CrimLaw

Death - New York:

The NY Supreme Court's dodging of the question as to whether the death penalty statute is contitutional has even caught the attention of the press in Taipei probably because of the acrimony the latest decision has occaisioned:

"We're eagerly awaiting guidance on the constitutionality of the statute," said Michael Arcuri, the district attorney in Utica and president of the New York State District Attorneys Association. "The decision didn't give us any guidance."
. . .
The two associate judges who dissented on Tuesday, Victoria Graffeo and Susan Phillips Read, used harsh language as they argued that the court should have left in place a first-degree murder conviction for the Syracuse-area man, James Cahill III, who beat his wife with a baseball bat and later forced cyanide down her throat. Cahill is now to be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison for second-degree murder.

"The majority has substituted its `wisdom' and public policy choices for those of the Legislature," Graffeo wrote.