Is New York a death penalty state?
Eddie Lee Mays
Mays would become the last person to be executed by "Old Sparky", New York State's electric chair at Sing Sing prison. The State Electrician was Dow Hover. The electric chair had been the sole method of execution in the State since 1890 (hanging had been abolished in 1888). In 1965, the State of New York repealed the death penalty, except for cases involving the murder of a police officer. Although the legislature never fully repealed the death penalty statute, and the state even expanded it in 1995, there were no further executions because of rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 and the New York Court of Appeals in 2004.
Thomas J. Grasso
The New York legislature had passed legislation which would have restored the state's death penalty, but governors Hugh Carey and Mario Cuomo, who were both morally opposed to the death penalty, vetoed the legislation.
David Paterson
According to state Senator Liz Krueger, Paterson has always been against capital punishment. In July 2008, he ordered the removal of the state's equipment to perform lethal injection, previously housed in Dutchess County's Green Haven Correctional Facility. In spring 2008, the state Senate passed a bill that would make murderers of policemen eligible for execution. The state Assembly did pass a similar bill, but in any event it was certain that Paterson would not sign it, and there is no longer any death penalty in New York.
Gary Lee Sampson
Although the United States has a federal "death row" at the United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute, in Indiana (where federal death row inmates are executed), U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf of the U.S. District Court in Boston ordered that Sampson be executed in New Hampshire. However, before the execution could take place, Judge Wolf ordered a new sentencing trial for Sampson.
Capital punishment in New Mexico
Both Allen and Fry have filed petitions for writ of habeas corpus asserting that the death sentences in their cases are unconstitutional, both generally, and as applied to them individually. The conundrum is that if the New Mexico Supreme Court (or, later, the U.S. Supreme Court) happens to agree with Allen and Fry, their sentences will automatically become "life sentences." That is, they will both be subject to serving a term of 30 years before becoming eligible for parole. This is because, at the time each of their crimes for which they were convicted and sentenced to death New Mexico law provided only two options for sentencing in a capital offense: Life with the possibility of parole after 30 years, or Death. In 2009, the New Mexico legislature prospectively eliminated the death penalty, replacing "death" with a "true life" sentence—meaning, life without the possibility of parole. But the "ex post facto" clause of the constitution (art. 1, sec. 10) prevents the application of the life-without-the-possibility-of-parole to cases where capital crimes were committed in New Mexico before July 1, 2009.
Capital punishment in Michigan
Although Michigan had outlawed the death penalty after becoming a state, the United States Government hanged Anthony Chebatoris at the Federal Correctional Institution, Milan near Milan, Michigan in 1938, for a murder he had committed while robbing a federal bank in Midland.
Glossip v. Gross
4) "Most places within the United States have abandoned its use": Beside being cruel, Breyer believed the death penalty is also unusual because it has become rare. Noting that 41 states had the death penalty before the Court blocked it in 1972, now there are 31, and only three, Texas, Missouri, and Florida, account for 80% of executions. After listing execution statistics, Breyer next considered polling data and an American Law Institute report. Breyer finally considered the death penalty as even more unusual by looking at a vote by the United Nations General Assembly, reports by the International Commission Against the Death Penalty and Amnesty International statistics.
Capital punishment in Connecticut
On April 11, 2012, the Connecticut House of Representatives voted to repeal capital punishment for future cases (leaving past death sentences in place). The Connecticut Senate had already voted for the bill, and on April 25 Governor Dannel Malloy signed the bill into law That made Connecticut the 17th state in the US without a death penalty, and the fifth state to abolish capital punishment in five years. In 2015 the state Supreme Court ruled found that applying the death penalty only for past cases was unconstitutional, definitely emptying Connecticut death row.
Capital punishment in New York
In 1860, the New York Legislature passed a bill which effectively, though unintentionally, abolished capital punishment in the state, by repealing hanging as a method of execution without prescribing an alternative method. The bill was signed by Governor Edwin D. Morgan in April 1860. The New York Court of Appeals ruled the statute unconstitutional, in part, as an "ex post facto" law. Governor Morgan signed legislation to restore the death penalty in 1861, and again in 1862 to fully repeal the earlier statute.
Capital punishment in New Jersey
A series of bills was introduced in the Assembly in 1992 to make it harder for New Jersey courts to overturn death sentence convictions, including legislation that would prevent the introduction of evidence regarding the method used for capital punishment during trials, as part of an effort to close off "another avenue for overturning death-penalty sentences". In May 1996, Assemblymember Gary Stuhltrager criticized efforts to delay the imposition of the death penalty, saying "If you're going to have it, do it".
List of people executed in New York
As a result of several United States Supreme Court decisions, capital punishment was suspended in the United States from 1972 through 1976.
Prison reform
In the aftermath of independence most states amended their criminal punishment statutes. Pennsylvania eliminated the death penalty for robbery and burglary in 1786, and in 1794 retained it only for first degree murder. Other states followed and in all cases the answer to what alternative penalties should be imposed was incarceration. Pennsylvania turned its old jail at Walnut Street into a state prison. New York built Newgate state prison in Greenwich Village and other states followed. But by 1820 faith in the efficacy of legal reform had declined as statutory changes had no discernible effect on the level of crime and the prisons, where prisoners shared large rooms and booty including alcohol, had become riotous and prone to escapes.
Capital punishment in the United States
In four states (Arizona, Kentucky, Tennessee and Utah), the alternative method is offered only to inmates sentenced to death for crimes committed prior to a specified date (usually when the state switched from the earlier method to lethal injection).
