In coming months, the New York State Assembly will conduct two hearings into addressing the recent Court of Appeals decision in the Lavalle case, which effectively threw-out the death penalty in New York State.

In our state, during the penalty phase following a death-eligible conviction, the jury is instructed that if deadlocked, the judge will impose a sentence of 20 to 25 years to life, thereby giving the possibility of parole.

In a 4-3 ruling, the court ruled that this instruction provision could unconstitutionally coerce jurors into voting for a death sentence rather than to risk a deadlock resulting in possible parole. The court advised the Legislature to correct this defect in the deadlock instruction.

The decision by the court impacted several existing death penalty-eligible cases in the state, including my office’s indictment of Ronell Wilson for the 2003 assassination of NYPD detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin.

Last week, I announced with U.S. Attorney Mauskopf that Wilson, and several co-defendants, were indicted for violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute. Under that indictment, the Department of Justice may seek a death sentence against Wilson for the murders of these detectives.

As Commissioner Kelly stated, “If ever federal and local law enforcement were solidly united in a cause, this is it. And if anyone ever needed a justification for the death penalty, this case is it.”

Unfortunately, the ability for local prosecutors to seek the death penalty has essentially been eliminated by the decision in Lavalle and is now at the mercy of the Legislature.

At the time of the decision, there seemed to be clear political will, among both Democrats and Republicans, to react quickly to change this law. However, in comments made this week, Assembly Speaker Silver seemed less than enthusiastic about promptly passing a revised law that would meet constitutional muster. Speaker Silver stated, “The Legislature is now faced with the profound question of whether the death penalty should be reinstated.”

But the Legislature is not faced with this question. It is not the death penalty that the Court declared to be unconstitutional. But rather a single provision that needs to be rewritten to eliminate any possible violation of the defendant’s rights.

Upon taking office, Governor Pataki, fulfilling a campaign pledge, stated that he would sign a death penalty law as soon as it passed the Legislature. That law was overwhelmingly passed by the Legislature and was signed into law on March 7, 1995.

New York’s capital punishment law permits a death sentence for murder when there are any of about a dozen other aggravating factors present. These include killing: a police, probation, parole, court or corrections officer; a judge, a witness or a member of a witness’s family; while serving a life sentence or while escaping from prison, or while committing other felonies.

They include murder for contract, serial murder, torture murders, and murders by someone who has previously been convicted of murder. They also include murder in the course of a terrorist act and murders by people with prior serious felonies.

To paraphrase Commissioner Kelly, these crimes deserve the death penalty.

The interests of justice as well as the will of the people in this state demand that the Legislature act quickly to remedy the flaw in New York’s death penalty law.

Mr. Donovan is district attorney for Staten Island.