SENATE, No. 894
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
INTRODUCED MARCH 7, 1996
By Senators CASEY and MATHEUSSEN
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 competent refuses any further appeal of a sentence of death imposed on him and requests that the sentence be carried out, the Office of the Public Defender shall take no further appeals and requests that the death sentence be carried out, the Public Defender's Office could not take further appeals on his behalf.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would prohibit the Office of the Public Defender from taking further appeals in any death penalty case over the objection of the defendant. The bill provides that where the defendant himself refuses further appeals and requests that the death sentence be carried, the Public Defender's Office could not take further appeals on his behalf.
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.