USA, SENTENZA BLOCCA ESECUZIONI STATO NEW YORK CORTE IN PRATICA SVUOTA BRACCIO DELLA MORTE, SERVE NUOVA LEGGE

NEW YORK, 24 GIU - Una sentenza del massimo organo giudiziario dello stato di New York ha praticamente sancito l'avvio di una moratoria alle esecuzioni e alle condanne alla pena di morte nello stato, che con ogni probabilita' non avverranno piu' fino a quando non sara' modificata la legge che le regola.

La sentenza della Corte d'appello statale, pronunciata per 4- 3, ha cancellato la pena capitale per Stephen LaValle, accusato di aver stuprato e ucciso nel 1997 una giovane madre. Secondo gli esperti legali, per i suoi contenuti la sentenza avra' come immediata conseguenza che anche gli unici altri tre condannati che si trovano nel braccio della morte di New York vedranno cancellata la condanna a morte. I giudici, inoltre, hanno detto esplicitamente che nove processi da condanna a morte attualmente in corso potranno andare avanti, ma l'ergastolo potra' essere la massima sentenza disponibile.

La decisione della Corte in pratica rimette in discussione l'esistenza stessa della pena capitale nello stato, dove fu reintrodotta nove anni fa per iniziativa del governatore repubblicano George Pataki, che si e' detto sconcertato dalla sentenza, ma non l'ha per ora commentata nei dettagli. Nessuno e' mai stato giustiziato nello stato di New York in questi nove anni e nessuno dei quattro condannati nel braccio della morte risultava vicino all'esecuzione.

I giudici hanno stabilito che la legge che ha reintrodotto la pena capitale ha un difetto di fondo, che rende impossibile applicarla fino a quando il legislatore non interverra' con modifiche adeguate. Le legge e' sbagliata, secondo la Corte d'appello, nel punto in cui richiede ai giudici di istruire le giurie popolari sul fatto che se non riescono a raggiungere un verdetto in casi da pena di morte, il giudice stesso pronuncera' un verdetto che preveda la possibilita' di liberta' 'sulla parola' dopo 20 o 25 anni di prigione. Secondo la Corte newyorchese, questo aspetto della legge rappresenta un'indebita pressione sui giurati per spingerli a scegliere la pena di morte. 

Kenneth Lovett, Column, New York Post

24-GIU-04

DEATH-PENALTY KO

New York's highest court effectively killed the death penalty yesterday by striking down a major provision as unconstitutional. In a 4-3 decision, the Court of Appeals ruled that the 9-year-old capital-punishment law uses "fear and coercion" to pressure jurors to come to unanimous sentencing decisions. "We thus conclude that under the present statute, the death penalty may not be imposed," Justice George Bundy Smith wrote in the 57-page majority decision.

"Cases in which death notices have been filed may go forward as noncapital first-degree murder prosecutions," with a maximum sentence of life without parole, he added. There are 9 such cases statewide, including 4 in Brooklyn and 1 on Staten Island.

The decision, which cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, also means the death sentences of the three remaining convicts on death row will ultimately be tossed and the inmates re-sentenced, legal experts agree. The court said it's up to the governor and Legislature to rework the sentencing provision.

In a 27-page dissenting opinion, Justices Robert Smith, Susan Phillips Read and Victoria Graffeo said they were "astonished" at the majority decision, which they claimed "elevates judicial distaste for the death penalty over the legislative will."

The offending provision deals with the sentencing instructions judges are required to give jurors about what happens if they become deadlocked. Under the current law, juries considering capital punishment must unanimously decide whether the convicted murderer should face death or life in prison without parole. But judges are required to instruct jurors before deliberations that if they can't agree, the court would mete out a less harsh sentence of life in prison with the chance of parole after a minimum of 20 to 25 years.

The ruling upheld the murder conviction of Stephen LaValle - who viciously stabbed, raped and killed Cynthia Quinn, a Long Island wife and mother as she out jogging in 1997 - but vacated his death sentence. He will be re-sentenced.

New York Daily News

Court kills state's death penalty

New York's death penalty is dead - for now. In tossing out the death sentence of a Long Island killer yesterday, the state's highest court declared the state's capital punishment law unconstitutional.

The state Court of Appeals ruled that a sentencing provision in the 8-year-old statute may sway jurors into voting for death over life in jail.

State lawmakers immediately started efforts to amend the law. In the meantime, it is impossible to prosecute murder defendants under the current statute, said Buffalo-area state Sen. Dale Volker (R-Depew), author of the death penalty law.

"Some people are going to die because of this decision," said Volker, who is crafting new legislation. "The street people aren't stupid. When they realize there aren't going to be any executions, they'll go out and kill people." [R.Tabak comment: The person whois stupid is Volker!]

