Pataki, Bronx D.A. Clash Over Death Penalty

A war of wills between Gov. George Pataki and a district attorney over the death penalty in a police officer’s murder erupted into legal action Thursday when the governor removed the prosecutor, who then vowed to sue.

Within hours of Pataki signing an executive order superseding Bronx Dist. Atty. Robert Johnson in the case, Johnson said his assistants would cooperate in the indictment, then fight Pataki in court.

“My first concern is the prosecution of this unspeakably brutal murder of a brave officer of the New York City Police Department,” Johnson told reporters. He said he would challenge Pataki “in a court of law on another day.”

Officer Kevin Gillespie was killed a week ago in a Bronx street shootout after a carjacking. Suspect Angel Diaz has not yet been indicted. Two others allegedly involved in the March 14 shootout were arrested on other charges.

The death penalty is not mandatory in first-degree murder cases under New York law, which gives prosecutors the option to seek life imprisonment with or without parole.

“The law states that we have a death penalty. Dist. Atty. Johnson refuses to enforce this law,” Pataki said in a statement. He named state Atty. Gen. Dennis Vacco to prosecute.

Pataki, who successfully used reinstatement of the death penalty as a main campaign theme in 1994 against longtime governor and death penalty opponent Mario M. Cuomo, also produced a list of seven first-degree murder cases in the Bronx in which he said the death penalty could have been applied and was not.

Only three prosecutors, all in upstate New York, have sought capital punishment for the scores of murders committed since the law took effect in September.