NY: Democrats Say Death Penalty Is Likely to Fail

Top Democrats in the State Assembly said on Monday that they expect a bill to reinstitute the death penalty in New York State to fail when it gets to a legislative committee for a vote next week. Such a vote could not only ensure that capital punishment remains in limbo in New York for the rest of 2005, but also signal resistance among the sizable Democratic majority in the Assembly that could doom longer-term efforts to restore the death penalty in the state. The death penalty bill would amend New York's law to correct a central provision, about jury instructions in capital cases, that a divided Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional last June. The death penalty has been in limbo since then. On March 9, the Republican-led Senate voted 37 to 22 in favor of fixing the law to reinstitute the death penalty, and Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, favors the legislation, leaving the future of the law this year in the hands of Assembly members. Assembly Democrats met twice on Monday to discuss briefly the new report on the death penalty hearings. Several lawmakers said yesterday evening that instead of the death penalty, they preferred the option of life without parole, which was not available a decade ago when the Democratic-led Assembly backed death penalty legislation. [more]