Capital punishment in New York

Capital punishment has not been used in New York State since 1963, when Eddie Mays was electrocuted at Sing Sing Prison. The state was the first to adopt the electric chair as a method of execution, which replaced hanging. The state is third in recorded number of executions since 1608, after Virginia and Texas.^[1] Following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling declaring existing capital punishment statutes unconstitutional in Furman v. Georgia (1972), New York was without a death penalty until 1995, when then-Governor George Pataki signed a new statute into law, which provided for execution by lethal injection. In June 2004, the state's highest court ruled in People v. LaValle that the state's death penalty statute violated the state constitution,^[2] and New York has had an effective moratorium on capital punishment since then. Subsequent legislative attempts at fixing or replacing the statute have failed,^[3] and in 2008 then-Governor David Paterson issued an executive order disestablishing New York's death row.^[4] Legislative efforts to amend the statute have failed, and death sentences are no longer sought at the state level, though certain crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government are subject to the federal death penalty.^[5][6][7]

Temporary abolition

In 1860, the New York Legislature passed a bill which effectively, though unintentionally, abolished capital punishment in the state, by repealing hanging as a method of execution without prescribing an alternative method. The bill was signed by Governor Edwin D. Morgan in April 1860. The New York Court of Appeals ruled the statute unconstitutional. Governor Morgan signed legislation to restore the death penalty in 1861, and again in 1862 to fully repeal the earlier statute.^[8]

Introduction of the electric chair

William Kemmler was the first individual to be executed by electric chair, on August 6, 1890.

In 1886, newly elected New York State governor David B. Hill set up a three-member "New York Commission" to determine a new, more humane system of execution to replace hanging. The commission included the human rights advocate and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry, New York lawyer and politician Matthew Hale, and Buffalo dentist and experimenter Alfred P. Southwick.^[9] Southwick had been developing an idea since the early 1880s of using electric current as a means of capital punishment after hearing about how relatively painlessly and quickly a drunken man died due to grabbing the energized parts on a generator. Southwick had published this proposal first in 1882 and, being a dentist accustomed to performing procedures on subjects in chairs, used the form of a chair in his designs, which became known as the "electric chair".^[10] The commission reviewed ancient and modern forms of execution including lethal injection but finally settled on electrocution in 1888. A bill making electrocution New York State's form of execution passed the legislature and was signed by Governor Hill on June 4, 1888, set to go into effect on January 1, 1889.

The first individual to be executed in the electric chair was William Kemmler, on August 6, 1890. Current was passed through Kemmler for 17 seconds and he was declared dead, but witnesses noticed he was still breathing, and the current was turned back on. From start to finish, the execution took eight minutes. During the execution, blood vessels under the skin ruptured and bled, and some witness reported that Kemmler's body set on fire.

Celebrated cases

New York State has had some high profile death penalty cases. The most famous execution in state history goes back to June, 1953, when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death at Sing Sing for espionage against the United States.

Ruth Snyder was one of the very few women executed at Sing Sing. She was put to death in 1928 for the murder of her husband.

A lesser known but very interesting case dates to January 1936, when serial killer Albert Fish was put to death for the cannibal murder of 10-year-old Grace Budd. At age 65, Fish was the oldest person ever executed at Sing Sing.

In 1901, Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted for the assassination of U.S. President William McKinley.

Restrictions

In 1965, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, a liberal Republican who supported capital punishment, signed legislation which abolished the death penalty except for cases involving the murder of a police officer.^[11]

Furman v. Georgia

In the July 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court declared all existing death penalty statutes across the United States unconstitutional. The moratorium lasted until 1976, when the Court ruled in Gregg v. Georgia that states could resume capital punishment under reworked statutes.

Grasso extradition and execution

On January 11, 1995, convicted killer Thomas J. Grasso, who had been sentenced to death by Oklahoma but was serving a sentence of 20 years to life in New York, was extradited from New York to Oklahoma to face execution.^[12] Grasso was transported to Buffalo Niagara International Airport and flown to Oklahoma. He was executed on March 20, 1995.^[13]

Restoration

In 1995, fulfilling a campaign promise, newly elected Governor George Pataki, a Republican, signed legislation reinstating the death penalty in New York, establishing lethal injection as the method of execution.

Statute declared unconstitutional

On June 24, 2004, the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, held in People v. LaValle that the state's death penalty statute violated the New York Constitution.^[2] Governor Pataki criticized the ruling and promised a quick legislative fix.

Last death sentence commuted

In 2007, the New York Court of Appeals heard arguments in People v. John Taylor, and, in rejecting the arguments of the Queens District Attorney, commuted the sentence to life without parole, leaving New York with an empty death row.

Public hearings

Between December 2004 and February 2005, public hearings were held in Manhattan and Albany. New York Law School Professor and death penalty advocate Robert Blecker advocated strongly in favor of reinstatement, while Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau strongly opposed reinstatement.

Political significance in Manhattan District Attorney elections

In the 2005 Democratic primary for Manhattan District Attorney, incumbent Robert Morgenthau's successful campaign produced television advertisements criticizing opponent Leslie Crocker Snyder, a prosecutor who had stated in her autobiography that in one case, she would have been willing to give a lethal injection to a defendant herself, saying Snyder was "Wrong on the Death Penalty, Wrong for Manhattan".^[14] The New York Times endorsed Snyder but expressed concern about her support for the death penalty.^[15] For the duration of Morgenthau's tenure as Manhattan District Attorney, he never once sought the death penalty in the period it was legal in New York.^[16]

In the 2009 Democratic primary in which Morgenthau did not run, Snyder ran for District Attorney again, against Cyrus Vance, Jr. (who would win) and Richard Aborn. Both opponents strongly opposed the death penalty, and criticized Snyder for her previous comments. Snyder accused Vance and Aborn of taking her comments out of context, and stated that her position on the death penalty had changed due to learning about wrongful convictions. Aborn said he would oppose attempts to restore it, and would "lead the effort against any attempt to revive it".^[17]

Legislative efforts to reinstate the death penalty

In 2005, supporters of the death penalty in the New York Legislature successfully passed a bill restoring New York's death penalty in the Republican-controlled State Senate,^[18][19] but the legislation was voted down by a legislative committee in the Democratic-controlled New York Assembly, and was not enacted into law.^[3]

In 2008, the State Senate again passed legislation that would have established the death penalty for the murder of law enforcement officers,^[20] but the Assembly did not act on the legislation.

Death row disestablished

In 2008, Governor David Paterson, a Democrat, issued an executive order requiring the removal of the state's execution equipment.^[4]

See also

• List of people executed in New York
• Law of New York
• List of wrongful convictions in the United States
• List of exonerated death row inmates
• List of death row inmates in the United States

References

External links

• Videos of hearings
• Timeline of New York's death penalty