Enforcing the Death Penalty

The politicking is finally finished, but the politics are hardly over. New York is likely to put a slightly new twist on this very complicated and old issue.

Already Bronx Dist. Atty. Robert Johnson has announced that he will refuse to ask for the death penalty once it takes effect Sept. 1. Prosecutors in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn have also expressed reservations about enforcement.

Meanwhile, their counterparts upstate say they will aggressively seek the death penalty, so it will be curious to see how New York metes out “justice,” especially when 80% of the state’s murders occur downstate.

The process that brings killers to their end is long, plodding and costly. For example, it took 14 years for California to execute its first inmate since the death penalty was reinstated. So far only two have been put to death, while 400 others on Death Row await their fate.