[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 1601

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 29, 1996

By Assemblymen GEIST, CARROLL, Bucco, Assemblywoman Myers, Assemblymen O’Toole, Cottrell, Wolfe, Holzapfel and Greenwald

An Act concerning appeals in death penalty cases and supplementing chapter 11 of Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. Except as provided in subsection e. of N.J.S.2C:11-3, where a defendant who is adjudicated to be mentally competent¹ knowingly and voluntarily¹ refuses any further appeal of a sentence of death imposed on him ¹, including proportionality review,¹ and requests that the sentence be carried out, the Office of the Public Defender shall take no further appeal in the case on his behalf.

    2. This act shall take effect immediately ¹and shall apply to pending cases¹.

Prohibits Office of the Public Defender from appealing imposition of death penalty in any case where a mentally competent defendant refuses appeals and requests that the death sentence be carried out.