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NYADP - a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization - has been a force in New York since 1992, when it was organized to oppose reinstatement of New York’s death penalty statute. At the time, increasing public support for capital punishment threatened to overwhelm Governor Mario Cuomo’s veto of death penalty reinstatement legislation. In the early and mid-1990’s NYADP was a voice of reason and moral clarity in a public debate frequently marred by emotional hysteria and polarizing rhetoric.

In 1994, George Pataki unseated Governor Cuomo. Pataki’s surprise victory made New York the last of 38 states to restore capital punishment, and sent an intimidating message to a generation of New York politicians.

After 1995, NYADP labored quietly, patiently developing a broad-based grassroots movement aimed at eroding the public’s shallow support for a flawed system. By 2004, the organization had persuaded more than three hundred organizations to endorse a moratorium on the death penalty. With its small staff, fifteen board members and many dedicated volunteers, NYADP rapidly grew into a statewide organization with more than 10,000 members and nine regional chapters.

When the New York State Court of Appeals struck down the state’s capital punishment statute in June 2004, NYADP stood ready with the necessary resources – information, networking, grassroots organizing, and, most important, knowledgeable supporters - to use the moment to promote an open dialogue on the death penalty instead of the proposed “quick fix.” The Assembly decided to hold public hearings on capital punishment. NYADP brought several dozen witnesses, including out-of-state legal experts, exonerees, and murder victim family members to expose the flaws of the capital punishment system. The hearings, one expert said, constituted &;ldquo;the most comprehensive examination of capital punishment by a legislative body in history.&rdquou;

During and immediately after the hearings, several powerful Assembly leaders withdrew their support for the quick fix and endorsed a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without parole. On April 12, 2005, the Assembly Codes Committee voted down a death penalty reinstatement bill, making New York the first of 38 death penalty states to turn its back on capital punishment.

Proponents of the death penalty have lowered their sights but increased pressure on state legislators. Using recent murders of police officers as a springboard, they passed a bill in the state Senate to reinstate the death penalty for “cop-killers” and enlisted sponsors for a companion bill in the Assembly. Governor Eliot Spitzer has said that he supports the death penalty for cop-killers. Senate majority leader Joseph R. Bruno has listed passage of the law as one of his top two priorities for this legislative session. Meanwhile, the state Court of Appeals will entertain a legal argument by Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, who hopes to secure judicial reinstatement of the death penalty when New York’s last death row inmate appeals his sentence this fall. A ruling by the Court of Appeals is not expected until late this year or early 2008.

NYADP’s continues to remind people that the death penalty is a flawed system, unfairly applied, and wastes enormous public resources while risking the execution of an innocent person.

NYADP has educated New Yorkers by providing death row exonerees and murder victim family member speakers to a variety of groups.

NYADP has helped to publicize the many New York exonerations that occurred in 2006 and 2007. David Kaczynski’s statements highlighting the problems with innocence and the death penalty were covered in the press and New Yorkers across the state wrote follow up letters to the editor, from small publications to large city papers. Eight op-eds were accepted at papers across the state including Buffalo, Rochester, Westchester, New York City, Albany and Niagara.

NYADP was the first state organization to hire a full time victims’ outreach coordinator, Marie Verzulli. Murder victims’ voices within the abolitionist movement represent a moral witness and clarify that the media attention given to death penalty cases combined with the long appeals process is not what victims really need and is not the way to respond to violent crime. She created a group of victim family members that meets monthly to support each other and discuss how they can be a positive force in the victim’s movement. Members of her group have had letters and op-ed pieces printed in several newspapers.

Marie has formed working relationships with victim service providers such as Safe Horizons, victims coalitions in New York City and Albany and groups such as Parents of Murdered Children in an effort to seek common ground and support common goals. She shares her ideas with the head of the New York State Crime Victims Board who is very interested in Marie’s work. Marie also speaks throughout the state and arranges for other murder victim family members to speak in churches, rotary clubs and schools.