New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a long time sup­port­er of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, called for New York’s leg­is­la­ture to step back and more thor­ough­ly review the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem, which has not result­ed in any exe­cu­tions and has cost the state more than $170 mil­lion in the last decade. Speaker Silver said that his cham­ber would not fol­low the lead of the state Senate, which passed an amend­ment to fix the state’s death penal­ty law with­out hear­ings. ​“After 10 years of hav­ing the death penal­ty, and very lim­it­ed … attempts to use it and enforce it, I think we should look at the whole thing.” Silver said. Senator Seymour Lachman, a Democrat from Brooklyn who is not opposed to the death penal­ty, said: ​“Why are we rush­ing? There have been no pub­lic hear­ings, there has been inad­e­quate pub­lic review, the [dis­trict attor­neys] of New York have not been involved, the major reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions of the state are opposed to this, and yet we haven’t brought them into the process.” Marguerite Marsh of Guilderland, NY, whose daugh­ter was mur­dered in the late 1990s, does not want to see her daugh­ter’s killer exe­cut­ed. She said ​“I hope they take their time and real­ly debate this.…I feel more peace­ful about it know­ing I did­n’t put him to death.” (Albany Times Union, Sept. 15, 2004). See New Voices..

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