That's the title of an article in today's Albany Times-Union by Robert Gavin. LINK
Using the pen of a slain cop and flanked by relatives of murder victims, Gov. George Pataki fulfilled a campaign promise on March 7, 1995: He restored the death penalty.
Thirteen years and one month later, the law is effectively off the books -- yet still costs taxpayers.
Last week, the new state budget included $368,000 for the Capital Defender's Office, which coordinated the legal representation of all defendants facing execution.
The service lasted from 1995 until last year, when New York's highest court rejected the final effort to impose the penalty. Unlike any one of its clients, the office is now sure to die.
But some costs linger on.
The money will pay for the required storage of files, said Kevin Doyle, New York's capital defender since 1995. Yet he said he doesn't expect any additional funding will be needed in the future. As recently as 2003, state leaders were funding the office in excess of $13 million a year.
"It's a job I was happy to do, but I'll be happy to be out of," said Doyle, a longtime opponent of capital punishment.
The statute was all but overturned in 2004, when the Court of Appeals found a key portion unconstitutional. The ruling came when the judges vacated the death sentence for Stephen LaValle, who raped and murdered a jogger in 1997. The court decided that jury instructions in death penalty cases violated the state constitution.
Jurors in this and other capital cases were offered two sentencing options: the death penalty, or life without parole. But before they deliberated, judges told them should they be deadlocked, a required sentence of 20 or 25 years to life -- which included a chance for parole -- would be imposed. In a 4-3 ruling, the high court found the instructions could persuade jurors to impose a death sentence out of fear that a killer might go free again.
Last October, the law was given a final blow when the Court of Appeals rejected arguments from Queens prosecutors who hoped the gunman convicted of the 2000 Wendy's massacre could be put to death. They maintained that the controversial jury instructions were not given.
But the Court of Appeals rejected the argument and left it to the Legislature to amend the law or leave it unusable. The GOP-led state Senate has passed legislation to address the court's concern. The Democratic-controlled Assembly -- which held hearings on the issue in 2005, calling 170 witnesses -- has no desire not to follow suit.
Some foresaw problems from the get-go. On the day Pataki signed the law in 1995, New York City attorney Ronald J. Tabak told the Times Union he believed the law was unconstitutional and raised "the danger of pressuring juries to unanimously vote for death to avoid the possibility of parole."
On Thursday, Tabak recalled a law he believes was rushed onto the books in a politically charged climate. Five months earlier, Pataki defeated Gov. Mario Cuomo on a campaign steeped in bringing back capital punishment.
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