TRENTON — A proposed New Jersey law that would mandate life imprisonment without parole for anyone convicted of murdering a child under the age of 16 has not advanced since its introduction in 2022, despite its focus on two high-profile child murder victims.
The law has been left to die by Trenton Democrats.
Known as “Judy and Nikki’s Law,” the bill would revise current sentencing guidelines to require life without parole for those convicted of murdering a child aged 16 or younger. The bill is named in memory of Judy Cajuste and Nicole Giovanni, both 14-year-old track athletes from Union County who were killed in separate incidents in the mid-2000s.
Judy Cajuste disappeared on January 11, 2006, after track practice at Abraham Clark High School in Roselle. Her body was found days later in Newark’s Weequahic Park. Nicole Giovanni, a freshman at Roselle Catholic High School, was murdered in her sleep by her mother in February 2005. The mother was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Under current state law (N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3), murder carries a minimum penalty of 30 years without parole, with a maximum of life imprisonment. Mandatory life without parole applies only in specific cases, such as the murder of a law enforcement officer or the murder of a child under age 14 during a sexual assault.
The proposed legislation would remove the sexual assault requirement and instead impose mandatory life sentences without parole for any murder of a child 16 or younger, regardless of the circumstances.
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Since its introduction, the bill has not received a committee hearing or vote in the legislature.