Capital punishment in Georgia (U.S. state)
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Georgia. Georgia reintroduced the death penalty in 1973 after "Furman v. Georgia" ruled all states' death penalty statutes unconstitutional. The first execution to take place afterwards occurred in 1983.
Capital punishment in New Mexico
Republican Governor Susana Martinez announced on August 17, 2016, that she will introduce legislation to reinstate the death penalty in the 2017 legislative session.
On October 14, 2016, the New Mexico House of Representatives approved the bill on a 36-30 vote. The bill provided the death penalty for only three kinds of murder: child murder, murder of an on-duty police officer, and murder of a prison employee by an inmate.
Hanging
Various methods of capital punishment have been replaced by lethal injection in most states and the federal government. Many states that offered hanging as an option have since eliminated the method. Condemned murderer Victor Feguer became the last inmate to be executed by hanging in the state of Iowa on 15 March 1963. Hanging was the preferred method of execution for capital murder cases in Iowa until 1965, when the death penalty was abolished and replaced with life imprisonment without parole. Barton Kay Kirkham was the last person to be hanged in Utah, preferring it over execution by firing squad. No subsequent inmate in Utah had been hanged by the time the option was replaced with lethal injection in 1980. Laws in Delaware were changed in 1986 to specify lethal injection, except for those convicted before 1986 (who were still allowed to choose hanging). If a choice was not made, or the convict refused to choose injection, then hanging would become the default method. This was the case in the 1996 execution of Billy Bailey, the most recent hanging in American history; since then, no Delaware prisoner has fitted this category, and thus the state's gallows were dismantled.
Capital punishment in Kansas
After the 1976 United States Supreme Court decision in "Gregg v. Georgia" permitted states to reinstate the death penalty, the Kansas legislature made numerous attempts to do so, but Governor John W. Carlin vetoed such legislation in 1979, 1980, 1981, and 1985. The death penalty was eventually reinstated on April 23, 1994. Of states that still allow the death penalty, Kansas was the last to reinstate the death penalty in the modern era. The law became effective on July 1, after then-Governor Joan Finney, despite her proclaimed opposition to capital punishment, decided to allow the bill to become law without her signature. The first degree murder with the aggravating factors is the only crime punishable by death. Despite reinstatement, no one has been executed since.
New York Court of Appeals
In a few cases, an appeal can be taken from the court of first instance to the Court of Appeals, bypassing the Appellate Division. Direct appeals are authorized from final trial-court decisions in civil cases where the only issue is the constitutionality of a federal or state statute. In criminal cases, a direct appeal to the Court of Appeals is mandatory where a death sentence is imposed, but this provision has been irrelevant since New York's death-penalty law was declared unconstitutional.
Capital punishment in the United States
Within the context of the overall murder rate, the death penalty cannot be said to be widely or routinely used in the United States; in recent years the average has been about one death sentence for every 200 murder convictions.
Government of New Hampshire
The state retains the death penalty for specific categories of homicide. The last execution was conducted in 1939. In 2008, a jury voted to impose the death penalty for the first time since 1959.
Joel Steinberg
In New York State at that time, first-degree murder applied only to those who killed police officers or had committed murder while already serving a sentence for a previous murder. The jury was unable to convict Steinberg on the more serious charge of second-degree murder, but it did convict him of the lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter. Judge Harold Rothwax then sentenced him to the maximum penalty then available for that charge — 8 to 25 years in state prison.
On two occasions, Steinberg was denied discretionary parole, mainly because he never expressed remorse for the killing. However, on June 30, 2004, he was paroled under the state's "good time" law, which mandates release of inmates who exhibit good behavior while incarcerated after having served two-thirds or more of the maximum possible sentence. New York State has since increased this ratio to six-sevenths of the maximum term for persons convicted of violent felonies. Steinberg had spent most of his imprisonment at New York State's supermax prison, the Southport Correctional Facility, presumably to prevent him from being attacked by other inmates.
Capital punishment in New York
In 2008, the State Senate again passed legislation that would have established the death penalty for the murder of law enforcement officers, but the Assembly did not act on the legislation.
New Mexico
On major political issues, New Mexico abolished its death penalty statute, though not retroactively, effective July 1, 2009. This means individuals on New Mexico's Death Row can still be executed. On March 18, 2009, then Governor Bill Richardson signed the law abolishing the death penalty in New Mexico following the assembly and senate vote the week before, thus becoming the 15th U.S. state to abolish the penalty.
Capital punishment in New York
On June 24, 2004, the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, held 4–3 in "People v. LaValle" that the state's death penalty statute violated the New York Constitution. Governor Pataki criticized the ruling and promised a quick legislative fix.
Capital punishment in New York
In 1886, newly elected New York State governor David B. Hill set up a three-member "New York Commission" to determine a new, more humane system of execution to replace hanging. The commission included the human rights advocate and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry, New York lawyer and politician Matthew Hale, and Buffalo dentist and experimenter Alfred P. Southwick. Southwick had been developing an idea since the early 1880s of using electric current as a means of capital punishment after hearing about how relatively painlessly and quickly a drunken man died due to grabbing the energized parts on a generator. Southwick had published this proposal first in 1882 and, being a dentist accustomed to performing procedures on subjects in chairs, used the form of a chair in his designs, which became known as the "electric chair". The commission reviewed ancient and modern forms of execution including lethal injection but finally settled on electrocution in 1888. A bill making electrocution New York State's form of execution passed the legislature and was signed by Governor Hill on June 4, 1888, set to go into effect on January 1, 1889.
