By Duane Motley

New York State has a death penalty law on the books, which cannot be enforced due to a 2004 Court of Appeals (New York’s highest court) decision.

Sen. Golden (R - Brooklyn)

Since 2004, the New York State Senate has tried several times to correct this flaw; the rest of the death penalty statute does stand.  Even though the Senate has passed legislation to correct the jury instructions, the Assembly has refused to do so.  This means that the death penalty cannot be enforced in New York State. 

The New York State Senate has passed a limited version of the death penalty, which would only apply to the intentional murder of a police officer, peace officer, or an employee of the Department of Correctional Services.  Note that this deals only with the intentional murder of these individuals, not an accidental killing.

The legislation, S6414, introduced by Senator Golden (R – Brooklyn) and all of the Republican members of the State Senate, corrects the flaw identified in the 2004 court case, and applies the death penalty to the intentional murder of a police officer, peace officer or an employee of the Department of Correctional Services.  Under this bill, if the jury fails to reach a unanimous agreement with respect to the sentence, the court will sentence the defendant to a term of life in prison without parole.

This is the third year that the New York State Senate has passed this bill, but the New York State Assembly has yet to consider it.  The Senate Codes Committee passed S6414, by a vote of 11 to 5.

The entire Senate voted on this legislation and passed it by a vote of 37 to 23.

There is no companion version of this bill sponsored in the New York State Assembly.  The Senate bill sits in the Assembly Codes Committee, where it will die, as it has each of the last two years.