State v. Laws

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Jacobs, J.

The defendants were convicted of murder in the first degree and were sentenced to death. They appealed to this Court and after full consideration we found that their guilt was firmly established in a fair trial free from prejudicial error, apart from a single error which bore not. on guilt but on the death sentences alone. 50 N. J. 159, 187 *496(1967). At oral argument, the State, which undoubtedly could have waived the death penalty before or at trial (In re Waiver of Death Penalty, 45 N. J. 501 (1965)), took the position that, rather than a…