Nikki Haley
In October 2017, the U.S., along with 13 other nations, voted against a U.N. resolution titled "The Question of the Death Penalty", which condemned the use of capital punishment when "applied arbitrarily or in a discriminatory manner" and specifically condemned "the imposition of the death penalty as a sanction for specific forms of conduct, such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations." LGBTQ rights advocates in the U.S., including the Human Rights Campaign, were critical of the vote. After the vote, a State Department spokeswoman announced that "We voted against that resolution because of broader concerns with the resolution's approach in condemning the death penalty in all circumstances ... The United States unequivocally condemns the application of the death penalty for conduct such as homosexuality, blasphemy, adultery, and apostasy. We do not consider such conduct appropriate for criminalization."
1994 New York gubernatorial election
One key issue in the election was capital punishment. Cuomo had long been a staunch opponent of the death penalty while Pataki supported it. In the 1980s and early 1990s most New Yorkers supported capital punishment due to high crime rates. Republican ads pointed to the case of Arthur Shawcross, a multiple murderer convicted of manslaughter who was paroled by New York in 1987 and committed additional murders while on release (during the time Cuomo was governor). This revelation caused a significant loss of support for Cuomo.
While the race was very close overall, Pataki won by running up huge margins outside of New York City. Cuomo won only one county outside of the Five Boroughs, Albany County.
Jack McCoy
Unlike his predecessor Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty), McCoy embraces the option of the death penalty, claiming it is a suitable punishment for particularly heinous crimes and a useful threat in plea bargaining. This often leads to heated arguments with his more liberal colleagues. In "Savages", when the death penalty has just been restored in New York following the election of Governor George Pataki, Kincaid asks McCoy about the probability of executing an innocent individual. McCoy responds that, with the lengthy prosecution process and opportunities for the defendant to appeal the verdict, the probability of wrongful execution is unlikely. Kincaid asks McCoy if he is able to accept the probability of "unlikely"; his hesitation indicates that he has never considered the possibility. In later seasons, his view towards the death penalty has apparently changed: in season 18's "Executioner", he is deeply troubled hearing of a gruesomely botched execution in South Carolina, and in season 20's "Four Cops Shot", he resists efforts by a U.S. attorney to prosecute a suspect in the murder of a police officer under a federal death penalty statute.
Alternatives to imprisonment
New York City, the largest city in the United States, has created important alternatives to incarceration (ATI) program for its prison system. Judges have the option of sending those with misdemeanors or felonies to this program instead of giving them a prison sentence. The program has four categories: general population, substance abusers, women, and youth. The program has a 60% success rate, which is relatively high. Offenders who fail the program receive a mandatory prison sentence, which gives them good incentive to succeed. Those who don’t succeed tend to have a past with incarceration. As the biggest city in the United States, New York City is often a trendsetter for other cities. This program could be the first of many in the United States, which could help lower incarceration rates.
Incarceration alternatives in the State of Maryland
Maryland started with the goal of reducing the state's prison population. They developed a legislative reform package that was projected to reduce the state's prison population by 14 percent and save $247 million over the next decade. The Justice Reinvestment Act signed into law by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan in May of 2016 has advanced research-based sentencing guidelines and the policies that govern corrections in the state. By reducing the number of people in the state's prison population, they are also reducing the number of children in the state which have parents that are incarcerated. These policy changes have a direct effect on the lives of these children. The Justice Reinvestment Act made changes to mandatory minimum drug penalties and it put caps on the prison sentences that can be imposed for technical violations of supervision. Certain low-level offense are handled by an administrative parole process for nonviolent offenses. Maryland examined and researched why alternative sentencing is needed and one of the main reasons is because it discovered that nonviolent crimes accounted for most prison sentencing.
Capital punishment in New York
Between December 2004 and February 2005, public hearings were held in Manhattan and Albany. New York Law School Professor and death penalty advocate Robert Blecker advocated strongly in favor of reinstatement, while Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau strongly opposed reinstatement.
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."
Washington State Department of Corrections
In 2014, Governor Jay Inslee announced a moratorium on carrying out the death penalty in Washington State. According to Inslee, "Equal justice under the law is the state's primary responsibility. And in death penalty cases, I'm not convinced equal justice is being served. The use of the death penalty in this state is unequally applied, sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred." The moratorium means that if a death penalty case comes to the governor's desk for action, he will issue a reprieve. However, this action does not commute the sentences of those on death row or issue any pardons. The majority of Washington's death penalty sentences are overturned and those convicted of capital offenses are rarely executed, indicating questionable sentencing in many cases. Since 1981, the year Washington State's current capital laws were put in place, 32 defendants have been sentenced to die. Of those, 18 have had their sentences converted to life in prison and one was set free.
Capital punishment debate in the United States
Gallup, Inc. monitors support for the death penalty in the United States since 1937 by asking "Are you in favor of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder?" Opposition to the death penalty peaked in 1966, with 47% of Americans opposing it; by comparison, 42% supported the death penalty and 11% had "no opinion." The death penalty increased in popularity throughout the 1970s and 1980s, when crime went up and politicians campaigned on fighting crime and drugs; in 1994, the opposition rate was less than 20%, less than in any other year. Since then, the crime rate has fallen and the anti-death penalty movement has strengthened again. In the October 2016 poll, 60% of respondents said they were in favor and 37% were opposed.
