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For Immediate Release: Tuesday, April 12th, 2005Contact: Jordan Isenstadt (c) 516.991.3842 (w) 212.490.9535 (f) 212.490.2151 ***PRESS
RELEASE*** State Senator Liz Krueger
Praises Defeat of Death Penalty Bill Albany, NY – State Senator Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) commended the Assembly Codes Committee today for voting against a bill that would have reinstituted the death penalty in New York State. “The death penalty has been proven time and time again to be an ineffective tool to deter crime,” said Senator Krueger. “I am thankful that this committee is keeping New York State on a path to creating a more fair criminal justice system.” Senator Krueger pointed out that the death penalty is a failed model for criminal justice on both the state and national level. “Numerous prisoners on death row have been exonerated, a disproportionate number of death row inmates are minorities and are low-income people without access to qualified attorneys. Life without parole is a more than adequate mechanism to protect the public from even the most heinous criminal,” stated Senator Krueger. Last June, by a ruling of four to three, the New York State Court of Appeals placed a moratorium on the death penalty law because of a provision in the statute that was ruled unconstitutional. The provision, which violates the New York State Constitution’s guarantee to due process, required judges to tell jurors that if, in determining sentencing, they became deadlocked, the judge would impose a sentence that would leave the defendant eligible for parole after 20 to 25 years. This instruction risked coercing jurors to vote for execution to prevent the possibility of defendants from ever being released. The death penalty was reinstated in New York in 1995 when
Governor Pataki made it into a campaign issue in his successful campaign
against former Governor Cuomo. No one
was ever executed under the 1995 death penalty law. Support for the death penalty has diminished in recent years. The latest polls show that only 34% of New Yorkers support the death penalty, compared with 47% who supported it in 1994. “New Yorkers now understand why the death penalty does not work and they have told the Legislature that we are all better off without it,” remarked Senator Krueger. “The message has been heard loud and clear that the death penalty simply has no place in our justice system.” -30- |
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