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Life after death: a verdict in the first post-abolition but formerly capital trial in Jersey

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

When New Jersey abolished the death penalty in late 2007 there were a fair number of cases lined up for trial in that state’s version of the death belt. Today, in the first of those trials to reach verdict, a jury convicted James Vaughn. Under the Garden State’s sentencing law Vaughn faces a minimum of thirty years in prison withot parole and, more likely, the remainder of his life in prison. As Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi notes prophetically, “He’ll never see the light of day again.” Vaughn, a truck driver was convicted for shooting Maxine McCaden fatally in the head in July 2003 and injuring her daughter, Ruth Bernadette Kennedy. The Star Ledger notes that “[j]urors said there were credibility issues on both sides but the time-line set out by an eyewitness neighbor was key to their decision...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on March 13, 2008 (boomark / email).