Gov. Jon Corzine signed historic legislation Monday abolishing the state’s death penalty, putting New Jersey into the vanguard of the fight against capital punishment.

New Jersey becomes, this way, the first state to remove the death penalty from the books since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated it in 1976. The law has not been applied, though, since 1963, when Ralph J. Hudson was convicted to death by electrocution for stabbing his wife to death in the Atlantic City restaurant where she worked as a waitress.

"Today New Jersey is truly evolving. Society must determine if its endorsement of violence begets violence and undermines the sanctity of life. ... I answer yes, and therefore I believe we must evolve to ending that endorsement," Corzine told about 200 people packed into his outer office in the Statehouse for the bill-signing ceremony, according to The Star-Ledger.

Corzine also said on Sunday night that he had signed an executive order commuting the death sentences of all eight members of the Capital Sentence Unit to life in prison without parole.

The bill was introduced in November after a state commission concluded capital punishment was an ineffective deterrent to crime. The state Assembly approved the measure Thursday by a 44-36 vote after the Senate had given its approval with a 21-16 vote.

Republicans did not welcome the news with enthusiasm.

"For Christmas, the Democrats have given murderers the 'gift' of life, and, perhaps someday, freedom, and to those who have lost loved ones, the 'gift' of enduring pain. I consider it abominable that the governor would repeal the death penalty for cold-blooded killers," said Assemblyman Alex DeCroce, who leads the Republicans in the Assembly.

With Corzine’s signature, New Jersey joins 13 states and the District of Columbia, which do not use execution as a mean of punishment, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.