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March 2, 2005

Republicans Seek a Bipartisan Vote on a Bill to Reinstate the State's Death Penalty

By AL BAKER

LBANY, March 1 - The Republicans who control the State Senate pushed forward a measure Tuesday to reinstitute the death penalty in New York State, voting it out of committee so that it can be considered by the full Senate next week.

In doing so, Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate's Republican leader, urged that the full State Assembly also be allowed to vote on the issue, saying that lawmakers needed to take public positions to ensure a more open process in Albany. And Gov. George E. Pataki, who rode into office in 1995 on support for the death penalty, said a vote by the Assembly was "what you expect in a democracy."

But the Democrats who control the Assembly are more skeptical about reinstituting the death penalty, and they suggested on Tuesday that they have been the most open about the issue, having held a series of public hearings around New York on capital punishment. In fact, they chided Mr. Bruno for assuring ease for the Senate death penalty bill even before that chamber's codes committee met to debate and vote on it.

"It doesn't do Joe Bruno any good to announce the results of votes before his committees have acted," said Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Democrat from Westchester County.

The death penalty was recently invalidated by the state's highest court, and Republicans want to pass legislation to fix flaws in the law, essentially reinstating capital punishment in the state.

In the Assembly, though, there has been mounting opposition to resurrecting the death penalty, and central members who voted for it in 1995 have said that new provisions in the law and a changed political landscape make it more likely that it will not be revived. Republicans suspect that beneath the public veneer of the Assembly hearings has been an underlying agenda to stop the death penalty from being reinstituted, a notion that Democrats deny.

"Any member of the Assembly can request a bill to be considered and, in the rules of the Assembly, they must be considered," said the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver. While he is in favor of the death penalty, Mr. Silver said any bill in his house must move through a series of committees and could be torpedoed at any stage.

On the Senate, Democrats accused Republicans of rushing the bill.

"This was added to the agenda on Friday, we are putting it on the floor next week, and I would say that quite honestly, I think this makes our house look pretty bad compared to the work the Assembly has done on this," said Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, a Manhattan Democrat, at a committee meeting. He said Republicans could use hearings to induce evidence to support his position. "I don't really understand why we're trying to do a quick patchwork job."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company