Press Conference With Death Penalty Opponents on Governor Pataki's Proposed Reinstatement of New York's Death Penalty
Posted: July 19, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT
CONTACT
New York, NY, July 18, 2004
Delphine Selles
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
718.930.7314
Susan Schindler
New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty
212.475.7035
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH DEATH PENALTY OPPONENTS ON GOVERNOR PATAKI’S PROPOSED REINSTATEMENT OF NEW YORK’S DEATH PENALTY
New York, NY — Tuesday, July 20, 10:30 a.m.
Governor George Pataki intends to introduce a revised death penalty bill when the New York State Legislature re-convenes Monday, July 19, 2004.The Court of Appeals ruled New York’s death penalty law unconstitutional on June 24, 2004. Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno have indicated a willingness to fix the problem via new legislation. Death penalty opponents will be holding a press conference on the steps on New York City’s City Hall on Tuesday, July 20th to urge state representatives not to pass this new bill.
David Kaczynski, Executive Director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, has said, “New York's experiment with capital punishment has been a failure by anyone's measure. Merely putting a bandage on a bad law would only postpone the day of reckoning for a number of other problems.”
WHO
Donna Lieberman, Executive Director, New York Civil Liberties Union
Barry Scheck, Director, Innocence Project
Ronald Tabak, Chair, American Bar Association Death Penalty Committee
Nicholas Yarris, Exonerated Death Row Inmate, Pennsylvania WHAT
Press Conference WHERE
New York’s City Hall steps WHEN
Tuesday, July 20, 10:30 a.m.
BACKGROUND & FACT SHEET
According to a June 24 ruling by the Court of Appeals, New York's death penalty law is unconstitutional. In a case brought by death row inmate Stephen LaValle, the Court objected to the so-called "deadlock" provision, under which a jury was informed that if it did not agree unanimously on either of two sentencing options - the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole - then the judge would impose a third, more lenient sentence: life with the possibility of parole. The Court ruled that this instruction could coerce jurors into voting for a death sentence to avoid the possibility of a killer getting paroled.
CONTACT
CONTACT
New York, NY, July 18, 2004
Delphine Selles
Campaign to End the Death Penalty
718.930.7314
Susan Schindler
New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty
212.475.7035
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH DEATH PENALTY OPPONENTS ON GOVERNOR PATAKI’S PROPOSED REINSTATEMENT OF NEW YORK’S DEATH PENALTY
New York, NY — Tuesday, July 20, 10:30 a.m.
Governor George Pataki intends to introduce a revised death penalty bill when the New York State Legislature re-convenes Monday, July 19, 2004.The Court of Appeals ruled New York’s death penalty law unconstitutional on June 24, 2004. Pataki, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno have indicated a willingness to fix the problem via new legislation. Death penalty opponents will be holding a press conference on the steps on New York City’s City Hall on Tuesday, July 20th to urge state representatives not to pass this new bill.
David Kaczynski, Executive Director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, has said, “New York's experiment with capital punishment has been a failure by anyone's measure. Merely putting a bandage on a bad law would only postpone the day of reckoning for a number of other problems.”
WHO
Donna Lieberman, Executive Director, New York Civil Liberties Union
Barry Scheck, Director, Innocence Project
Ronald Tabak, Chair, American Bar Association Death Penalty Committee
Nicholas Yarris, Exonerated Death Row Inmate, Pennsylvania WHAT
Press Conference WHERE
New York’s City Hall steps WHEN
Tuesday, July 20, 10:30 a.m.
BACKGROUND & FACT SHEET
According to a June 24 ruling by the Court of Appeals, New York's death penalty law is unconstitutional. In a case brought by death row inmate Stephen LaValle, the Court objected to the so-called "deadlock" provision, under which a jury was informed that if it did not agree unanimously on either of two sentencing options - the death penalty or life imprisonment without parole - then the judge would impose a third, more lenient sentence: life with the possibility of parole. The Court ruled that this instruction could coerce jurors into voting for a death sentence to avoid the possibility of a killer getting paroled.
- A 2003 public opinion poll by Quinnipiac University found that New Yorkers now favor a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole over the death penalty for first-degree murder by a wide margin - 53% to 38%.
- Four death sentences have been overturned by the state Court of Appeals; three remaining inmates on death row have been declared ineligible for execution; and no executions have been scheduled or carried out.
- In 1995, legal experts warned that the new death-penalty statute was rife with inconsistencies and constitutional problems.
- Legal experts have identified many problems in the law related to fairness, geographic and racial disparity, and the risk of an innocent person being executed, any one of which could result in the law being declared unconstitutional again.
- The American Bar Association has identified loopholes in New York's law that could result in the execution of an innocent person. In earlier hearings, judges on the Court of Appeals expressed concern that the so-called "felony aggravator" provision in New York's law, as well as the possible withholding from juries of mitigating evidence by mentally disturbed defendants, could result in death sentences being handed out arbitrarily and inappropriately.
- The death penalty has cost New Yorkers at least $170 million. It has diverted public resources from education, crime control, victims' assistance, or other programs offering proven public benefits.
- We would save about $20 million a year by not having a death penalty.
- The death penalty offers no known benefits. According to all reputable studies, it does not deter crime. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1995, the homicide rate has risen dramatically in Rochester’s Monroe County in western New York where DA's have sought the death penalty more than in any other county. Meanwhile, it has fallen to a forty-year low in Manhattan, where a death sentence has not been sought since the early 1960's.
- Victims' family members are not healed by the death penalty, but are re-victimized by a criminal justice system that exploits their pain and makes promises it cannot keep.