Death Penalty Is Returning to New York

Using the pens of two slain police officers, Gov. George Pataki brushed aside 12 years of Mario M. Cuomo’s vetoes and signed a bill Tuesday to make New York the 38th state with a death penalty.

He did so surrounded by the relatives of murder victims, law enforcement officials and politicians. The state Legislature had approved capital punishment bills for 18 straight years, only to see them vetoed by Cuomo and his predecessor, Hugh L. Carey, both Democrats.

“It’s a shame. It truly is a shame,” Cuomo said Tuesday, acknowledging that opposition to the death penalty may have cost him last year’s election.

Pataki had campaigned on a promise to restore the death penalty as one of his first acts. He signed the bill seven hours after it was passed by the state Assembly.

New York’s law will take effect with crimes committed on or after Sept. 1. It establishes more than 10 crimes punishable by death, mainly intentional murders committed during violent crimes such as rape, robbery or kidnaping.