New York Assembly Rejects the Death Penalty

The New York State Assembly voted against reinstatement of the death penalty on April 12th, 2005, effectively ending the death penalty, at least for now.  Read EJUSA's press release.

New report details broken system:

The New York State Assembly released a report detailing five full days of public hearings featuring 170 witnesses.  The report is a blistering indictment of the death penalty system. 

Read more: EJUSA press release | New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty press release | Read the report

TAKE ACTION: Contact your state legislators and tell them: "A new report shows yet again that our nation's death penalty system is broken.  Our state must catch up with the national trend questioning capital punishment.  Please halt executions while questions of fairness are studied and addressed."  To reach your legslators, enter your zip code at Project Vote Smart.

If you live in New York: The report release means that the New York State Assemlby could act on a death penalty bill any day.  The New York Senate has already passed a bill to bring back the death penalty. You can still keep the Assembly from bringing the flawed law back.  Contact your Assemblymember today! See our Take Action page for sample letters and contact information, or send an automatic message to the Assembly.

Attention New Yorkers:

On June 24, 2004, the New York Court of Appeals wiped the death penalty off the books. New York has spent $170 million on its death penalty experiment, and racial bias, geographic bias, and the risk of executing the innocent remain. Your involvement can keep this flawed law from coming back, while helping channel the saved resources to services for crime victims and their families.

[what you can do] | [facts about NY's death penatly] | [sample letter to Assemblymembers] | [action flyer to download and distribute] | [make a gift to the campaign!]

Background info: The New York Court of Appeals recently took dramatic action and overturned New York's death penalty. In August, the Senate passed a "quick fix" to the law to bring the death penalty back. But we know the system is riddled with problems ranging from racial bias to the risk of executing the innoncent. Plus, all of the funds wasted in maintaining a death penalty systerm would be better spent on real victims' services and crime prevention. That's why the majority of New Yorkers favor life without the possibility of parole to the death penalty.

If you can do one thing:

Contact: Your Assemblymember

Reach him/her: enter your zip code at www.vote-smart.org OR call the Assembly Public Information Office at 518-455-4218

Tell him/her: "New York's death penalty is wasteful and unfair. The quick fix won't fix its many problems. Let the death penalty die."

-OR- Send an automatic message to your legislators with just a click.

-OR- Use the sample letter below.

If you can do two things:

Download our action flyer and fact sheet, make as many copies as you can, and distribute it to friends, co-workers, at your congregation, and to anyone else who many be sympathetic.

If you can do three things:

Join Equal Justice USA by making a secure donation or signing up for our email alert list. That way we can keep you updated during critical points in the campaign, when additional calls or letters to the editor are needed. You can also contact us or New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty to find out what else you can do.

Sample letter/email to legislators

Dear Assemblyman/woman __,

I am writing to ask you to oppose reinstatement of New York's death penalty law, which the Court of Appeals struck down in June.

The death penalty has cost New Yorkers at least $170 million and has been a complete failure by anyone's measure, diverting public resources that might have been used for education, crime control, victims' assistance, or other programs offering proven public benefits.

The death penalty offers no such benefits. According to all reput-able studies, it does not deter crime. Since it was reinstated in 1995, the homicide rate has risen significantly in Rochester, where the death penalty often has been sought, and fallen dramatically in Manhattan, where a death sentence never has been sought. Victims' family members are not healed by the death penalty, but are re-victimized by a criminal justice system that exploits their pain and makes promises it cannot keep. At least 115 innocent people across the country have been sentenced to death and later exonerated. New Yorkers have been sentenced to life sentences and then found innocent.

A quick fix by the legislature merely prolongs the charade. With life without parole now on the books, there is no justification to bring the death penalty back. Let is die and use the funds saved to support real victims' services instead .

Sincerely,

[Your signature, name, and address]

 Equal Justice USA
P.O Box 5206, Hyattsvillle, MD 20782
tel: 301-699-3443 fax: 301-864-2182
www.ejusa.org info@ejusa.org