TRENTON New Jersey lawmakers voted Monday to suspend executions while a task force studies the fairness and costs of imposing the death penalty. The measure now heads to Gov. Richard J. Codey for his signature. Codey has indicated he will sign it. A 13-member study commission will have until November to report on whether the death penalty is fairly imposed and whether alternatives would ensure public safety and address the needs of victims’ families. There are 10 prisoners on New Jersey’s death row. While capital punishment was reinstated in the state in 1982, the last execution here took place in 1963. The Assembly passed the measure Monday, 55-21, with two abstentions. The Senate approved it 30-6 last month. Celeste Fitzgerald, director of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said capital punishment is meted out unfairly, wastes money and risks executing the innocent. Not everyone was pleased with the vote. ``As a victim survivor of both of my parents, Richard and Shirley Hazard, who suffered cruel and unusual murders in their own home by thug punk Brian P. Wakefield, who is currently on death row, my personal feelings are that Wakefield murdered my parents and the state is slowly murdering me and my siblings,’’ said Sharon Hazard Johnson. ``But I am not saying get rid of the death penalty because it is not working. I am saying use it when it fits the crime.’’ New Jersey would be the third state behind Illinois and Maryland to suspend executions, but the first to do so through legislation. The others were done by executive order. Maryland has since lifted its suspension. A similar bill empowering a panel to study the death penalty but not stopping executions was vetoed two years ago by then-Gov. James E. McGreevey, who said the panel was unlikely to provide new information. New Jersey lawmakers are not alone in considering a study of executions. Concerned about wrongful convictions and whether the poor and minorities are more likely to receive the death penalty, at least 12 other states have appointed study commissions. Thirty-eight states allow people to be sentenced to death.