Capital punishment in New York
In June 2004, the state's highest court ruled in "People v. LaValle" that the state's death penalty statute violated the state constitution, and New York has had an effective moratorium on capital punishment since then. Subsequent legislative attempts at fixing or replacing the statute have failed, and in 2008 then-Governor David Paterson issued an executive order disestablishing New York's death row. 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.
Devorah Halberstam
She brought the first lawsuit in the history of American jurisprudence against the gun manufacturer that supplied Ari's killer with the arsenal of weapons he used in the shooting.
Devorah was appointed by Governor George E. Pataki to serve on the first ever New York State Commission on Terrorism and then, together with him, she authored the first New York State laws to counter terrorism in 2001, which included the death penalty for terrorist crimes. To date, these laws have been used twice and terrorists have been convicted as a result of Penal Code 490.