N.J. lawmakers vote to abolish death penalty
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New Jersey lawmakers have voted to abolish the death penalty in the state, sending the governor a bill he has already said he will sign. The measure will make New Jersey the first state in more than 40 years to outlaw capital punishment.
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A panel of New Jersey lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday that would create civil unions giving equal rights to gay and lesbian couple, shunning a push to call those partnerships "marriage."
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The leader of a pro-family group applauded to the unanimous decision by a California jury on Monday to give convicted killer Scott Peterson the death penalty for the murder of his wife Laci and unborn son Conner.
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The majority of Americans support the death penalty but nearly 40 percent think their moral beliefs would disqualify them from serving on a jury in a capital trial, a poll showed on Saturday.
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After years of false starts, state lawmakers voted Tuesday evening to reduce the steep mandatory prison sentences given to people convicted of drug crimes in New York State
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Voters will have the final say on a tough new law that bans almost all abortions in South Dakota.
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A cross-party group of Japanese MPs drafts a bill proposing a four-year moratorium on the death penalty.
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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
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New Jersey lawmakers approved the stateâs s most sweeping measures yet in its efforts to be a leader in stem-cell research.
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Under pressure from New Jersey's highest court to offer marriage or its equivalent to gay couples, lawmakers gathered on Thursday to vote on whether to create civil unions.
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Polish lawmakers narrowly voted against reintroducing the death penalty Friday, seven years after abolishing it to meet European human rights standards.
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A day after New Jersey banned executions, newly released figures show that capital punishment dropped this year to a 13-year low.
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Stop executions for a while and perhaps they can be stopped forever. That calculation has been part of the strategy of capital punishment opponents for decades.
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The House of Representatives voted  overwhelmingly on Wednesday to repeal a law banning most  handguns in Washington D.C., with lawmakers declaring that the  U.S. capital would be safer with more guns and fewer gun laws.
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New Jersey on Monday became the first state in more than three decades to abolish the death penalty after a state commission ruled the punishment is "inconsistent with evolving standards of decency."
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The Senate used a voice vote Thursday to denounce the massacre of hundreds at a Russian school and to express its condolences to that nation's people.
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Lethal injection, when used for the first time in Texas nearly 22 years ago, was touted as a more humane way to execute prisoners than the firing squad, hanging, the gas chamber or even the electric chair. Today, though, death penalty opponents are challenging that notion based on the Constitution's Eighth Amendment, which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."