Post by MXB on May 16, 2007 20:13:12 GMT -5
Senate Passes Death Penalty for Cop Killers
By Jay Gallagher
ALBANY - With police groups looking on, the Senate yesterday passed a death-penalty bill for cop killers, even as the head of the Assembly said his house won't take up the measure.
"Today we're asking colleagues to vote for those that have died, those families that have lost loved ones, and to tell them we're going to do what's right for officers and their families," said bill sponsor Sen. Martin Golden, R-Brooklyn, during the debate over the bill, which passed 37-24 on a largely party-line vote. "We need to stop this open season on troopers and police officers."
Golden was referring to a recent spate of killings of police officers. Nine have died in the line of duty since November 2005, according to a state Senate count.
The state's death-penalty statute, renewed in 1995, was invalidated by the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, in 2004. The court ruled that part of the sentencing provision could be coercive to juries.
No one has been executed in the state since 1963.
Despite the Senate vote, the bill is not likely to come up for consideration in the Assembly, Speaker Sheldon Silver said yesterday.
"I don't believe it's the sense of our conference that we want to do it," Silver said, referring to the 108-member Democratic majority in the 150-member house.
But Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Rome, Oneida County, who has sponsored the death-penalty bill in the Assembly, said she is still working to increase support for the measure.
"I continue to work with police agencies and others to try to build
grass-roots support for the bill," she said.
Four police officers from Utica and two from New Hartford stood with senators before the vote to urge the passage of the measure.
"We're here to show our support for the death penalty for cop killers," said Utica police Lt. James Watson.
Utica Police Officer Thomas Lindsey was shot and killed while on duty on April 19, and New Hartford Police Officer Joseph Corr was killed while pursuing a burglary suspect on Feb. 27, 2006.
"The men and women who serve us are in danger as never before," said Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, Oneida County. "These two men were in the prime of their lives. They did nothing wrong other than try to serve their community."
Sen. George Winner, R-Elmira, quoted the court testimony of Bryan Adams, an accessory of Anthony Horton, who was convicted of shooting and killing Trooper Andrew Sperr in Big Flats, Chemung County, on March 1, 2006, after they had robbed a bank.
Adams said Horton told him "that New York don't have the death penalty, so they can just give him life in prison" just before he shot the trooper.
"The death penalty may have acted as a deterrent to prevent the trooper's death," Winner said. "If we had the death penalty he might not have done it."
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was at the Capitol to lobby on other issues, said he is against the death penalty.
"I've always been opposed to the death penalty, not because of moral grounds, but because I do not believe society can avoid making a mistake," he said, referring to the use of DNA evidence that has cleared some wrongfully convicted inmates on death row.
www.msnbc. msn.com/id/ 18664240/
By Jay Gallagher
ALBANY - With police groups looking on, the Senate yesterday passed a death-penalty bill for cop killers, even as the head of the Assembly said his house won't take up the measure.
"Today we're asking colleagues to vote for those that have died, those families that have lost loved ones, and to tell them we're going to do what's right for officers and their families," said bill sponsor Sen. Martin Golden, R-Brooklyn, during the debate over the bill, which passed 37-24 on a largely party-line vote. "We need to stop this open season on troopers and police officers."
Golden was referring to a recent spate of killings of police officers. Nine have died in the line of duty since November 2005, according to a state Senate count.
The state's death-penalty statute, renewed in 1995, was invalidated by the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, in 2004. The court ruled that part of the sentencing provision could be coercive to juries.
No one has been executed in the state since 1963.
Despite the Senate vote, the bill is not likely to come up for consideration in the Assembly, Speaker Sheldon Silver said yesterday.
"I don't believe it's the sense of our conference that we want to do it," Silver said, referring to the 108-member Democratic majority in the 150-member house.
But Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Rome, Oneida County, who has sponsored the death-penalty bill in the Assembly, said she is still working to increase support for the measure.
"I continue to work with police agencies and others to try to build
grass-roots support for the bill," she said.
Four police officers from Utica and two from New Hartford stood with senators before the vote to urge the passage of the measure.
"We're here to show our support for the death penalty for cop killers," said Utica police Lt. James Watson.
Utica Police Officer Thomas Lindsey was shot and killed while on duty on April 19, and New Hartford Police Officer Joseph Corr was killed while pursuing a burglary suspect on Feb. 27, 2006.
"The men and women who serve us are in danger as never before," said Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, Oneida County. "These two men were in the prime of their lives. They did nothing wrong other than try to serve their community."
Sen. George Winner, R-Elmira, quoted the court testimony of Bryan Adams, an accessory of Anthony Horton, who was convicted of shooting and killing Trooper Andrew Sperr in Big Flats, Chemung County, on March 1, 2006, after they had robbed a bank.
Adams said Horton told him "that New York don't have the death penalty, so they can just give him life in prison" just before he shot the trooper.
"The death penalty may have acted as a deterrent to prevent the trooper's death," Winner said. "If we had the death penalty he might not have done it."
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was at the Capitol to lobby on other issues, said he is against the death penalty.
"I've always been opposed to the death penalty, not because of moral grounds, but because I do not believe society can avoid making a mistake," he said, referring to the use of DNA evidence that has cleared some wrongfully convicted inmates on death row.
www.msnbc. msn.com/id/ 18664240/