At a press conference in November at which he formally announced four counts of first-degree murder against a defendant accused of killing his brother, sister-in-law, and their two young children, the Monmouth County prosecutor said that this is the “most brutal” crime he’s seen since he became county prosecutor in 2012, and further stated that he would have sought the death penalty if it were possible. “I only enforce the law, I don’t make it,” he explained. “But if that was a possible sentence in the state of New Jersey, I would have certified this case as a Capital case.”
Of course, it is universally known that the New Jersey Legislature abolished the death penalty in this state in 2007. While reasonable minds can differ on whether that should still be the case, it is beyond peradventure that there is currently no death penalty in New Jersey, and the defendant to whom the prosecutor referred could not possibly be subject to it.
