey the first state in 40 years to abolish the death penalty.

The Senate voted 21-16 to approve the bill slated for a Thursday vote by the state Assembly, after the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee voted 5-1 in favor of it today.

The measure would repeal the death penalty and replace it with mandatory life in prison without possibility of parole. If approved by the full Assembly, the bill goes to Gov. Jon Corzine, who has called the change a move in the "right direction." Corzine has until the lame duck legislative session ends on Jan. 8 to sign the bill.

New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982 and has eight men on death row, but hasn't executed anyone since 1963. It would become the first state to abolish its death penalty by legislative action since 1965, when both Iowa and West Virginia repealed their capital punishment statutes.

At today's 2 1/2-hour Assembly hearing, 21 people testified on the repeal, including Sharon Hazard-Johnson, whose parents were murdered in Pleasantville. She said the problem is not with the death penalty, it's lack of enforcement.

"Enforce the law, that's all you have to do," she said. "It's easy to come out and say don't execute."

Revisiting Violent Past on Eve of New Jersey Death Penalty Vote

By JEREMY W. PETERS
The New York Times
December 7, 2007

TRENTON, Dec. 7 ? So remorseless was Ambrose A. Harris for raping and shooting a young Pennsylvania woman in the back of the head that he mockingly dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief as the victim?s father sobbed on the witness stand.

In 1996, a Superior Court jury sentenced Mr. Harris to die for that crime, but not before he could kill again. As he awaited the outcome of an appeal, he flattened another death row inmate?s skull by climbing on top of a stool and jumping down on the man?s head over and over until he was sure the job was finished.

For many, there is little question that Mr. Harris, 55, represents the worst that human nature is capable of ? an impenitent killer who seemed to revel in the pain he inflicted.

Yet like so many violent criminals, Mr. Harris is the product of a turbulent upbringing. According to court testimony, his mother, recalling once to a social worker how she never wanted children, said that the doctor who delivered Ambrose had to throw water in her face to force her to push during labor.

When Mr. Harris was a boy of 12 growing up in Trenton, he was committed to a state mental hospital for more than a year. Doctors noted then that he was ?violent and homicidal,? with an I.Q. of only 78.

As the New Jersey Legislature prepares to decide this week whether to become the first state to repeal the death penalty since the United States Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in 1976, Mr. Harris?s case renews focus on issues of justice and morality in the debate over capital punishment.

When advocates of capital punishment in New Jersey, where no one has been executed since 1963, make their case, they often point to Mr. Harris as the type of a killer whose life would be spared if the death penalty were eliminated.

But opponents of executions contend that cases like Mr. Harris?s show that questions about good and evil and life and death are too complex to be settled by a judge or a jury.

?This is God?s domain,? said Sister Elizabeth Gnam, who has counseled prisoners for 19 years at the New Jersey State Prison here, where the state?s death row is housed. ?They?re human beings. And because they were given the gift of life, I don?t feel it?s our responsibility or even our right to judge that life is over for them.?

Mr. Harris is hardly the only inmate on New Jersey?s death row with mental and physical scars from childhood.

Lawyers for Jesse Timmendequas, whose rape and murder of Megan Kanka, 7, led to Megan?s Law, which requires community notification when a convicted sex offender moves into an area, said that abuse at the hands of Mr. Timmendequas?s mother started in the womb. She drank so much during pregnancy that Mr. Timmendequas was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Life did not get much better after that. His father later beat and raped him, lawyers said.

Brian P. Wakefield, who killed an elderly couple in 2001 while robbing their home, started a life of crime early. According to testimony at his trial, his mother taught her children how to shoplift. And physical abuse was meted out by Mr. Wakefield?s drug-addicted father, who beat his son with an extension cord.

Of all the arguments against capital punishment ? that too many innocent people have been exonerated, that it is costly and ineffective, that it is biased against minorities and the poor ? the argument that even the most vile killers deserve some pity because they are human is the hardest to sell.

?I don?t try to make that argument,? said Senator Raymond J. Lesniak, Democrat of Union County and a sponsor of the bill to abolish capital punishment in New Jersey. ?It?s tough because passions run really high when you have very heinous, horrible acts.?

Death penalty proponents say they believe that examples of crimes like Mr. Harris?s and Mr. Timmendequas?s are some of their most persuasive arguments. ?If you asked the question, Does somebody who rapes and murders a kid, and then taunts the family at trial, deserve to die?, my guess is you?d find about 90 percent of the citizens of New Jersey would say yes,? said Robert Blecker, a law professor at New York Law School who has argued for keeping New Jersey?s death penalty in place.

On the morning of Dec. 17, 1992, Mr. Harris went looking for a car to use in a robbery. It was raining, and according to testimony at his trial, he did not want to ride his bike. So he carjacked a red Toyota belonging to Kristin Huggins, 22, who had driven to Trenton to paint a mural at the Trenton Club, a private social club a few blocks from the State Capitol.

He forced Ms. Huggins into the trunk, letting her out only to rape her and then shoot her. He dumped her body in a shallow grave under a bridge.

Despite all the publicity that has surrounded the case, the Huggins family has remained private, saying little publicly about the murder or what punishment they think Mr. Harris deserves. Reached by telephone, Ms. Huggins?s brother, James, said that he supported the death penalty but declined to say anything about Mr. Harris.

Mr. Harris had a violent past. Medical records indicate that he had scars all over his body at a young age, the result of abuse and neglect by his mother, Mattie Williams, who he complained beat him. Ms. Williams herself spent time in prison for murder. When he was 4, he was struck by a car while he walked by himself to his grandparents? home. His mother later told a social worker that she had been unaware that a 4-year-old should not walk down the street alone, according to court testimony. Ms. Williams died in 2003.

The Department of Corrections denied a request from The New York Times to interview Mr. Harris from death row. Several attempts to interview him by telephone were unsuccessful.

By the time Mr. Harris was released from a state mental hospital at age 13, doctors had classified him as mentally retarded. A ?certificate of insanity? signed by a doctor in 1964 described him as ?a mental defective.?

From 1972, when he was 20, to 1992, when he murdered Ms. Huggins, he spent almost all of his time in prison for robbery and burglary convictions. His life on death row is hardly charmed, but it is more of a life than some would like to see him have.

The New Jersey State Prison authorities classify him as ?noncongregate,? which means he is not allowed any contact with other prisoners. He eats alone in his tiny cell. When he is permitted recreation time, it is alone in a small, fenced-off area of a prison courtyard.

To allow Mr. Harris to mingle with other prisoners could have deadly consequences, as the state learned in 1999. One day when death row inmates were briefly moved to a recreation pen while their cells were being fumigated, Mr. Harris lunged at another death row inmate, Robert Simon, ultimately stomping him to death as stunned corrections officers scrambled to intervene.

Though his appeals go on, it seems that Mr. Harris will probably spend the rest of his days behind bars, even if the state?s death penalty is repealed. Last week, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld his sentence.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company