titantoo
04-05-2005, 09:38 PM
April 5, 2005
Democrats Say Death Penalty Is Likely to Fail
By PATRICK D. HEALY
ALBANY, April 4 - Top Democrats in the State Assembly said on Monday that they expect a bill to reinstitute the death penalty in New York State to fail when it gets to a legislative committee for a vote next week.
Such a vote could not only ensure that capital punishment remains in limbo in New York for the rest of 2005, but also signal resistance among the sizable Democratic majority in the Assembly that could doom longer-term efforts to restore the death penalty in the state.
Joseph R. Lentol, a Brooklyn Democrat who is chairman of the Assembly Codes Committee, said in an interview that he believed at least 10 lawmakers on his 18-member committee would vote against the bill at a scheduled hearing on April 12.
"I haven't asked each committee member how they'll vote, but I expect at least 10 members, a majority, to oppose it," said Mr. Lentol, who helped lead five public hearings on the death penalty law this winter and issued a report on the testimony on Monday. "That could change, but I don't think it will."
The death penalty bill would amend New York's law to correct a central provision, about jury instructions in capital cases, that a divided Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional last June. The death penalty has been in limbo since then. On March 9, the Republican-led Senate voted 37 to 22 in favor of fixing the law to reinstitute the death penalty, and Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, favors the legislation, leaving the future of the law this year in the hands of Assembly members.
Assembly Democrats met twice on Monday to discuss briefly the new report on the death penalty hearings. Members said afterward that there was little support for restoring the 1995 law on capital punishment, and came away predicting that the Codes Committee would not allow the bill to go before the full Assembly for a vote. There are 14 Democrats and 4 Republicans on the committee.
Several lawmakers said yesterday evening that instead of the death penalty, they preferred the option of life without parole, which was not available a decade ago when the Democratic-led Assembly backed death penalty legislation.
"Most Democratic members are satisfied with life without parole as a maximum penalty," Mr. Lentol said. "And the information they received about the Assembly public hearings was overwhelmingly in opposition to the death penalty."
If the Codes Committee blocks the bill, it is highly unlikely that the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, will bow to Republican pressure and allow a floor vote anyway, said a spokesman for Mr. Silver, Charles Carrier. Mr. Silver is a supporter of capital punishment who voted for the 1995 law.
"Bills are killed by committee all the time," Mr. Carrier said. "For many years we've said that we have a committee process that we respect. If you start to chip away at the decisions of our committees, you do damage."
But Republicans have been plotting to bring the matter to a vote on the Assembly floor. Among Republican legislators who support the death penalty, the emerging strategy on Monday involved filing a so-called discharge motion this week with the Assembly Rules Committee to take the bill away from the Codes Committee and send it directly to the floor.
The odds of success depend on political strategy. If Mr. Lentol's committee votes against the death penalty bill before the rules panel acts on the discharge motion, the bill will most likely never get to the floor. And after filing the discharge motion, which is expected on Wednesday, Republicans have to wait several days before they can actually press to move the bill to the floor.
"Our whole point is that if we can get the bill to the floor of the Assembly, we know it will pass there," said Charles H. Nesbitt, the Republican minority leader in the Assembly. "We believe if the Assembly is asked to take an up or down vote on the death penalty, a majority will support it as an option for New York's criminal justice system."
Recent polls about the death penalty have drawn mixed reaction from New York voters. In a poll by The New York Times in February, 56 percent of registered voters surveyed said they preferred either life in prison without parole or life in prison with the possibility of parole over the death penalty for people convicted of murder.
Thirty-four percent said they supported the death penalty, compared with 47 percent who supported it in 1994, when Mr. Pataki beat Gov. Mario M. Cuomo in part by strongly urging passage of a death penalty law.
Democrats Say Death Penalty Is Likely to Fail
By PATRICK D. HEALY
ALBANY, April 4 - Top Democrats in the State Assembly said on Monday that they expect a bill to reinstitute the death penalty in New York State to fail when it gets to a legislative committee for a vote next week.
Such a vote could not only ensure that capital punishment remains in limbo in New York for the rest of 2005, but also signal resistance among the sizable Democratic majority in the Assembly that could doom longer-term efforts to restore the death penalty in the state.
Joseph R. Lentol, a Brooklyn Democrat who is chairman of the Assembly Codes Committee, said in an interview that he believed at least 10 lawmakers on his 18-member committee would vote against the bill at a scheduled hearing on April 12.
"I haven't asked each committee member how they'll vote, but I expect at least 10 members, a majority, to oppose it," said Mr. Lentol, who helped lead five public hearings on the death penalty law this winter and issued a report on the testimony on Monday. "That could change, but I don't think it will."
The death penalty bill would amend New York's law to correct a central provision, about jury instructions in capital cases, that a divided Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional last June. The death penalty has been in limbo since then. On March 9, the Republican-led Senate voted 37 to 22 in favor of fixing the law to reinstitute the death penalty, and Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, favors the legislation, leaving the future of the law this year in the hands of Assembly members.
Assembly Democrats met twice on Monday to discuss briefly the new report on the death penalty hearings. Members said afterward that there was little support for restoring the 1995 law on capital punishment, and came away predicting that the Codes Committee would not allow the bill to go before the full Assembly for a vote. There are 14 Democrats and 4 Republicans on the committee.
Several lawmakers said yesterday evening that instead of the death penalty, they preferred the option of life without parole, which was not available a decade ago when the Democratic-led Assembly backed death penalty legislation.
"Most Democratic members are satisfied with life without parole as a maximum penalty," Mr. Lentol said. "And the information they received about the Assembly public hearings was overwhelmingly in opposition to the death penalty."
If the Codes Committee blocks the bill, it is highly unlikely that the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, will bow to Republican pressure and allow a floor vote anyway, said a spokesman for Mr. Silver, Charles Carrier. Mr. Silver is a supporter of capital punishment who voted for the 1995 law.
"Bills are killed by committee all the time," Mr. Carrier said. "For many years we've said that we have a committee process that we respect. If you start to chip away at the decisions of our committees, you do damage."
But Republicans have been plotting to bring the matter to a vote on the Assembly floor. Among Republican legislators who support the death penalty, the emerging strategy on Monday involved filing a so-called discharge motion this week with the Assembly Rules Committee to take the bill away from the Codes Committee and send it directly to the floor.
The odds of success depend on political strategy. If Mr. Lentol's committee votes against the death penalty bill before the rules panel acts on the discharge motion, the bill will most likely never get to the floor. And after filing the discharge motion, which is expected on Wednesday, Republicans have to wait several days before they can actually press to move the bill to the floor.
"Our whole point is that if we can get the bill to the floor of the Assembly, we know it will pass there," said Charles H. Nesbitt, the Republican minority leader in the Assembly. "We believe if the Assembly is asked to take an up or down vote on the death penalty, a majority will support it as an option for New York's criminal justice system."
Recent polls about the death penalty have drawn mixed reaction from New York voters. In a poll by The New York Times in February, 56 percent of registered voters surveyed said they preferred either life in prison without parole or life in prison with the possibility of parole over the death penalty for people convicted of murder.
Thirty-four percent said they supported the death penalty, compared with 47 percent who supported it in 1994, when Mr. Pataki beat Gov. Mario M. Cuomo in part by strongly urging passage of a death penalty law.