New York State to citizens: Drop dead ... but your killer won't!

It was nice while it lasted ...

Powerful committee in New York state Assembly kills death penalty bill

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A powerful committee of the state Assembly voted Tuesday not to send legislation aimed at reinstating New York's death penalty to the full house, a move that may effectively kill the effort for this year.

Such legislation has been pushed hard by Republican Gov. George Pataki and the state Senate's Republican majority leader, Joseph Bruno. In March, the GOP-led Senate voted 37-22 in favor of a bill almost identical to the one rejected Tuesday.

Pataki harshly criticized the 11-7 vote by the Democrat-controlled Codes Committee, saying the "Assembly leadership's `so what' attitude toward criminals ... is simply shameful."

New York's death penalty was reinstated in 1995 by the Legislature and Pataki, who had vowed to bring capital punishment back during the 1994 campaign when he ousted incumbent Democrat Mario Cuomo. Cuomo, in 12 years as governor, had routinely vetoed death penalty legislation.

No one was ever executed under the 1995 death penalty law, and it was effectively declared invalid by a ruling from the state's highest court last year.

Codes Committee Chairman Joseph Lentol, who had supported the death penalty, said advances in DNA technology have shown innocent people are too often convicted of murder.(emphasis ours).
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"advances in DNA technology have shown innocent people are too often convicted of murder"

Err, isn't the existence of DNA technologies a point in favor of the death penalty, making it far less likely that the innocent will be convicted? Odd.

Funny how the advance of prenatal technologies hasn't made the unborn of NYS any safer.

Indeed, we'd be happy to make this swap: A million plus innocent babies a year (nationally) for the lives of a few dozen pondscum -- provided the latter are confined to dark cells and forced to watch "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica" for the remainder of their natural lives.