The Death Penalty in New York Testimony Collection was collected as part of a partnership between the Capital Punishment Research Initiative (CPRI) at the University at Albany's School of Criminal Justice and the University at Albany Libraries. The CPRI, headed by Professors James Acker and Charles Lanier, donated this material in an effort to provide researchers with full coverage of the hearings.

As explained in Death Penalty in New York, A Report on Five Public Hearings (pages 1-4), the New York State Assembly Standing Committees on Codes, Judiciary and Correction held a succession of public hearings in December 2004 through February 2005 on the death penalty in New York in reaction to the June 24, 2004, decision by the New York Court of Appeals to strike down the New York's capital punishment law enacted in 1995. The decision, rendered in People v. LaValle, struck down New York's "deadlock" instruction provision, which had been proposed by Governor Pataki and passed by the New York State Senate in 1995. The "deadlock" instruction provision ordered juries to be instructed that they give one of only two sentencing options, death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and that they be further instructed that in the event of a jury deadlock that the defendant would be sentenced to a minimum of 20-25 year and a maximum of life imprisonment. It was the decision that jurors might feel coerced into choosing the death penalty to avoid the court deciding to give a defendant a minimum 20-25 year sentence.

When the New York Court of Appeals struck down the "deadlock" provision it completely forbade the operation of the death penalty. However, the Court did agree that life without the possibility of parole was a fair alternative sentence. The decision by the New York Court of Appeals left the New York State Assembly the charge to enact legislation that would reinstate the death penalty, modify the death penalty, or abolish the death penalty. The committees acknowledged that the death penalty in New York had been ineffective. The committees recognized that in the ten years since the law was enacted more than $170 million had been spent in pursuit of death penalty cases, yet no one was executed. In total, four sentences were struck down by the New York Court of Appeals, one sentence was converted to life without parole, and two cases were still in the sentencing process. The committees noted that numerous death row exonerations due to DNA testing had been occurring in the previous ten years and also observed a change in public opinion. The New York State Assembly Standing Committees on Codes, Judiciary and Correction decided that it would formally review New York's death penalty law including its history, the needs of defendants, and the wishes of constituents.

The committees heard oral testimony from 146 witnesses and read written testimony from another 24 witnesses, both of which combined to more than 4,000 transcribed pages. The documents in this collection, however, do not give an indication of the New York State Assembly Standing Committees on Codes, Judiciary and Correction's final decision about capital punishment in New York State. However, the Death Penalty Information Center (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org) indicates that the Assembly did vote to eliminate the death penalty on April 12, 2005. To read the text of Bill A00851, which repeals the death penalty in New York State, see the laws on the New York State Assembly's web site (http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg).