Death to take a holiday in NY?

The New York Times is reporting here that it is now seeming unlikely that New York we re-enact the death penalty after the state’s highest court declared the current statute unconstitutional last June in People v. LaValle (background here).  The article effectively documents the on-going political debate, while providing this account of New York’s decade of experience with the death penalty:

Since 1995, an estimated $175 million or more has been spent on death penalty cases, but there have been no executions.  Prosecutors have sought death against at least 55 defendants, and juries have sentenced seven to death.  Of those, five sentences were reversed by the Court of Appeals, and two are still on appeal.

In other capital news, this Los Angeles Times article provides an interesting account of the California Supreme Court’s decision yesterday concerning the procedures for death row inmates to raise claims that they are mentally retarded.  That Hawthorne decision is discussed in this post.