Maltese pushes death penalty for cop killers

Legislation cosponsored by Senator Serphin R. Maltese aims to reinstate the death penalty for criminals who kill police officers.
“Police officers, peace officers and correction officers in New York City and all across our state put their lives on the line every day to protect the people of New York,” said Maltese. “The death penalty is a strong deterrent and a majority of New Yorkers have consistently supported it. We must toughen our laws to protect our law enforcement officers from becoming victims of violent criminals,” Maltese added.
The Senate’s comprehensive bill (S.6020) would put stronger penalties in place for criminals that target police officers, peace officers or correction officers. The bill includes stronger penalties for assault, menacing, murder and attempted murder of an officer, as well as increased penalties for possession of armor-piercing ammunition and the reinstatement of the death penalty for criminals who kill officers.
The Senate also acted on legislation that would amend the state’s death penalty law to fix a provision that was ruled invalid by the state Court of Appeals.
“As a former Queens Prosecutor and Deputy Chief of the Homicide Bureau, I know firsthand that if we don’t fix the death penalty and get it back on the books, crime rates will undoubtedly increase,” said Maltese.
In 2004, the Court of Appeals overturned death penalty sentences, saying that judges were improperly required to instruct jurors in capital cases that if they deadlocked and failed to reach a verdict during the penalty phase of a trial, the judge would impose a sentence that would leave the defendant eligible for parole after 20 to 25 years.
This bill (S.2727) would require that in addition to capital punishment or life in prison without parole, juries would be given a third option of imposing a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole when sentencing convicted murderers.
In addition, the bill requires that, if a jury is deadlocked, a sentence of life without parole would be imposed, and juries would be told of that provision before sentencing. All pending capital cases, as well as crimes committed prior to the effective date of any change in the law, would be affected by the changes included in this bill.
Malachy McCourt, the Green Party candidate for Governor, is concerned about these bills and is urging citizens to contact their State Senators and ask them to vote no.
“I think the state should never be in the business of death,” said McCourt. “There’s no such thing as a just killing of any human being. And, the death-penalty is a cold-blooded, revengeful thing,” McCourt said.