More from New Jersey: As posted below, the New Jersey Legislature has promised to vote on a proposal to abolish the state's death penalty before adjourning on January 8. An article by Lynda Cohen in today's Atlantic City Press discusses how Sharon Hazard-Johnson, whose parents were murdered during a 2001 robbery feels about this. Richard and Shirley Hazard were beaten and stabbed to death by Brian Wakefield, who is on death row waiting for the legislature to let him off the hook.

Texas is often portrayed as the most likely state for a murderer to receive a death sentence, but according to an investigation by the Dallas Morning News, 120 murderers have received the lightest sentence, probation, over the past eight years. An Associated Press story released Sunday, reports that many of the killers given probation are habitual criminals and that at least three had prior murder convictions.