the state, with a commission to determine that the system is efficient and equitable. The measure was passed by the legislature on January 10, 2006. Governor of New Jersey Richard Codey signed the measure into law on January 12. New Jersey became the first state to pass such a moratorium legislatively, rather than by executive order. Although New Jersey reinstated the death penalty in 1982, the state has not executed anyone since 1963. The abolition vote was recommended by a report from the New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission. On December 17, 2007, following the passage of an abolition bill that passed in the General Assembly by a 44–36 margin, Governor Jon Corzine signed the bill, making New Jersey the 14th state without a death penalty and the first state to abolish it by legislative action rather than by judicial decision since Gregg v. Georgia. All eight inmates on death row had their sentences subsequently commuted to life in prison without parole by Governor Corzine. The list included Jesse Timmendequas, whose rape and murder of his 7-year-old neighbor, Megan Kanka, led to the creation of Megan's Law. Other inmates who had been on New Jersey's death row at the time of abolition were John Martini, who kidnapped and killed a Bergen County businessman, and Brian Wakefield, who beat and stabbed an Atlantic City couple and set their bodies on fire. See also List of people executed in New Jersey Crime in New Jersey Law of New Jersey References New Jersey New Jersey law