Agreement Reached on Plan to Restore Executions in New York

After 18 years of death penalty vetoes, Gov. George Pataki and legislative leaders Wednesday announced an agreement to bring capital punishment back to New York.

The accord, which seems almost certain to be approved, was reached after an all-night negotiating session with Senate and Assembly leaders. If passed, it would make New York the 38th state with capital punishment.

Pataki, who made restoration of the death penalty a central promise of his gubernatorial campaign last year, said: “It will save lives. It will reduce the number of murders which otherwise would have been committed in this state.”

Pataki acknowledged that there are several details yet to be worked out--and aides cautioned that no deal is final until it is signed into law. But the state Senate expects to vote on the issue Feb. 27, and the new law would most likely take effect sometime in the fall.

The proposal would allow prosecutors to seek death by injection but they would not be required to seek the penalty in any case.

Republican state Sen. Dale Volker, the prime sponsor of the death penalty bill for nearly two decades--when it was repeatedly vetoed by Govs. Hugh Carey and Mario M. Cuomo--estimated that it could take about a year for the first capital crime to be tried in the state. It could take another year and a half to two years before the first execution takes place.