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| McReynolds Calls Upon Assembly Democrats to Block Death Penalty. |
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McReynolds for the U.S. Senate Media Release July 19, 2004 For More Information David McReynolds, the long time death penalty opponent who is seeking the Green Party nomination for US Senate from New York, today called upon Assembly Democrats to block the effort to re-establish the death penalty. "The death penalty is not only immoral, it is ineffective, failing to defer crime and murder. It has been applied in a racist manner. The death penalty is also enormously expensive for taxpayers, costing New Yorkers at least $170 million in the last nine years. It is also often applied to innocent defendants," stated McReynolds. New York has sent more innocent persons to their death than any other state. Twenty-nine New Yorkers were erroneously convicted in potentially capital cases, and eight have been wrongfully executed. Of the last 19 people executed in New York, 14 were African American, one Hispanic. Nationally, a person accused of killing a White person is 4.3 times more likely to receive the death sentence than an individual accused of killing a Black person. The death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime. A FBI study shows that states which have abolished the death penalty averaged lower murder rates than states, which have not. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1995 in New York, the homicide rate has risen significantly in Rochester, where the death penalty often has been sought, and fallen dramatically in Manhattan, where a death sentence never has been sought. Last month the Court of Appeals ruled the state's death penalty unconstitutional. Governor Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have announced their attention to quickly re-pass the death penalty - perhaps as early as this week when the legislature reconvenes - despite the fact the most New Yorkers now prefer life with parole, a dramatic change in the polls since the state enacted the death penalty shortly after Pataki was first elected Governor. "I find it strange that the only issue in which Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver allows legislators to vote their so-called conscience is on the death penalty. On no other issue does Silver allow to the floor unless a majority of the Assembly Democrats support it. It is time for the rank and file Democrats to stand up and block Silver from using Republican votes to pass the death penalty," added McReynolds. A majority of New Yorkers support alternatives to the death penalty. In a poll released by Quinnipiac University in March 2003, people in New York favor life without parole over the death penalty by 53% to 38%.. The Green Party is committed to ecology, nonviolence,
grassroots democracy and social and economic justice. |
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