ALBANY – It’s taking Governor Pataki longer to “fix” New York’s death penalty than it took him to pass it in the first place.

As of today, it has been 85 days since the state Court of Appeals ruled that a key provision of New York’s capital punishment law was unconstitutional. Mr. Pataki had signed that law on March 7, 1995, the 66th day of his first term.

Proponents of restoring the death penalty lay most of the blame for the delay with the Assembly, where Democratic leaders have refused to take up legislation submitted by the governor that the Republican-led Senate approved on August 11.

Yet some are disappointed that Mr. Pataki – who made the death penalty a centerpiece of his 1994 campaign against Governor Cuomo – has not tried to make it an issue in legislative elections this fall.

“I would like to see him raise the volume somewhat to get the legislative leaders back there to take care of it,” the chairman of the Conservative Party, Michael Long of Brooklyn, said yesterday.

The calls for action have grown stronger since the fatal shooting of two New York City police detectives, Robert Parker and Patrick Rafferty, at East Flatbush on September 10.Killing a law enforcement officer is a capital offense, but the June 24 court ruling prevents prosecutors from seeking the death penalty.

“The police officers of this state put their lives on the line every day to protect our freedom,” Mr. Pataki said at a public appearance Wednesday. “We’re going to convince [the Assembly] leadership that they should not be defending criminals, they should be defending the police who enforce the law and those of us who want to obey and respect the law.”

Death penalty opponents, however, say the de facto moratorium imposed by the court gives lawmakers a chance to reconsider their support for capital punishment.

“We’ve had it for 10 years and it hasn’t worked by anyone’s measure,” said the director of New Yorkers against the Death Penalty, David Kaczynski, noting that no executions have taken place. “The idea we’re just going to put a Band-Aid on it and go back to business as usual is irresponsible.”

In its decision on June 24, the Court of Appeals declared that sentencing procedures in the 1995 law could improperly pressure jurors to favor the death penalty. Jurors can choose between death and life in prison without parole, but if they deadlock, the convict gets a sentence that includes the possibility of parole.

Mr. Pataki’s proposed fix would give jurors the option of a sentence with pa role, and make life without parole the default sentence in the case of a deadlock.

“This is not something we should decide right away,” said Senator Elizabeth Krueger of Manhattan, who had proposed a 10-year moratorium before the court ruling.

Although the Assembly is due to convene next week to override some of the governor’s budget vetoes, Speaker Sheldon Silver of Manhattan said the house would not take up legislation on the death penalty until it has held hearings on the issue.

“After 10 years of having a death penalty and very limited … attempts to use it and enforce it, I think we should look at the whole thing,” Mr. Silver told the Albany Times-Union on Tuesday. “It’s not something for next week.”