New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
New York State correction officers have peace officer status under . This authorizes them:Prior to the 2008 repeal of the death penalty, the male death row was at the Clinton Correctional Facility and the female death row was at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. On October 23, 2007, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in the case "People v. John Taylor" that the last death sentence must be dismissed based on a previous ruling in the case "People v. LaValle".
Felony murder and the death penalty in the United States
"The jury... is a significant and reliable objective index of contemporary values because it is so directly involved" in the criminal justice system. In "Enmund" the Court recited that of 362 appellate decisions since 1954, only 6 involved a death sentence for a nontriggerman convicted of felony murder, and all 6 executions took place in 1955. This was comparatively rarer than death sentences for rape, of which there had been 72 between 1955 and 1977. Also, as of October 1, 1981, there were 796 people on death row in the United States, of whom only 3 had been sentenced to death absent a finding that the defendant had actually killed someone or intended that a killing take place. In "Tison", however, the fact that since "Enmund", state appellate courts continued to review and approve death sentences for defendants convicted of felony murder who were major participants in the underlying felony and had exhibited extreme indifference to human life persuaded the Court that juries still considered the death penalty an appropriate punishment for at least some defendants convicted of felony murder.