At issue is a provision in the law that says New York judges must tell jurors in capital punishment trials that they can pick between death and life without parole. If jurors are deadlocked between the 2 punishments, the law also orders judges to instruct them that they will sentence defendants to between 20 and 25 years to life in prison. That sentence carries with it the possibility of parole.

Because of this, the law creates a significant risk that "jurors who cannot bear the thought that a defendant may walk the streets again . . . will join jurors favoring death in order to avoid the deadlock sentence," wrote Judge George Bundy Smith for the majority of the court.

The court's 4-3 decision spared the life of Stephen LaValle, 37. He was convicted in 1998 of raping and killing Cynthia Quinn, a 32-year-old mother of 2 attacked in a Yaphank, L.I., park.

Death sentences against the state's three other killers on death row also are invalidated by the ruling, law experts said. "All of the other death sentences that have been imposed are subject to the same challenge," Columbia law Prof. James Liebman said.

"They've got to fix the statute, or they can't impose the death sentence in any murder case."

Gov. Pataki said he was disappointed by the court's ruling. "The changes we've made in the criminal justice system have resulted in dramatic drops of crime," he said.

Utica Observer Dispatch 

Death-penalty law takes a hit

The state's highest court struck down part of New York's death-penalty law Thursday, in a decision that is likely to spare the lives of 13 defendants.

The Court of Appeals, ruling 4-3, declared unconstitutional a section of the law spelling out what judges tell juries will happen if jurors cannot unanimously decide on a sentence of death or life in prison without parole.

The court's majority took aim at the part of the law requiring judges to tell juries that if they cannot agree on a sentence, the judge will impose a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 or 25 years.

The court said that could pressure jurors who don't want to see a defendant back on the streets to vote for a sentence they would otherwise oppose.

"The deadlock instruction interjects the fear that if jurors do not reach unanimity, the defendant may be paroled in 20 years and pose a threat to society in the future," the court's majority said in a decision written by Judge George Bundy Smith.

"We hold today that the deadlock instruction ... is unconstitutional under the state Constitution because of the unacceptable risk that it may result in a coercive, and thus arbitrary and unreliable, sentence," the opinion said.

The decision in the Suffolk County case means four men now on death row will not be executed and nine others facing trial in death-penalty cases will probably face a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, according to legal observers.

According to Oneida County District Court Attorney Michael Arcuri, there is little local impact from the ruling. No one sits on death row as a result of a decision in an Oneida, Herkimer or Madison county courtroom, Arcuri said.

Since the state death penalty was reinstated, two Oneida County cases -- including William Nichols' double murder of his parents last year in Floyd -- could have resulted in the death penalty, Arcuri said.

But the district attorney's office didn't pursue the penalty in either case, he said.

Arcuri, president of the New York State District Attorneys Association, urged the legislature to rework the law so it's constitutional.

In certain instances, "the death penalty is a necessary deterrent," he said.

The Legislature adjourned Wednesday. Leaders said Thursday they wanted to address the issue, but there was no indication how or how quickly they would do so.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said he was working with Gov. George Pataki to come up with a fix and blasted the court.

"The state's death penalty is constitutional, and the decision against it is irresponsible and could ultimately jeopardize the lives of New Yorkers by placing dangerous, violent criminals back on the streets," said Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County.

NEW YORK: A 4-3 Ruling Effectively Halts Death Penalty in New York

New York State's highest court ruled yesterday that a central provision of the state's capital punishment law violated the State Constitution. Lawyers said the ruling would probably spare the lives of the 4 men now on death row and effectively suspend the death penalty in New York.

The 4-to-3 ruling from the State Court of Appeals in Albany went well beyond the particulars of a single case, giving opponents of the law an important victory. Besides the 4 death-row inmates, lawyers said, it could spare the lives of 9 defendants fighting capital cases and more than 30 others whose murder cases are in early stages.

Because the case was decided on state constitutional grounds, it is also expected to provide a broad new legal foundation for untold future challenges to the state's death penalty.

The ruling left the capital punishment law itself intact, providing that the Legislature repairs the provision that the court said was flawed. But the court's majority said, "Under the present statute, the death penalty may not be imposed."

No one has been executed under the law, which was passed in 1995 with the fervent support of Gov. George E. Pataki. Some juries have resisted imposing capital punishment and some district attorneys have declined to seek it at trial.

The last execution in New York, under a previous death penalty law, was in 1963.

The court's majority said the Legislature improperly required judges to tell 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. The decision said that instruction had the effect of coercing jurors to vote for execution, because they might fear that a vote against it would lead to the eventual release of people charged with extraordinarily violent or otherwise shocking murders.

