Capital punishment in Singapore
In 2012, a couple of American elected officials and office-seekers have suggested that Singapore's success in combating drug abuse should be examined as a model for the United States. Michael Bloomberg, a former Mayor of New York City, said that the United States could learn a thing or two from nations like Singapore when it came to drug trafficking, noting that "executing a handful of people saves thousands and thousands of lives." The last execution in New York took place in 1963. Several courts have ruled that the death penalty violates the New York Constitution (see "People v. LaValle"). In 2007, the state of New York abolished the death penalty. 20 states, plus Washington D.C., have abolished the death penalty, with the most recent being Washington state in 2018. However, certain states, such as Texas, still have similar or even higher rates of execution than Singapore.
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.