Capital punishment in the United States
The distribution of death sentences among states is loosely proportional to their populations and murder rates. California, which is the most populous state, has also the largest death row with over 700 inmates. Wyoming, which is the least populous state, has only one condemned man.
Capital punishment in the United States
A 2010 poll found that 61% of voters would choose a penalty other than the death sentence for murder. When persons surveyed are given a choice between the death penalty and life without parole for persons convicted of capital crimes, support for execution has traditionally been significantly lower than in polling that asks only if a person does or does not support the death penalty. In 2010, for instance, a Gallup poll that offered a choice showed 49% favoring the death penalty, and 46% favoring life imprisonment.
Bill Richardson
On March 18, 2009, he signed a bill repealing the death penalty, making New Mexico the second U.S. state, after New Jersey, to repeal the death penalty by legislative means since the 1960s. Richardson was subsequently honored with the 2009 Human Rights Award by Death Penalty Focus.
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty
The New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty (NYADP) is a grassroots organization formed in 1992 that advocates through education to abolish capital punishment. It has local chapters in Albany, Buffalo, Ithaca, Long Island, Mid-Hudson, Nassau County, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse, and Westchester. In 2007, the NYADP was successful in gaining abolition of the death penalty by the state legislature. Most of the bill's supporters wanted to establish a sentence of life without parole as the alternative. The NYADP has stated that they have revamped their mission statement to bring together victims, law enforcement, advocates for the mentally ill, restorative justice practitioners, and families of the incarcerated, around policies that address needs and reduce the likelihood of violent crime.
Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
The Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (WCADP) aspires to abolish the death penalty by educating, advocating, and informing the public as well as political leaders. WCADP publishes newsletters, supports Washington's death row inmates, organizes activities that are anti-death penalty, and works with the media to gain coverage on the cause.
Eric Henry Monkkonen
Monkkonen's comparison of cities in the United States with other cities in the Western world led him to conclude that violence was endemic in the U.S., which has had a homicide rate much higher than the rest of the Western world except Russia, and over 200 years the murder rate in New York City was five times that of London, even after removing murders with guns. He also found that the U.S. had a disinclination to prosecute murders, such as with the first three decades in 19th century New York City, when most murders went unpunished, and London executed four times the number of offenders.
New Jersey
On December 17, 2007, Governor Jon Corzine signed into law a bill that would eliminate the death penalty in New Jersey. New Jersey is the first state to pass such legislation since Iowa and West Virginia eliminated executions in 1965. Corzine also signed a bill that would downgrade the Death Row prisoners' sentences from "Death" to "Life in Prison with No Parole."
Felony murder and the death penalty in the United States
In "Coker v. Georgia," the Court had rejected the death penalty for rape because only one state—Georgia—allowed that punishment. Accordingly, the task for the Court was to count the number of states that allowed the death penalty for felony murder to see if the death penalty was a comparatively rare sanction for that crime.
Wendy's massacre
The Queens prosecutor's office fought unsuccessfully to have Taylor's case declared an exception to a 2004 Appeals Court's decision that found New York's death penalty law unconstitutional because of a flaw in its mandated instructions to the jury. On November 29, 2007 Taylor was re-sentenced to life without parole for the five murders. As of 2007, he had been the only inmate on Death Row in New York.
Human rights in the United States
Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 there have been 1077 executions in the United States (as of May 23, 2007). There were 53 executions in 2006. Texas overwhelmingly leads the United States in executions, with 379 executions from 1976 to 2006; the second-highest ranking state is Virginia, with 98 executions.
Felony murder and the death penalty in the United States
Faced with the objective evidence suggesting that legislatures and sentencing juries did not uniformly reject the death penalty for "all" defendants convicted of felony murder, the Court had to limit the death penalty to a discrete and narrow category of felony murder defendants based on its estimation of which category would best effectuate the goals of retribution and deterrence. The "Enmund" Court stressed that the propriety of the death penalty must be measured in light of Enmund's "own" conduct. The "Tison" Court added that historically, the individualized determination incorporates an assessment of the mental state with which the defendant commits a crime, because a more culpable mental state merits a more severe punishment. In "Woodson v. North Carolina", the Court had struck down a mandatory death penalty statute because it failed to provide for individualized consideration at sentencing. The rule fashioned by "Enmund" and "Tison" accommodated this concern by ensuring that only felony murder defendants who had a sufficiently culpable mental state received the death penalty.
Capital punishment by the United States federal government
The use of the federal death penalty increased in the 2000s, with the number of those sentenced to death federally climbing from 18 to 50 by 2007. Most such sentences were given in states which have active death state penalty statutes, with the largest number of federal death sentences handed down in Texas. However U.S. attorneys increasingly began pursuing death sentences in states with no state death penalties and/or with inactive state death penalties. In federal trials, courts may exclude jurors who are opposed to the death penalty, even in trials taking place in non-death penalty states. In 2004 Brigham stated that due to an increase of federal death penalty verdicts in the preceding decade, "some fear a "federalization" of the death penalty is taking place".
Capital punishment in the United States
The method of execution of federal prisoners for offenses under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 is that of the state in which the conviction took place. If the state has no death penalty, the judge must choose a state with the death penalty for carrying out the execution.
