Passage Two
ALBANY, New York—After 18 years of being vetoed by Democratic governors, a death penalty law signed by George Pataki, the stated Republican governor, took effect Friday. New York is the 38th state to enact a death penalty since 1976, when the U. S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume capital punishment.
“People out there understand that this is going to save lives,” Mr. Pataki said. He spoke at a news conference, surrounded by relatives of people killed in crimes that now qualify as capital cases.
Among the murders now punishable by death are those of police officers, prison guards and judges, serial killings, those committed with another felony (重罪) such as rape, and slayings by terrorists. The killers would be executed by injection.
A coalition has been preparing an appeal since the bill was approved. It will be filed as soon as someone is sentenced to death? said Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. No one has been executed in New York since 1963. In 1965, the legislature suspended the death penalty due to doubts about its fair application to minorities.

Capital punishment is in the U.S.