Equal Justice USA Press Release

New York State legislative committee defeats death penalty

Vote comes as skepticism of the death penalty increases nationwide

ALBANY, NY (April 12, 2005) – The New York State Assembly Codes Committee today defeated a bill to reinstate New York’s death penalty. The vote comes after five full days of public testimony that the death penalty is riddled with flaws and wastes millions of dollars. The Assembly’s report of the hearing was released last week, adding to a growing wave of voices questioning the death penalty across the country.

“New York is not alone. There is a growing consensus in this country that as a matter of policy, the death penalty is an expensive failure,” said Shari Silberstein, Co-Director of the Quixote Center, a national faith-based organization working for a moratorium on executions while questions of fairness are studied and addressed.

“The system is so riddled with flaws that even those who philosophically believe the death penalty is acceptable are expressing concerns and, in some cases, deciding that it simply isn’t worth it,” Silberstein continued. “This recognition explains why virtually all of the 170 citizens who offered testimony in New York wanted to leave the death penalty off the books.”

New York has been without a death penalty since last summer, when the state’s Court of Appeals declared the statute unconstitutional. Efforts to reinstate the death penalty have so far been unsuccessful, in part because some former supporters of capital punishment have changed their positions as a result of new information.

“For the past five years, the conversation around the death penalty has expanded to include questions of innocence, fairness, and alternatives,” said Silberstein. “It is increasingly clear that the very real risk of executing the innocent, not to mention the expense and effort required to even try and improve the system, has led people to turn away from the death penalty in recent years.”

Observers point to a growing skepticism about the death penalty among local, state, and federal legislators and within the judiciary. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently reinvigorated their call to abolish the death penalty citing new statistics that shows less than 50% of Catholics now support the capital punishment. New Jersey remains under court-ordered moratorium. Legislation to abolish the practice passed the New Mexico House of Representatives in February, and a similar bill received 60 votes in the Connecticut legislature last month. The U.S. Supreme Court also barred the execution of juveniles earlier this year. Nearly 4,000 groups, churches, business, and professional associations have called for a moratorium on executions, including 142 city, town, and county councils. Even President Bush expressed open concern about the quality of death penalty trials during his most recent State of the Union Address. Also recently, Republican Senators Rick Santorum (PA) and Sam Brownback (KS) have expressed reservations.

“Over the past five years we’ve learned a lot about the realities of capital punishment. We know it costs far more than life in prison, that it creates ongoing anguish for victims’ families, that it diverts scarce resources from other critical programs, that it is used unevenly and unfairly, and that it risks executing the innocent,” said Silberstein. “New Yorkers have expressed today what the rest of us across the country are continuing to learn – that our nation’s death penalty system is broken.”

The Quixote Center is a national organization founded in 1976. The Center's Equal Justice USA program pioneered the national grassroots movement for a moratorium on executions in 1997. Nationwide, over 3,700 national and local groups, businesses, and faith communities have called for a halt to executions, including 142 local governments. (For a complete listing, call 301-699-0042 or see the National Tally at http://www.ejusa.org).

To learn more about the Quixote Center's Equal Justice USA program, visit http://www.ejusa.org.

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