Posted on 11/16/2006 10:21:46 PM PST by SunkenCiv
When New York's highest court decides an appeal of the state's remaining death sentence case next year, the judges may show little allegiance to the court's landmark 2004 decision striking down the death penalty, legal observers say... Because of retirements in the court, the judges who hear Taylor's appeal will likely include two newcomers who did not take part in the LaValle case. One judge who voted against capital punishment, Albert Rosenblatt, yesterday heard his final day of arguments before his December retirement. Choosing a replacement for Judge Rosenblatt, considered a swing vote on capital punishment, will be one of Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer's first decisions. The judge who wrote for the majority in LaValle, George Bundy Smith, has already left the court, retiring this year after Governor Pataki replaced him with a far more conservative jurist, Eugene Pigott Jr., for his spot. Judge Pigott is a "wild card" on the death penalty who could show little support for the LaValle decision, which he did take part in, a professor at Albany Law School who closely follows the Court of Appeals, Vincent Bonventre, said. "It is absolutely true that the question about the New York death penalty statute is unsettled." Other legal observers say that even if the individual justices disagreed with the LaValle decision, they could be unwilling to overturn one of the court's most significant rulings.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
I did a news search for the Spitzer telescope, found this.
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