when did new york end the death penalty
Capital punishment in New York In June 2004, the state's highest court ruled in People v. LaValle that the state's death penalty statute violated the state constitution,[1] and New York has had an effective moratorium on capital punishment since then. Subsequent legislative attempts at fixing or replacing the statute have failed,[2] and in 2008 then-Governor David Paterson issued an executive order disestablishing New York's death row.[3] Legislative efforts to amend the statute have failed, and death sentences are no longer sought at the state level, though certain crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government are subject to the federal death penalty.[4][5][6]
Rainey Bethea Rainey Bethea (c. 1909[2] â€“ August 14, 1936) was the last person to be publicly executed in the United States. Bethea, who confessed to the rape and murder of a 70-year-old woman named Lischia Edwards, was convicted of her rape and publicly hanged in Owensboro, Kentucky. Mistakes in performing the hanging and the surrounding media circus contributed to the end of public executions in the United States.