VII. Death Penalty

• Jurisdiction: New York

VII. DEATH PENALTY

In March 1995, New York State enacted legislation reinstating the death penalty for the first time since 1977.⁹⁸ In June 2004, the Court of Appeals found the death penalty statute unconstitutional because the jury deadlock instruction provision (CPL § 400.27(10)) violated the due process provisions of the New York State Constitution.⁹⁹ As of the time of this writing, the legislature has not taken action to cure the constitutional defect, and the statute remains nullified.

The statute contains several provisions concerning the mentally disabled. For example, it exempts a person who is mentally retarded from being subject to the death penalty. For purposes of this statute, mental retardation is defined as “significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in...