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NAR: New York's Court of Appeals struck down the death penalty law because of a provision called "dead lock instruction" .
Here's how it worked:
Dead lock instruction required judges to tell juries that if they did not return with a unanimous verdict of death... or life with out parole ... the judge in the case could give a lighter sentence.
The Court of Appeals said that dead lock instruction might have forced some jurors to return a verdict of death....otherwise, the judge could override the jury's verdict by giving the defendent a more lenient sentence.
Richard Dieter is executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. A Washington-based anti death penalty group. Dieter says, the dead lock clause was a fundamental problem with new York's law from day one.
AX: RICHARD DIETER: The judges said this is a problem the legislature has to fix. WE're not talking about one case here we're talking about a flaw in the law. A flaw in the way the law was written. It's very much up in the air in New York at this point.
NAR: Dieter says that death penalty cases often involve ongoing and expensive appeals processes.... that's been the case in New York, he says.
AX:RICHARD DIETER:
New York has had the death penalty for almost ten years now. They spent a hundred and seventy million dollars during that time and not one person was executed…and of course no body's going to be on death row. They'll have to start all over again. It will be another ten years before anyone is even close to execution, another two hundred million dollars will be spent and there's no guarantee that the New York Appeals Court won't overturn that law. (25 SEC.)
NAR: Death Penalty supporters say the benefits outweigh the problems. William Rusty Hobbard is a criminal lawyer and advocate for the Texas-based, pro-death penalty group, Justice for All. He says that a ban on the death penalty means that states are placing convict's rights over those of victims.
AX:WILLIAM HOBBARD: The rights of the victim which have been developed over the last twenty years are as much a part of the process as the rights of the defendant or the rights of the prosecutor. (8 sec.)
NAR: Hobbard says that if New York's law survives this constitutional challenge, it will be stronger and more enforceable.
AX: WILLIAM HOBBARD: New York will come in to its own and if it's a matter of fine tuning the process so that it can survive a constitutional attack…then that's what needs to be done. (13 sec.)
NAR: New York's case is part of an international debate over the death penalty. In 2003 the United States, China, Iran and Vietnam accounted for eighty four percent of all known executions. Human Rights Watch advocate Dorit Radzin says that America's refusal to abolish the death penalty may be undercutting its attempt to be a worldwide human rights leader.
TAPE:DORIT RADZIN: The U.S. really wants to see itself as a promoter of democracy and human rights and by continuing to have the death penalty it really defeats the U.S. morally. It makes the U.S. hypocritical. And it's transparent to other countries for us...for the U.S. to be promoting democracy and human rights while continuing to carry out executions. (24 sec.)
NAR: In 1998, 300 people were executed in the U.S. In 2003 that number was down to 143. Radzin says this is an example of waning public support for the death penalty due to the problems in the criminal justice system.
TAPE:DORIT RADZIN: So I think were just going to continue to see less and less states and juries who are comfortable imposing a death sentence. I think we're going to continue to see a decline. I think we're going to continue to see states passing laws and imposing moratoriums. (15 sec.)
NAR: The U.S. Supreme Court decided this week to strike down the death penalty in juvenile cases. The future of the death penalty in New York is still unclear.
SOQ