ON BEHALF OF MICHAEL JACCARINO, ESQ. OF AIDALA, BERTUNA & KAMINS, PC POSTED IN BLOG ON Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Islamic terrorist may be first person executed in New York in over 60 years
The Islamic terrorist who fatally ran over and killed eight people near Manhattan’s Hudson River in 2017 could become the first person executed in New York in more than 60 years.
A jury began weighing Sayfullo Saipov’s sentencing fate Monday, after he was convicted of the heinous crime last month, and the death penalty is on the table. New York State does not have capital punishment and hasn’t executed anyone since 1963, but Saipov’s trial is in federal court, where a death sentence is still an option.
If he is sentenced to death and executed, it would be the first time the Empire State has carried out capital punishment since 1963, when armed-robbery killer Eddie Mays died in Sing Sing’s electric chair, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
New York previously had a long history of capital punishment that predates the founding of the United States, the center said. Between 1608 and 1972, New York had the second most executions of any state in the union. Only Virginia had more.
But the state has slowly moved away from eye-for-an-eye punishment, the center said.
So, although inmates lived on New York’s death row over the years, it’s been decades since anyone has actually been executed.
In terms of federal court, where Saipov was convicted, the last person executed in New York after being found guilty was Gerhard Arthur Puff, who was put to death Aug. 12, 1954, for slaying FBI agent Joseph Brock during a shootout with authorities.
More recently, the feds tried to execute reputed Bloods member Ronell Wilson for the 2003 slayings of undercover NYPD Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews.
But an appeals court overturned one of the death sentences against Wilson in 2010, and in 2016,a federal judge deemed him ineligible for the death penalty, saying he was too “intellectually disabled” to be executed.
Source – NY Post
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