The new State Governor of New York, George E. Pataki, has announced his support for reinstating the death penalty. AI believes that legislation could be introduced very early in 1995, possibly even in January. In this report, AI calls on the authorities in New York to abandon plans to restore the death penalty. The report discusses the question of deterrence and the death penalty and the apparent popular support for the death penalty in the United States. It presents AI’s arguments against reinstatment of the death penalty, which include arbitrary and racial use of the death penalty, risk of executing innocent people, cost and the doubts expressed by former US Supreme Court justices.
