supported by a 2008 Amnesty International study which found that the fourteen states without the death penalty had a murder rate at or below the national average. 24 While high crime rates may increase support for the death penalty, the shocking nature of some crimes may also boost support and further politicise it. Despite having not carried out an execution since 1963 New York reinstated capital punishment in 1995, coinciding with a period of high crime wave and following several high profile incidents. 25 At the signing ceremony Governor George Pataki made the point of inviting the families of two murdered New York police officers to the signing. Pataki also made reference to the 1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting where a bus of Jewish school children was attacked. 26 Major incidents such as these demonstrate how support for the death penalty can be highly conditional and fluctuate dependent upon the circumstances. In this case it is clear several high profile incidents led to the passage of a new death penalty statute in New York, which, nonetheless, remains unused. This demonstrates how public opinion can fluctuate and how this can have a direct impact on the actions taken by politicians. Similarly, demonstrating how quickly public opinion can change, just five months after the high profile bombing at the Boston Marathon in April 2013 a Boston Globe poll found that 33 percent of people in the city supported the death 24 Amnesty International, ‘U.S. Death Penalty Facts’ , 2016 <http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us- death-penalty-facts> [accessed 24 April 2016]. 25 James Dao, ‘Death Penalty Reinstated in New York after 18 Years; Pataki See Justice Served’ , The New York Times , 8 March 1995 <http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/08/nyregion/death-penalty- in-new-york-reinstated-after-18-years-pataki-sees-justice- served.html> [accessed 24 April 2016]. 26 Ibid.
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