N.Y. Senate Backs Death Penalty; Assembly Approval Expected Soon

With Republican Gov. George Pataki vowing to sign what Mario M. Cuomo vetoed for more than a decade, the state Senate voted Monday to restore the death penalty.

The state Assembly was expected to follow suit in a late-night session, and Pataki could sign the death-penalty bill as early as today. It would take effect Sept. 1 and make New York the 38th state with capital punishment.

“The people of the state are finally going to get the death penalty that they’ve been waiting for 18 years,” Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, a Republican, said after the Senate approved the measure, 38 to 19.

As the politicians talked--the debate lasted more than 4 1/2 hours--several dozen members of the Hutterite religion gathered on a Capitol staircase to sing in protest. “Two deaths are worse than one,” a sign read.

The legislation would apply to such crimes as the killing of a witness or prison guard, torture murders, murders for hire and acts of terrorism. It gives juries the option of substituting life without parole.

The mentally retarded, in most cases, and those under 18 could not be sentenced to die.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has vowed a court challenge, and death-penalty advocates say such challenges could delay any execution for years.

To help survive such challenges, lawmakers substituted lethal injection for the electric chair, which was used to execute 695 people between 1890 and 1963.

For 12 straight years, Cuomo vetoed legislation to bring back the death penalty. Gov. Hugh Carey, also a Democrat, vetoed similar measures for six years before that.