Marvin Gabrion
"United States v. Gabrion" is considered a landmark case for its use of the death penalty in a non-death penalty state. Capital punishment has been abolished in Michigan since 1846. Michigan was the first English-speaking jurisdiction to eliminate the death penalty. Federal jurisdiction allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case. Rachel's body was found on federal land in Manistee National Forest, allowing prosecutors to try Gabrion in federal court and seek the death penalty on federal charges, a sentence that is not provided for under Michigan law. Gabrion was the first person in the United States to receive the death penalty for a crime committed in a non-death penalty state since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 as well as the first person to be sentenced to death in the state of Michigan since 1937.
LGBT history in New York
This status quo of the death penalty for sodomy would remain unchanged after New Netherland was taken by the Duke of York in 1664, and "buggery" was retained as a capital offense. However, a portion of modern New York fell from 1674 to 1702 within the northern portion of Quaker-ruled West Jersey, whose criminal code was silent on sodomy.
Robert Shulman (serial killer)
Shulman was sentenced to death in 1999 for the only murder he committed after New York State reinstated the death penalty in 1995. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for his other murders because New York's death penalty law was not in effect at the time he committed them. His sentence was reduced to life in prison after the New York State Court of Appeals invalidated the death penalty in 2004.
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.
Marvin Gabrion
The case received national attention both for the brutality of the crime and for the controversial sentence. The crime was committed in Michigan, which does not have the death penalty, but prosecutors in federal court were able to seek a death sentence because the murder took place on federal land. Gabrion is the first person in the United States to receive the death penalty for a crime committed in a non-death penalty state since federal capital punishment was reinstated in 1988 as well as the first person to be sentenced to death in the state of Michigan since 1937.
Capital punishment in the United States
As of October 1, 2016, the Death Penalty Information Center reports that there are only 54 women on death row. This constitutes 1.86% of the total death row population. 16 women have been executed since 1976, while 1442 men have been executed. 15,391 total confirmed lawful executions have been carried out in the US since 1608, and of these, 575, or 3.6%, were women. Women account for 1/50 death sentences, 1/67 people on death row, and 1/100 people whose executions are actually carried out. The states that have executed the most women are California, Texas and Florida. For women, the racial breakdown of those sentenced to death is 21% black, 13% Latina, 2% American Indian, 61% white and 3% Asian.
Capital punishment in New York
In the 2005 Democratic primary for Manhattan District Attorney, incumbent Robert Morgenthau's successful campaign produced television advertisements criticizing opponent Leslie Crocker Snyder, a prosecutor who had stated in her autobiography that in one case, she would have been willing to give a lethal injection to a defendant herself, saying Snyder was "Wrong on the Death Penalty, Wrong for Manhattan". The New York Times endorsed Snyder but expressed concern about her support for the death penalty. For the duration of Morgenthau's tenure as Manhattan District Attorney, he never once sought the death penalty in the period it was legal in New York.
Capital punishment in New Hampshire
Martineau and Nelson received 13 stays of execution. They were spared the death penalty in 1972 when the United States Supreme Court ruled in "Furman v. Georgia", that "unitary trial" procedure, in which the jury was asked to return a verdict of guilt or innocence and, simultaneously, determine whether the defendant would be punished by death or life imprisonment, was in violation of the eighth amendment to the United States Constitution.When somebody, regardless of their age, is bold enough to take the life of a police officer, there should be no exceptions — we should make sure that they should pay the ultimate price. So I’m going to make a pledge as governor that if anyone takes the life of a police officer, I will seek the death penalty.
Necessity defense (New York)
New York's Penal Law does not expressly define non-deadly "physical force" but does implicitly define non-deadly "physical force" as being "any degree of physical force other than deadly physical force." PL 35.10(6); 35.20(2). "Deadly physical force" is defined in Penal Law s 10.00 (11) as that which is:
Capital punishment
The United States and Japan are the only developed countries to have recently carried out executions. The U.S. federal government, the U.S. military, and 31 states have a valid death penalty statute, and over 1,400 executions have been carried in the United States since it reinstated the death penalty in 1976, including 28 in 2015 alone. Japan has 109 inmates with finalized death sentences , after executing 15 inmates including Shoko Asahara and six other senior members of Aum Shinrikyo, a cult group which carried out multiple atrocities involving thousands of victims such as the Tokyo subway sarin attack, which took place on 20 March 1995, on 6 July 2018 followed by the executions of the remaining six senior members on 26 July 2018.
Blood Law
Currently in the United States, only state and federal governments or military courts can impose the death penalty. Justice under Blood Law would be considered revenge killing or summary murder, and also could be an additional aggravating circumstance requiring the death penalty for the crime.
2008 United States presidential election in Rhode Island
Having some of the highest taxes in the nation, Rhode Island is considered to be a liberal bastion. In addition, Rhode Island has abolished capital punishment, making it one of 15 states that have done so. Rhode Island abolished the death penalty very early, just after Michigan (the first state to abolish it), and carried out its last execution in the 1840s. Rhode Island is one of two states in which prostitution is legal, provided it takes place indoors, though there have been recent efforts to change this.
Political violence
Capital punishment is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offense. This does not include extrajudicial killing, which is the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process. The use of capital punishment by country varies, but according to Amnesty International 58 countries still actively use the death penalty, and in 2010, 23 countries carried out executions and 67 imposed death sentences. Methods of execution in 2010 included beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection and shooting. In 2007 the United Nations General Assembly passed the UN moratorium on the death penalty which called for worldwide abolition of the death penalty.
Capital punishment in New York
In the July 1972 decision in "Furman v. Georgia", the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the existing death penalty procedures across the United States. The moratorium lasted until 1976, when the Court ruled in "Gregg v. Georgia" that states could resume capital punishment under reworked statutes.
