New Jersey should abolish its death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, according to a special commission’s report sent Tuesday to Gov. Jon S. Corzine and legislators. The report, obtained by The Associated Press, found no compelling evidence that New Jersey’s death penalty, which has not been used in more than four decades, serves any purpose. It also found the death penalty costs taxpayers more than paying for prisoners to serve life terms without parole. “There is increasing evidence that the death penalty is inconsistent with evolving standards of decency,” the report states. Corzine, a Democrat, opposes the death penalty. He is the first elected New Jersey governor to oppose it since Brendan Byrne, who left office in January 1982. If lawmakers and Corzine implement the commission’s recommendation, New Jersey would become the 13th state without a death penalty. New Jersey was the third state to impose a death penalty moratorium to study the issue, behind Maryland and Illinois. Maureen Kanka, whose 7-year-old daughter, Megan, was murdered in 1994 by a man now on New Jersey’s death row, alleged the panel was stacked with death penalty opponents. “I just think it’s a shame that people are going to have to pay year after year to keep to keep these people in prison,” said Kanka, who led a national movement after her daughter’s murder for “Megan’s laws,” which require community notification of released sex offenders. The findings, authored by a 13-member commission created in late 2005 by the Legislature, found abolishing the death penalty would eliminate the danger of executing an innocent person and the risk of the punishment being unfairly implemented.