The killing of a uniformed New York City police officer has prompted calls for reimposition of the death penalty for such egregious crimes, Newsday reports. “If this case does not speak to the need for the death penalty as a deterrent, none ever has,” said Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. Lynch commented outside court in Brooklyn after Allan Cameron was arraigned on charges of murdering officer Dillon Stewart. Gov. George Pataki, who signed a death penalty law in 1995, said that in the murder of a police officer, “the death penalty is an appropriate remedy.
The death penalty has been in limbo in New York since the state’s highest court ruled last year that part of the law was unconstitutional. Legislative leaders said they would revise the law, but no action has been taken. David Kaczynski of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty urged against taking any action in the heat of the moment. “This is an affront to the community, but any time you craft a law out of emotion, it is a bad law,” Kaczynski said. “What we have now that we didn’t have in 1995 is 10 years’ experience with the death penalty. We thought it would be the magic bullet and we see it hasn’t been.”
Link: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-death1130,0,4205865.story?coll=ny-top-headlines