"The deadlock instruction," the majority said, "gives rise to an unconstitutionally palpable risk that one or more jurors who cannot bear the thought that a defendant may walk the streets again after serving 20 to 25 years will join jurors favoring death in order to avoid the deadlock sentence."

The majority decision, by Judge George Bundy Smith, said the deadlock provision violated the State Constitution's guarantee of due process of law. Lawyers said yesterday's ruling left little ground for review by any federal court.

Including yesterday's decision, the Court of Appeals has overturned a death sentence 4 times since the law was enacted.

The governor and legislative leaders said yesterday that they would move quickly to repair the law. The leaders of the State Senate and Assembly have both said they favor the death penalty. But legislative politics and the volatility of the capital punishment issue left it unclear how quickly the penalty might be restored.

Some prosecutors said yesterday that they were working on amendments to the law that could quickly revive the death penalty. Several of them said publicly that they believed that the remaining death-row inmates might be able to be resentenced to death under a new law. But several of them conceded that the courts might not approve such death sentences.

The dissent, by three judges all appointed by Governor Pataki, said the decision reflected an effort by the majority to stall the application of the death penalty in the state. "Today's decision, in our view," the dissent said, "elevates judicial distaste for the death penalty over the legislative will."

The ruling affirmed the conviction of Stephen LaValle, a former Long Island roofer who raped and killed a Suffolk County schoolteacher, Cynthia Quinn, in 1997, stabbing her 73 times. But the court sent the case back for sentencing of Mr. LaValle, now 37. The court said a trial judge was to sentence him to a life term, perhaps one that included the possibility of parole.

Critics of capital punishment maintained even during legislative debates about the law in 1995 that the deadlock provision, which the Court of Appeals said was unique among the nation's capital punishment laws, coerced jurors to vote for death, but some critics say such legal arguments gained little traction in a Legislature convinced that the public strongly favored capital punishment.

Some prosecutors say the deadlock provision was intended to encourage jurors to make the difficult choice between life without parole and death that is presented to them in capital cases. These prosecutors say the provision has helped some death penalty juries reach a decision by suggesting that a defendant may someday go free if they do not reach a verdict.

But in a statement yesterday, the Suffolk County district attorney, Thomas Spota, whose office prosecuted Mr. LaValle's case, said juries needed to be able to be sure "that in the event of a deadlock, the defendant whom they found guilty of 1st-degree murder would be sentenced to life in prison without parole." He added that he believed that such a sentence would be rational "in these specific circumstances."

The decision was a major victory for the New York Capital Defender's Office, a state-financed legal office that handled the appeals of Mr. LaValle and the 3 other men whose death sentences have been overturned by the Court of Appeals since the law went into effect. Death penalty supporters have said the capital defenders are working to get what amounts to a moratorium on the death penalty by deluging the court with one technical legal argument after another.

Mr. Pataki yesterday called the ruling disappointing, while Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican Senate majority leader, called it irresponsible, adding that it "could ultimately jeopardize the lives of New Yorkers by placing dangerous, violent criminals back on the streets."

Some prosecutors around the state criticized the decision, saying the judges appeared to be searching for reasons to avoid approving any death sentence. "From the perspective of a prosecutor, there's tremendous frustration right now," said Mike Green, the Monroe County district attorney. "In case after case, it seems they're looking for a way to set the death sentences aside.'

But the chief Capital Defender, Kevin M. Doyle, called the decision a victory for common sense. Mr. Doyle, acknowledging that some critics of the court had said its prior rulings overturning death sentences were made on technical grounds, argued, "Nobody can claim the provision that was found unconstitutional was anything but dangerous and unfair."

Some trial judges have held that the deadlock provision is unconstitutional and have refused to tell juries in advance that in a deadlock, the law requires judges to impose sentences that may permit release on parole. But the majority in the Court of Appeals ruling said the failure to give that jury instruction did not fix the problem, because jurors should not be left to speculate about the possibility of a killer going free someday on parole.

The dissent, written by Governor Pataki's most recent appointee to the court, Judge Robert S. Smith, called the ruling "an astonishing holding" that improperly supplanted the role of the Legislature. The other dissenting judges were Victoria A. Graffeo and Susan Phillips Read.

The dissent said the majority had invented a new constitutional right ensuring that a jury in a capital case would be told in advance that a deadlock would mean a sentence of life in prison without parole.

"The existence of such a right finds no support in precedent, and none in logic except on the premise that death penalty defendants are constitutionally entitled to every procedural advantage the human mind can devise," the dissent said.

Judge George Bundy Smith and 2 of the other judges in the majority, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye and Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, were appointed by Governor Pataki's Democratic predecessor, Mario M. Cuomo.

