New York Takes Historic Step Towards Ending the Death Penalty

The Codes Committee of the New York Assembly has vot­ed 11 – 7 against con­sid­er­ing leg­is­la­tion to re-instate the death penal­ty in New York, a deci­sion that like­ly ends such efforts dur­ing this leg­isla­tive term. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has recent­ly voiced con­cerns about the death penal­ty and has shift­ed his stance away from sup­port­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. New York’s cur­rent death penal­ty law was passed in 1995 but declared invalid by a rul­ing from the state’s high­est court last year. While the recent death penal­ty was in place in New York, no exe­cu­tions were car­ried out. (Associated Press, April 12, 2005). The Committee vote came after five days of hear­ings in New York City and Albany at which almost all the speak­ers raised seri­ous prob­lems about New York’s statute and the death penal­ty gen­er­al­ly. See DPIC’s Web page on New York’s death penal­ty. See also, Recent Legislative Activity.