The Nation : Cuomo Vetoes Proposed Death Penalty

While acknowledging public disgust over murdered police officers and drug dealing, New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo again vetoed a proposed state death penalty, denouncing it as “official barbarism.” Delivering his most expansive public comments in years on capital punishment, Cuomo also told an audience at the College of St. Rose in Albany that the death penalty does not deter murder and, in fact, has a record of killing innocent people. Cuomo’s speech came just an hour before he vetoed a bill to bring back the death penalty in certain cases. It was the seventh time he has vetoed such a measure. The veto was accompanied by his alternative proposal to create a prison sentence of life without chance for parole.