As the New Jersey Legislature prepares to take up a measure next fall that would abolish the death penalty in the state, a small group of people came together at Beth El Synagogue in East Windsor on June 14 to ponder the issue.

One member of the group brought a profoundly personal perspective to the roundtable discussion: Lorry Post, a retired legal-services attorney from Mount Laurel whose 29-year-old daughter, Lisa Price, was murdered 19 years ago.

Another brought a deeply felt professional view: Rabbi Robert Scheinberg of United Synagogue of Hoboken, one of two clergy members who served on the 13-member New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission that was convened by the legislature in the summer of 2006. This past January, with only one dissenting vote, the commission issued a 133-page report calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

The Trenton-based grassroots coalition New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty partnered with Beth El in presenting the program. As the discussion began, Abraham Bonowitz of Mount Holly, field manager for the 12,000-member organization, ticked off some facts about the death penalty in the state.

Currently, eight convicted criminals are sitting on New Jersey's death row, Bonowitz said. But the state has refrained from executing anyone since 1963. The proposed legislation that is expected to make its way to the floor of the state Senate next November calls for a formal end to the death penalty and the substitution of a sentence of life imprisonment in a maximum security prison with no possibility of parole — a measure Bonowitz said he is "pretty confident" will pass.

He had once favored the death penalty, Bonowitz told the group, but as he studied it, he came to understand that it is a failed system.

"That changed my head," he said. "What changed my heart was knowing people who have been wrongly imprisoned, seeing the collateral damage of the death penalty, and seeing how it creates more pain and more victims."

Rabbi Jay Kornsgold of Beth El welcomed the opportunity to host the program. "It's an issue I care deeply about and have thought about for a long time," he said. "The congregation cares deeply about social action and social justice, so it was a perfect opportunity when we were asked to do this. The fact that Rabbi Scheinberg is able to join us — to be able to get the perspective of a rabbi who served on the commission, is a very unique thing…."

Post, founder and former executive director of New Jerseyans for a Death Penalty Moratorium and co-facilitator of the NJ branch of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation, said in an interview that he speaks out against the death penalty to honor the memory of his daughter. She was stabbed to death by her husband, who will be released from prison next year after serving a 20-year sentence.

"It's justice — a feeling of justice and compassion," Post said. "I think our Judeo-Christian heritage calls for compassion and love and not for killing people. There's too much killing going on. Looking at both great faiths, I can't figure either one being in favor of the death penalty."

Scheinberg told New Jersey Jewish News that he first became involved in the issue when he taught a course about Jewish perspectives on capital punishment. "[E]specially in rabbinic literature, there is such a strict standard of evidence and the necessity of there being one standard of justice for everyone," he said. "Based on principles like that, I became involved in the issue."

His service on the study commission only increased his passion about the issue, Scheinberg added. "It's been especially emotionally challenging and wrenching. I think it's one of the more important things I've done as a rabbi."

During the program, Scheinberg led some Jewish text study on the issue and spoke about his experiences on the commission.

"What kind of testimony did we hear? Many exonerated people testified who had been released from death row," he said. "It's a reminder that every legal system is going to be fallible.

"The Torah assumes that the death penalty functions as a deterrent," Scheinberg said. "Well, does it? It's an age-old problem. The commission held that if the death penalty deterred crime, that relationship would be a robust relationship, and this is just not so. We can't even tell if the death penalty reduces the rate of murder or increases it."

One of his most painful moments on the commission came when he learned about inequities in the imposition of the death penalty in the state, Scheinberg said.

"So what is it that determines who gets the death penalty in New Jersey? Geography," he said. Individuals convicted of capital crimes in central and southern Jersey are much more likely to be sentenced to death, he said, adding that this statistic "creates an overall sense of capriciousness."

Scheinberg said that most of the surviving family members who testified before the commission argued strongly against the death penalty, saying that it increased the notoriety about the murder of their loved ones, forestalled closure, and compounded their pain.

"I do believe that New Jersey will have a more just criminal justice system when the death penalty is removed," he said. "I hope the report will continue to have national influence. It was a tremendous privilege for me to bring a specifically Jewish voice to those discussions."