It is very disappointing that 11 Majority members of the Assembly Codes Committee seem to feel that they, alone, should decide the fate of the state’s Death Penalty law when 150 members of the Assembly were elected to represent New York’s 19 million citizens.

All of the members of the Codes Committee were urged by Assembly Minority members, that regardless of their personal opinion of the Death Penalty, they should vote to move the legislation to the Assembly floor to be debated and voted on by the full body.

Today’s Codes Committee action shows that more needs to be done to reform the Assembly rules and the Committee system so that significant legislation does not get bottled up by a select few.

The issue of capital punishment has not been decided definitively. We will continue to explore and discuss every option available to bring this important issue to the floor of the full Assembly.