Capital punishment in New York has not been practiced since 1963, when Eddie Mays was electrocuted at Sing Sing Prison. The state was the first to adopt the electric chair as a method of execution, which replaced hanging. The state is third in recorded number of executions since 1608, after Virginia and Texas. Following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling declaring existing capital punishment statutes unconstitutional in Furman v. Georgia (1972), New York was without a death penalty until 1995, when then-Governor George Pataki signed a new statute into law, which provided for execution by lethal injection. In June 2004, the state's highest court ruled in People v. LaValle that the state's death penalty statute violated the state constitution, and New York has had an effective moratorium on capital punishment since then. Subsequent legislative attempts at fixing or replacing the statute have failed, and in 2008 then-Governor David Paterson issued an executive order disestablishing New York's death row.
Read more about Capital Punishment In New York: Temporary Abolition, Introduction of The Electric Chair, Restrictions, Furman V. Georgia, Grasso Extradition and Execution, Restoration, Statute Declared Unconstitutional, Last Death Sentence Commuted, Public Hearings, Political Significance in Manhattan District Attorney Election, Legislative Efforts To Reinstate The Death Penalty, Death Row Disestablished, See Also
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