This Day in History: 1958-07-30
Governor Robert Meyner announced that he was denying requests that he either grant a stay of execution or a commutation of the death sentence against Edger H. Smith of Mahwah for the murder of Victoria Zielinski of Wyckoff Ave. Ramsey. Meyner had met that afternoon with the members of the State Board of Parole to hear arguments by Smith’s lawyer John E. Selzer of Hackensack. Selzer had asked for the stay because of what he described as new evidence in the case. Meyner had previously denied a general stay of all executions pending the fate of a bill in the legislature abolishing the death penalty. Smith had been sentenced for a second time after the Supreme Court had upheld the original conviction. (Bristow)