Assembly Minority members today blasted the Assembly Majority for orchestrating a committee vote that could prevent the full Assembly from deciding the fate of New York’s death penalty. Eleven Majority members of the Majority-led Assembly Codes Committee today voted down an effort that would have brought a bill to "fix" the state’s death penalty to the floor of the Assembly where it would have been debated and voted on by all 150 Assembly members.

"It is outrageous that 11 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," Assemblyman Nesbitt said.

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.

Assemblyman Nesbitt added, "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. Assembly Minority members will continue to explore and discuss every option available to bring this important issue to the floor of the full Assembly."