United States
Capital punishment is sanctioned in the United States for certain federal and military crimes, and also at the state level in 30 states. No executions took place from 1967 to 1977, owing in part to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down arbitrary imposition of the death penalty. In 1976, that Court ruled that, under appropriate circumstances, capital punishment may constitutionally be imposed. Since the decision there have been more than 1,300 executions, a majority of these taking place in three states: Texas, Virginia, and Oklahoma. Meanwhile, several states have either abolished or struck down death penalty laws. In 2015, the country had the fifth-highest number of executions in the world, following China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
List of people executed in New Jersey
In 2006, New Jersey lawmakers drafted a moratorium on executions while a task force studied the fairness and cost of the death sentence. New Jersey had 10 people on Death Row at the time. On December 10, 2007, the New Jersey Senate passed bill to repeal the current death penalty statute, and replaced it with life imprisonment without parole. On Dec. 13, 2007, the state's General Assembly adopted the same law. Governor Corzine signed the bill into law on December 17, 2007.
A complete list of 15,269 executions in the United States prior to the reintroduction of capital punishment in the 1970s was compiled by M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla, and was made available through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.
Michael Bruce Ross
After the execution, Dr. Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist who had argued that Ross was not competent to waive appeal, received a letter from Ross dated May 10, 2005, which read "Check, and mate. You never had a chance!" Ross's execution was the first in Connecticut (and in all of New England) since 1960. It was also the first and only execution in Connecticut administered by lethal injection. As of July 25, 2013, Ross is the most recent inmate executed in Connecticut, although the state's death row housed 10 convicted murderers who were in various stages of legal appeals prior to the abolition of the death penalty in Connecticut on April 25, 2012. Vivian Dobson, whom Ross was alleged to have raped, became a vocal opponent of the death penalty in an effort to save Ross's life. The execution of Michael Bruce Ross was the first in Connecticut in 2005, the first execution in Connecticut since 1960, the 22nd execution in the United States in 2005, and the 966th execution in the United States since 1976.
Ross was also suspect in other rapes and murders in the state of Indiana.
Felony murder rule
, 46 states in the United States have a felony murder rule, under which felony murder is generally first-degree murder. In 24 of those states, it is a capital offense. When the government seeks to impose the death penalty on someone convicted of felony murder, the Eighth Amendment has been interpreted so as to impose additional limitations on the state power. The death penalty may not be imposed if the defendant is merely a minor participant and did not actually kill or intend to kill. However, the death penalty may be imposed if the defendant is a major participant in the underlying felony and exhibits extreme indifference to human life.
Hanging
Only the state of New Hampshire retains hanging as an option. In New Hampshire, if it is found to be "impractical" to carry out the execution by lethal injection, then the condemned is hanged.
New Jersey Department of Corrections
Prior to the 2007 repeal of the death penalty, the death row for men was in the Capital Sentence Unit (CSU) in the New Jersey State Prison. The same prison housed the death chamber, and the first death by electrocution occurred on December 11, 1907. This unit was first established in 1907. On December 17, 2007, Governor Jon Corzine signed a bill in which the New Jersey General Assembly passed which abolishes the death penalty, New Jersey became the first state to legislatively eliminate capital punishment since 1965. The day prior, December 16, 2007, Governor Corzine commuted the death sentences of the remaining eight men on death row to "life imprisonment without parole".
Ronell Wilson
Prosecutors alleged Wilson was the leader of a violent drug gang called the "Stapleton Crew" (witnesses at the trial denied using that label) that originated in the Stapleton housing projects of Staten Island. He was convicted for murdering NYPD Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews in a gun sale, then searching their bodies and stealing their car. The victims' family members and fellow police officers greeted pronouncement of his death sentence with cheers and applause; Wilson reacted by sticking his tongue out in their direction.
The case has attracted media attention because of the brutality of the murders as well as the rarity of a death penalty prosecution in New York. Wilson is the first person federally sentenced to the death penalty in New York in over 50 years. Wilson was originally charged in New York state court, but the federal government took over the prosecution after the New York Court of Appeals held that the state's death penalty statute violated the New York State Constitution.
Felony murder and the death penalty in the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution does not prohibit imposing the death penalty for felony murder. The Supreme Court has created a two-part test to determine when the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for felony murder. Under "Enmund v. Florida", the death penalty may not be imposed on someone who did not kill, attempt to kill, or intend that a killing take place. However, under "Tison v. Arizona", the death penalty "may" be imposed on someone who was a major participant in the underlying felony and acted with reckless indifference to human life.
Hung jury
Of the 30 U.S. states with the death penalty, 28 provide the sentence to be decided by a jury, and 27 require a unanimous sentence.
Capital punishment in New Hampshire
Since the state's last execution of Howard Long on July 14, 1939, eight people have been charged with capital murder. Three were convicted, but received a mandatory life imprisonment without parole sentence. In three other cases, capital murder charges were resolved before trial, twice because the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled the law authorizing the death penalty to be unconstitutional.
Jon Corzine
Corzine, a death penalty opponent, as governor supported and presided over abolition of capital punishment in New Jersey and replacing it with life imprisonment. After the legislature passed and he signed it into law, New Jersey became the first state to legislatively eliminate capital punishment since 1965. Although the bill was not passed until late in 2007, New Jersey had not executed any criminals since 1963. Because the penalty was never used and often reversed upon appeal, it was viewed as a form of extended suffering for victims' families by some supporters of its abolition. Before the enactment of the new law, he commuted the death sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison. Corzine also has supported early New Jersey efforts at gun control.
