20041776 Club
New York's death penalty statute is unconstitutional, state's top court rules
Chief Judge Judith Kaye and the Court of Appeals strike down the 1995 law in People v. LaValle; it had been used exactly once in nine years.
New York had not executed anyone since 1963, and only one person sat on death row when the state's Court of Appeals handed down its ruling in People v. LaValle. In 2004, Chief Judge Judith Kaye and her colleagues declared the 1995 death penalty statute unconstitutional under the state constitution's prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishments." The law had been on the books for less than a decade and had been used exactly once. New York became the sixth state to abolish capital punishment — joining a line that ran back to Michigan in 1847…