The only Pataki appointee in the majority, Albert M. Rosenblatt, a former Dutchess County district attorney, is viewed by some lawyers as ambivalent about capital punishment.

Some prosecutors said yesterday that they were still studying the decision. The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said he was "not prepared to draw any conclusions" as to whether the death sentence obtained by his prosecutors would stand for John B. Taylor, who was convicted of murder in a massacre at a Wendy's restaurant in Flushing in 2000.

The 2 other men on death row are Robert Shulman, who bludgeoned and dismembered 3 prostitutes on Long Island in 1994 and 1995, and Nicholson McCoy, who sodomized and killed a female co-worker at a Suffolk grocery store in 1998.

Michael A. Arcuri, the president of the New York State District Attorneys Association, said his members had concluded that the legal problem identified by the court could be repaired by the Legislature.

But some legal experts said it seemed clear that yesterday's decision meant that capital punishment in New York was essentially back to Square 1. "The problem in this case," said James S. Liebman, a Columbia University law professor, "exists in every single death penalty case in the state, and, in effect, there is no viable or valid death sentence in New York until they get it straightened out."

Some death penalty supporters and prosecutors said they were more concerned about the court's general recognition of due process rights for capital defendants under the State Constitution than about the specific decision on the deadlock provision.

Several said that ruling would open new challenges to the capital punishment law. "We don't know what the full scope of this new constitutional right is," said Mr. Green, the Monroe County district attorney, "and we won't know for years." (

The Buffalo News

State's high court leaves death penalty in limbo

The state's death penalty was put on hold Thursday by a ruling of the state's highest court that found a key sentencing provision of the 1995 capital punishment law unconstitutional.

The court's 4-3 decision, which voided the death sentence in a Long Island murder case, also tosses out the sentences of 3 others on death row, including a man convicted of killing 4 people at a fast-food restaurant in Queens, legal scholars say.

Under the ruling, 9 others who had faced possible death penalties now can receive a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. Even if the Legislature revises the law, the the state's first execution lethal injection still might be a decade away.

"While the Legislature may vote to have a death penalty, it cannot create one that offends constitutional rights," Judge George Bundy Smith wrote for the court's majority.

Gov. George E. Pataki, whose support of the death penalty helped him win election in 1994, condemned the decision as "disappointing" and said he was studying options.

Within hours of the ruling, legislators were scrambling to determine how to revise the law and to determine whether the death penalty has political backing nine years after it was restored.

State Sen. Dale M. Volker, R-Depew, author of the 1995 Senate bill restoring the death penalty, criticized the court.

"This decision is going to cause some people to die," predicted Volker, who accused the judges of letting personal opposition to the death penalty drive their decision.

Court officials said no death penalty cases are pending in Erie County.

But elsewhere, the decision left prosecutors handling nine capital punishment cases scrambling.

"From a prosecutor's perspective, it's very frustrating," said Monroe County District Attorney Mike Green, who criticized the court for chipping away at the death penalty law.

Four straight death sentences brought before the court since 1995 have been overturned without, Green said, deciding the broader constitutional issue: Can the state allow the death penalty?

"You can't help it but sit here as a prosecutor and say how long is this going to go on?" he added.

Thursday's ruling involves a provision of the law requiring judges to instruct jurors during the sentencing phase of a capital case that they can sentence the defendant to death or life without parole.

But the judge also must tell jurors that if they fail to agree unanimously on one of the options, the court will impose a life sentence that would make the defendant eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 20 to 25 years. New York is the only state that requires a lesser sentence if jurors are deadlocked, the court noted.

That, the majority ruled, amounts to presenting jurors with what the judges called a "Hobson's choice."

"A juror who has found defendant guilty of a capital crime, and has heard weeks of arguments and a summation reviling the defendant and detailing the pain he has caused, is more likely to choose death than risk the prospect of defendant ever harming anyone in society again," the decision says.

Writing for the 3 dissenting jurists, Judge Robert S. Smith, a recent Pataki appointee who as a lawyer had defended clients in death penalty cases, said the majority was tipping the balance in the favor of defendants.

"Today's decision, in our view, elevates judicial distaste for the death penalty over the legislative will," Smith wrote.

The case before the court involved Stephen LaValle, who was sentenced to death for raping and beating a Suffolk County high school track coach and stabbing her 73 times with a screwdriver. The court ordered that he be resentenced to life without parole or 20 to 25 years, with the chance of parole.

"It is of great importance," Kevin Doyle, head of the Capital Defender Office, which represents many of the state's capital-case defendants, said of the decision. "It recognizes both an equitable and a constitutional problem in the statute."