ALBANY, N.Y. (N.Y. Times News Service) — The New York State Bar Association called Saturday for a moratorium on capital punishment until concerns about the conviction of innocent people and racial disparities in the use of the death penalty are addressed.
The group's House of Delegates, meeting here, also endorsed giving judges wide discretion to allow cameras into their courtrooms, a reversal of its previous position that cameras should be allowed only when all sides in a case agree to it.
The call for a death penalty moratorium, approved on an overwhelming voice vote, marks the strongest statement the Bar Association has made on the administration of the penalty. The group has never taken a position on capital punishment.