NJ lets child-killers live. Deminski says that has to change

Assemblyman Ron Dancer is looking for support for his legislation to reinstate a death penalty in New Jersey — and he certainly has mine.

His bill calls for the death penalty in limited fashion. It would only be for those convicted of killing a child, a police officer, or for those who kill in an act of terrorism. (I'm pretty sure the feds would oversee that last one anyway though.)

Speaking of the federal government, it certainly can seek a death penalty in federal crimes, as can 30 other states in their jurisdictions. In fact, when New Jersey rescinded our death penalty in 2007 under then-Gov. Jon Corzine, we were the first state in decades to do so.

Was it a mistake? Yes, a huge one.

For me the arguments against a death penalty don't hold up. "It's not a deterrent." It deters that particular killer from ever having the opportunity to do it again. "It's too costly because of the endless appeals." Exactly. It's the environment fostered by the anti-death penalty crowd that allowed these endless appeals, then they turn around having created this and use it as a reason to not have a death penalty at all. I believe in a death penalty with a reasonable limited appeals process.

"It's barbaric." Compared to the crime that got the convicted there, it's almost saintly.

When you focus only on certain murder cases as Ron Dancer wants to do, it becomes a no-brainer. Take the case of James Baskerville Jr., which inspired Dancer's latest death penalty push. He's charged with murdering his girlfriend's 2-year-old little boy. After challenging the 2-year-old to a fight telling him to "put his hands up" he proceeded to punch the child to death, authorities say.

I wrote earlier about my disgust that the alleged rapist and killer of a 2-year-old girl — the daughter of a woman he'd been dating for just weeks — will certainly be allowed to live. That girl, Ariana Smyth is seen below. Her family wants harsher charges for her mother, who authorities say didn't seek help for her daughter's terrifying injuries.

If you think a person who could do that to a child deserves to live, there's something wrong with you.

In a Twitter poll over the weekend asking if NJ needs a death penalty for killers of cops and children, an overwhelming 90 percent voted yes.

Last year a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll found 57 percent of New Jerseyans favored a death penalty for specific crimes. It isn't right that someone like Jesse Timmendequas, who raped and murdered a 7-year-old girl, is still alive.

The time to reinstate the death penalty in New Jersey is now. The only caveat is we have to start actually carrying it out.

— Jeff Deminski

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