Governorship of Mitt Romney
In December 2004, Romney announced plans to file a death penalty bill in early 2005.
The bill, filed April 28, 2005, sought to reinstate the death penalty in cases that include terrorism, the assassination of law enforcement officials and multiple killings. Romney's legislation required the presence of scientific evidence such as DNA to sentence someone to death and a tougher standard of "no doubt" of guilt for juries to sentence defendants. This differs from the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard used in traditional criminal cases. The legislation called for a pool of certified capital case lawyers to ensure proper representation for the accused and allowed jurors who do not personally support the death penalty to serve in the guilt phase of the trial. Romney said; "In the past, efforts to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts have failed. They have failed because of concerns that it would be too broadly applied or that evidentiary standards weren't high enough or proper safeguards weren't in place. We have answered all those concerns with this bill." The Massachusetts House of Representatives defeated the bill 99-53.
Louisiana State Penitentiary
In 1972, in the US Supreme Court decision in "Furman v. Georgia", the court found application of the death penalty so arbitrary under existing state laws that it was unconstitutional. It suspended executions for all persons on death row in the United States (slightly more than 600, overwhelmingly male) under current state laws in the United States, and ordered state courts to judicially amend their sentences to the next lower level of severity, generally life in prison. Louisiana passed a new death penalty statute, which was overturned by the state supreme court in 1977 for its application to convictions for rape. The death penalty statute was amended again, effective September 1977. Louisiana did not execute any prisoners until 1983.
Capital punishment in New York
In 1965, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, a liberal Republican who supported capital punishment, signed legislation which abolished the death penalty except for cases involving the murder of a police officer.
Death and culture
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the killing of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as "capital crimes" or "capital offences".
Historically, the execution of criminals and political opponents was used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime and to suppress political dissent. Among democratic countries around the world, all European (except Belarus) and Latin American states, many Pacific Area states (including Australia, New Zealand and Timor Leste), and Canada have abolished capital punishment, while the majority of the United States, Guatemala, and most of the Caribbean as well as some democracies in Asia ("e.g.", Japan and India) and Africa ("e.g.", Botswana and Zambia) retain it. Among nondemocratic countries, the use of the death penalty is common but not universal.
Capital punishment debate in the United States
In a poll completed by Gallup in October 2009, 65% of Americans supported the death penalty for persons convicted of murder, while 31% were against and 5% did not have an opinion.
Capital punishment in the United States
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the United States, currently used by 30 states, the federal government, and the military. Its existence can be traced to the beginning of the American colonies. The United States is the only Western country currently applying the death penalty. It is one of 54 countries worldwide applying it, and was the first to develop lethal injection as a method of execution, which has since been adopted by five other countries. The Philippines has since abolished executions, and Guatemala has done so for civil offenses, leaving the USA one of 4 countries to use this method, along with China, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Capital punishment in the United States
Aggravating factors for seeking capital punishment of murder vary greatly among death penalty states. California has twenty-two; New Hampshire has seven.
Some aggravating circumstances are nearly universal, such as robbery-murder, murder involving rape of the victim, and murder of an on-duty police officer.
Jodi Rell
During Rell's administration, Connecticut carried out the first execution in New England since 1960 when serial killer Michael Bruce Ross was put to death on May 13, 2005. Rell, who supports the death penalty, declined a request by Ross's lawyers to delay the execution in order for the state legislature to debate eliminating the death penalty. Legally, the Governor of Connecticut cannot commute a death sentence.
Murder (United States law)
Capital punishment is a legal sentence in 32 states, and also the federal civilian and military legal systems. The United States is unusual in actually performing executions, with 34 states having performed executions since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976. The methods of execution have varied but the most common method since 1976 has been lethal injection. In 2014 a total of 35 people were executed, and 3,002 were on death row.
Wendy's massacre
On October 23, 2007, the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, New York's highest court, vacated the death penalty portion of the verdict.
Felony murder and the death penalty in the United States
Brennan also faulted the Court for ignoring the states that had abolished the death penalty altogether when counting the states that authorized the death penalty for felony murder. "It is critical to examine not simply those jurisdictions that authorize the death penalty in a given circumstance, but those that actually "impose" it." None of the 65 executions that had taken place after "Enmund" were carried out on a felony murderer who had not killed or intended to kill (as determined by a jury).
Electric chair
After a series of botched hangings in the United States, there was mounting criticism of this form of capital punishment and the death penalty in general. In 1886, newly elected New York State governor David B. Hill set up a three-member death penalty commission, which was chaired by the human rights advocate and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry and included New York lawyer and politician Matthew Hale and Southwick, to investigate a more humane means of execution.
Capital punishment in Kansas
Kansas is one of only two death-penalty states, along with New Hampshire, where no executions have been carried out since the 1976 reinstatement of capital punishment in the United States.
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.
Crime in New Zealand
Life imprisonment is the severest form of punishment in New Zealand since the abolition of the death penalty in 1989. It is the mandatory sentence for treason, the presumptive sentence for murder, and an optional sentence for terrorism, manslaughter and certain drug-related offences. People sentenced to life imprisonment remain in prison or on parole for the remainder of their life.
Capital punishment in New York
In 1995, fulfilling a campaign promise, newly elected Governor George Pataki, a Republican, signed legislation reinstating the death penalty in New York, establishing lethal injection as the method of execution.
