Capital punishment in New York

Sing Sing correctional facility was where the execution chamber for New York was located prior to the 1972 abolition.

Capital punishment was outlawed in the State of New York after the New York Court of Appeals (the highest court in the state) declared it was not allowed under the state's constitution in 2004.[1] However certain crimes occurring in the state that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government are subject to the federal death penalty.[2][3][4]

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Furman v. Georgia declared existing capital punishment statutes unconstitutional, abolishing the practice of capital punishment in the United States. In 1976, the same court's ruling in Gregg v. Georgia allowed states to reinstate the death penalty. In 1995, Governor George Pataki signed a new statute into law which returned the death penalty in New York by authorizing lethal injection for execution.

Prior to Furman v. Georgia, New York was the first state to adopt the electric chair as a method of execution, which replaced hanging. The last New York execution during that time had occurred in 1963, when Eddie Lee Mays was electrocuted at Sing Sing prison. There were no executions in New York after the reinstatement of the death penalty[5] before it was abolished again on June 24, 2004, when the state's highest court ruled in People v. LaValle that the state's death penalty statute violated the state constitution.[6] New York has had no valid statute relating to capital punishment since then.

Subsequent legislative attempts at fixing or replacing the statute have failed,[7] and in July 2008 Governor David Paterson issued an executive order disestablishing New York's death row.[3] Legislative efforts to amend the statute have failed, and death sentences are no longer sought at the state level.

  1. ^ Glaberson, William (June 25, 2004). "4-3 Ruling Effectively Halts Death Penalty in New York". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Rob Gallagher (October 25, 2005). "New York Executions". Archived from the original on May 28, 2008. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  3. ^ a b Scott, Brendan (July 24, 2008). "GOV PULLS SWITCH ON DEATH CELL". New York Post. Archived from the original on March 13, 2009. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  4. ^ Powell, Michael (April 13, 2005). "In N.Y., Lawmakers Vote Not to Reinstate Capital Punishment". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 11, 2008.
  5. ^ Dao, James (March 8, 1995). "Death Penalty in New York Reinstated After 18 Years; Pataki Sees Justice Served". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Glaberson, William (June 25, 2004). "4-3 Ruling Effectively Halts Death Penalty in New York". The New York Times. Retrieved December 31, 2009. New York State's highest court ruled yesterday that a central provision of the state's capital punishment law violated the State Constitution. Lawyers said the ruling would probably spare the lives of the four men now on death row and effectively suspend the death penalty in New York.
  7. ^ Powell, Michael (April 13, 2005). "In N.Y., Lawmakers Vote Not to Reinstate Capital Punishment". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 31, 2009. NEW YORK, April 12 -- New York's death penalty is no more. A legislative committee tossed out a bill Tuesday aimed at reinstating the state's death penalty, which a court had suspended last year. It was an extraordinary bit of drama, not least because a top Democrat who once strongly supported capital punishment led the fight to end it.