Capital punishment in New York
In 2005, supporters of the death penalty in the New York Legislature passed a bill restoring New York's death penalty in the Republican-controlled State Senate, but the legislation was voted down by a legislative committee in the Democratic-controlled New York Assembly, and was not enacted into law.
Steven W. Fisher
The jury convicted Taylor of murder and Fisher became the last New York State court judge to assess the death penalty after the New York Court of Appeals ended the imposition of capital punishment in New York in 2004, ruling in Taylor's appeal that "The death penalty statute is unconstitutional on its face, and it is not within our power to save the statute."