Court Overturns Killer’s Death Sentence
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Judges at the state’s highest court overturned a death penalty sentence today in the trial of the last inmate on New York’s death row, John Taylor, upholding a decision in 2004 that found the state’s death penalty statute unconstitutional.
In a 4-3 decision, Albany’s Court of Appeals upheld their decision in the case of People v. Stephen LaValle that struck down the state’s 1995 death penalty statute on the grounds that instructions given to jurors on whether to choose a death sentence are unconstitutional.
Juries were told that if they could not unanimously agree on a death penalty, a defendant might be eligible for parole during his prison term. This coerced juries to favor death penalties, the judges ruled, violating the state Constitution.
During Taylor’s trial in 2002, the judge indicated that he would sentence the defendant to 175 years in prison if the jury deadlocked, introducing the possibility of eventual release. After receiving a death sentence, Taylor appealed the decision on the grounds that the judge’s instructions violated the LaValle ruling.
Attorneys for the district attorney in Queens, Richard Brown, argued that the judge should be allowed to tell jurors that a defendant is unlikely to ever be released, and that most potential capital cases would pass the test from the 2004 ruling.
“The court’s decision, for all intents and purposes, closes the book on the prosecution of those responsible for that which was among the most brutal and horrific crimes that this city has ever seen,” Mr. Brown said in a statement.
The judges sent the case back to the state trial court, where Taylor, 43, will be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Only the state legislature can amend the death penalty statute to effectively put the death penalty back into effect in New York.
In 2000, Taylor murdered five people at a Wendy’s fast food restaurant in Flushing, Queens during a robbery.
The last execution in New York was in 1963.