Brutal killer Paul Caneiro gets to live because of this governor

“You are no longer Paul Caneiro,” Monmouth County Judge Marc Lemieux said. “You are a quadruple murderer who slaughtered innocent children. That is your identity, that is the identity you will carry for the remainder of your life behind prison walls.”

The innocent children he spoke of were Jesse 11, and Sophia, 8, the nephew and niece of the murderer. He also killed their father and mother, his own brother and sister-in-law. It was one of the most shocking and most brutal murder scenes in Monmouth County history.

Lemieux went on to sentence Caneiro, who still won’t own up to what he did despite a mountain of evidence, to four life sentences. He will never be free.

But is this justice?

He stabbed his own 8-year-old niece repeatedly as she lay on the floor, desperately trying to live, fighting him off, receiving knife wounds all over her body. The fear and confusion she must have felt is beyond sickening. The judge pointed out at sentencing that the knife went into her brain.

“You did that,” he said, glaring at Caneiro.

Sure, he’ll never walk free. But he’ll live. And why should he?

Ultimately, the man who guaranteed he could savagely kill off his own family and get to live out his life is former Gov. Jon Corzine. A report by the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission came out in 2007.

It concluded that capital punishment was not a deterrent. It also brought up the small chance of innocent people being put to death and that it costs taxpayers more than keeping an inmate alive.

First of all, the reason it costs more is that we seem to allow endless appeals instead of limiting them and carrying out executions on a reasonable timeline. And funny how the possibility of one being wrongly convicted doesn’t get bleeding hearts weepy when it comes to years of making an innocent man live inside a cage.

They seem to keep that emotional manipulation in their back pocket, only as regards the death penalty, but not stripping an innocent man of his future and dignity and freedom. Well played!

Finally, this business of not serving as a deterrent? Come on. Look at the rate of recidivism for lesser crimes not punishable by death. Incarceration clearly isn’t much of a deterrent either, then, is it? Should we not lock up criminals?

Nevertheless, the Democratic-led Legislature bought it and in a 21-16 vote in the Senate and a 44-36 vote in the Assembly, they sent an abolishment bill to Corzine’s desk and he signed it.

The majority of New Jerseyans opposed abolishing the death penalty and Corzine did it anyway.

It spared the lives of eight men on death row. One of them was the notorious murderer and rapist Jesse Timmendequas. He was the released sex offender who had gone on to rape and kill 7-year-old Megan Kanka.

Another was Brian Wakefield, who invaded an Atlantic City couple's home, beat and stabbed them to death, setting their bodies on fire, and then enjoyed a spending spree with their credit cards.

Now Paul Caneiro gets to live, too. Go ahead and tell me this is justice. Tell me he should live because we save money. Tell me it wouldn't be a deterrent. Just forgive me if I don’t hear you over Sophia’s screams.