Timmendequas to Live Long... Maybe Not Prosper

Well, they've done it. NJ is the first state in the union to ban the death penalty since the Supreme Court allowed the States to resume executions in 1976.

So therefore, child rapist/killers like Jesse Timmendquas get to live long, and who knows, maybe prosper. If the NJ Legislature decides to allow them conjugal visits. Which, given the make up of the Legislature, may not be far off.

In actuality, Kid Various is extremely agnostic about the death penalty. It certainly doesn't do anything to deter crime and is extremely involved and expensive to the state. And in NJ, this kind of makes de jure the de facto ban. No one was going to face the needle anytime in the future anyway.

What fascinates Kid Various is that the Dems sense that they are so powerful they can pull something like this off. The death penalty is a hot button issue that stirs passion in its proponents, Republican and Dem alike.

The Dems must have come to the conclusion that they have so many safe seats in the Legislature that they could not be effectively punished for this move. And so, NJ careens further into the off the road, through the guard rail and, Thelma and Lousise-like, into the abyss.