Sodomy law: New Jersey, May 30, 1668
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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe representative assembly of New Jersey, meeting for the first time, made "sodomy" and "buggery" capital offenses. [1]
The wording of the New Jersey sodomy statute was almost identical to the
"Duke's Laws" of New York. As in New England at this time, children under
fourteen and the victims of force were exempted from the death penalty, and were
to be punished according to the court's discretion.
The New Jersey sodomy law was next revised in 1681.
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References
Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay/Lesbian Almanac (NY: Harper & Row, 1983) p. 106.
- ↑ 1668, May 30: New Jersey "sodomy" law; Aaron Leaming and Jacob Spicer, ed .. The Grants, Concessions, and Original Constitutions of the Province of New Jersey (Philadelphia: W. Bradford, 1758), pp. 77, 79.
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