http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/current/news/stories/deathpenalty.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
NEW YORK (Reuter) - After 18 years of debate, New York has become the 38th state where the death penalty has been revived.
``This law is going to save lives,'' said Gov. George Pataki, who used the issue of reviving capital punishment last year in his campaign against longtime governor Mario Cuomo, who vetoed the bill 18 times.
About 100 protesters held a candlelight vigil in Times Square before the Friday midnight deadline, after which certain types of murder become eligible for the death penalty.
``New York State should not be in the business of premeditated executions of its citizens,'' said Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. He said executions each cost $2 million more than life prison sentences, are more frequently imposed on minorities and do not reduce crime rates in states that have them.
Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said the New York law is broader than some states but does require that the murder be intentional.
Since the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was constitutional in 1976, Dieter said, 295 people have been executed and 3,009 are on death row in the United States, all for murder with some aggravating circumstance.
The United States is one of 97 countries that retain the death penalty, which has been abolished in 54 nations and is allowed in 15 only in extraordinary circumstances such as war, he said.
Since the average inmate stays on death row for eight years before being executed and New York's first cases will face legal challenges, no one will be executed in the state for several years at least.