N.Y. Assembly Debating Fate of State Death Penalty

Ten years ago, George E. Pataki (R) rode the death penalty issue to the governor's mansion, defeating Gov. Mario M. Cuomo (D). Soon after, Pataki and the legislature reinstated the penalty by wide margins.  Last June, however, New York's highest court struck down the law on what amounted to a technicality. Pataki supported a quick legislative fix, but the Democratic-controlled assembly balked. Now Republican and Democratic leaders alike acknowledge that the law is likely to die. Many legislators, not least several who supported the death penalty in 1995, say much has changed. National attention has fixed on wrongful convictions, as several dozen death row inmates have been freed after evidence -- often DNA -- proved their innocence. In Illinois in 2003, then-Gov. George Ryan (R) commuted the death sentences of 167 inmates after 13 inmates were found to have been wrongly convicted. Last week, the Kansas Supreme Court struck down that state's death penalty law, stating that it essentially forced juries -- when all evidence is equal -- to choose the death penalty instead of life in prison. (The view is very different at the federal level, where the Clinton and Bush administrations have expanded the potential use of the death penalty for certain drug and terrorism crimes, as well as for homicide.) Public perceptions have changed, too. In the late 1980s, crack cocaine fueled a fast-running plague of homicides and brutal robberies. Urban society seemed frayed and incapable of safeguarding its citizenry. Now crime rates have been falling for a decade, and public clamor for the death penalty has become muted. A recent poll found that 53 percent of New Yorkers favor life sentences rather than the death penalty. [more]