George Pataki
Polls showed that the majority of New Yorkers wanted the state's death penalty laws restored. A bill to restore the death penalty passed the Legislature several years in a row, only to be vetoed by Mario Cuomo. Pataki made the issue a top priority of his and when the bill reached his desk he signed it into law in 1995. The state's Court of Appeals later ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in the form in which it was written (in the case of People v. LaValle), and the State Legislature has not passed a bill to restore it in a new form. During Pataki's 12 years as governor, not a single person was executed in New York State.
Capital punishment in the United States
In addition to the states that have no valid death penalty statute, the following states and jurisdictions are noted that have an official moratorium, or have had no executions for more than ten years, as of 2022:
In addition to the above, Kansas (last execution 1965) and New Hampshire (last execution 1939) have also had no executions for over ten years, but in these states it is because of the lack of death row inmates having exhausted the appeal process.