Kentucky
Kentucky is one of the 32 states in the United States that sanctions the death penalty for certain murders defined as heinous. Those convicted of capital crimes after March 31, 1998 are always executed by lethal injection; those convicted on or before this date may opt for the electric chair. Only three people have been executed in Kentucky since the U.S. Supreme Court re-instituted the practice in 1976. The most notable execution in Kentucky was that of Rainey Bethea on August 14, 1936. Bethea was publicly hanged in Owensboro for the rape and murder of Lischia Edwards. Irregularities with the execution led to this becoming the last public execution in the United States.
Green Haven Correctional Facility
Green Haven Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison in New York. The prison is located in the Town of Beekman in Dutchess County. The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision lists the address as Route 216, Stormville, NY 12582. This prison housed New York's execution chamber during the time the state briefly had the death penalty (but never used it) in the post-"Furman" era. New York's electric chair "Old Sparky" was moved here from Sing Sing Correctional Facility. It was originally a federal prison and now houses maximum security inmates. Green Haven Correctional Facility also operates a Hot Kosher Food Program; because of this, the prison has a large Jewish population. Yale Law School operates the Green Haven Prison Project, a series of seminars among Yale law students and Green Haven inmates on law and policy issues concerning prisons and criminal law.There have been at least two deaths of correction officers in the line of duty.
Ben-Zion Bokser
He fought against the death penalty in NY state.
Crime in New Jersey
Capital punishment is not applied in this state. New Jersey was the first state to repeal the use of the death penalty after the Supreme Court restored the use of capital punishment in the "Gregg v. Georgia" case.
Crime in New York (state)
Capital punishment is not applied in this state.
Capital punishment in New York
During various periods from the 1600s onward, New York law prescribed the death penalty for crimes such as sodomy, adultery, counterfeiting, perjury, and attempted rape or murder by slaves. In 1796, New York abolished the death penalty for crimes other than murder and treason, but arson was made a capital crime in 1808.
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) is a large organization dedicated to the abolition of the death penalty in the United States. Founded in 1976 (the same year the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court of the United States) by Henry Schwarzschild, the NCADP is the only fully staffed nationwide organization in the United States dedicated to the total abolition of the death penalty in the country. It also provides extensive information regarding imminent and past executions, death penalty defendants, numbers of people executed in the U.S., as well as a detailed breakdown of the current death row population, and a list of which U.S. state and federal jurisdictions use the death penalty.
Robert T. Johnson (lawyer)
On March 14, 1996, New York City police officer Kevin Gillespie was shot to death in the Bronx, and three men were immediately arrested in his killing. Ex-convict Angel Diaz was named as the gunman. The next day, Republican Governor George Pataki was publicly pressuring Johnson, an opponent of the death penalty, to seek it against Diaz, and threatening to take the case away from Johnson if he refused to do so. Johnson wrote in a letter to Pataki that he wanted the 120 days allotted under New York State law to decide whether or not to seek the death penalty, and threatened to take Pataki to court if he tried to remove him from the case. The following day, Pataki followed through on his threat and removed Johnson from the case, assigning it to Dennis Vacco, the New York State Attorney General. In response, Johnson sued Pataki for jurisdiction over the case.
Alfred P. Southwick
After a series of botched hangings in the United States there was mounting criticism of this form of capital punishment and the death penalty in general. In 1886 newly elected New York State governor David B. Hill set up a three-member death penalty commission to find a more humane form of execution. The committee included Southwick, human rights advocate and reformer Elbridge Thomas Gerry, and New York lawyer and politician Matthew Hale. They explored many forms of execution and in 1888 recommended electrocution using Southwick's electric chair idea with metal conductors attached to the condemned person's head and feet. Based on their advice the first law allowing the use of electrocution went into effect in New York State on January 1, 1889. Development of Southwicks idea into a working device was turned over to the New York Medico-Legal Society.
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.
Capital punishment in Washington (state)
Support for the death penalty in the United States is at historic lows. In a 2017 end of the year report, the Death Penalty Information Center reported that public support of the death penalty reached 45 year lows. In Washington state, Jay Inslee's decision to institute a moratorium on capital punishment did not negatively impact his support among voters, as evidenced by the fact that he won the 2016 gubernatorial race (54.4%) by a larger margin than the 2012 race (51.5%).the
Cheshire, Connecticut, home invasion murders
Hayes is an inmate of the Connecticut Department of Correction. His criminal history shows him sentenced for his first offense at the age of 16. Subsequent to sentencing for the Petit murders, and up until August 16, 2016 (when he was transferred to a correctional facility in Pennsylvania as part of an interstate corrections compact), he was incarcerated in the Northern Correctional Institution, which houses the state's death row for men, in Somers, Connecticut. The method of execution employed by Connecticut was lethal injection, and the state execution chamber was located in the Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers. This sentence became an automatic life sentence when Connecticut abolished the death penalty in 2015.
New York City Criminal Court
The Criminal Court of the City of New York is a court of the New York State Unified Court System in New York City that handles misdemeanors (generally, crimes punishable by fine or imprisonment of up to one year) and lesser offenses, and also conducts arraignments (initial court appearances following arrest) and preliminary hearings in felony cases (generally, more serious offenses punishable by imprisonment of more than one year).
Capital punishment in Nevada
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Nevada. 
When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous.
Capital punishment in Wisconsin
Capital punishment in Wisconsin was abolished in 1853. Wisconsin was one of the earliest United States states to abolish the death penalty, and is the only state that has performed only one execution in its history.