New Jersey State Prison housed the death chamber, and the first death by electrocution occurred on December 11, 1907. In 1999 death row inmate Robert "Mudman" Simon, who was convicted of killing a police officer, died during a fight. The lethal injection chamber at the prison was never used, and the New Jersey Governor repealed the death penalty in December 2007. Therefore, the final execution to take place at the prison was a January 22, 1963 electrocution. The former lethal injection room now serves as an office. New Jersey State Prison The New Jersey State Prison (NJSP), formerly known as Trenton State Prison, is
Capital punishment in New Jersey enacted. The Supreme Court ruled in 1976 in "Gregg v. Georgia" that revised statutes were constitutional, though New Jersey did not pass revised legislation until 1982 which included anyone who "purposely or knowingly causes death" or someone who "contracts for the murder". Under the 1982 statute, there were 228 capital trials. Of the 60 cases in which juries returned a verdict for capital punishment, 57 were overturned and eight inmates remained on death row (in some cases an overturned death sentence results in a sentencing retrial, and another death sentence). A series of bills was introduced in the Assembly in