Islamic fanatic could be first execution in NY in more than 60 years

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The Islamic fanatic who fatally mowed down eight people near Manhattan’s Hudson River in 2017 could become the first person executed in New York in more than 60 years.

A jury began weighing Sayfullo Saipov’s sentencing fate Monday, after he was convicted of the heinous crime last month, and the death penalty is on the table.

If he is sentenced to death and executed, it would be the first time the Empire State has carried out capital punishment since 1963, when armed-robbery killer Eddie Mays died in Sing Sing’s electric chair, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

New York has a previous long history of capital punishment that predates the founding of the United States, the center said.

Between 1608 and 1972, New York had the second most executions of any state in the union. Only Virginia had more.

New York showed it could be particularly creative with its methods, too, employing everything from burning at the stake and the hangman’s noose to firing squads, the electric chair and even the ancient breaking wheel.

But the state has slowly moved away from eye-for-an-eye punishment, the center said.


Sayfullo Saipov's mugshot
Sayfullo Saipov, the Islamic fanatic who fatally ran down eight people in 2017, could receive the death penalty.
AP

So although inmates lived on New York’s death row over the years, it’s been decades since anyone has actually been executed.

Mays was convicted in state court of shooting and killing Maria Marini, 31, during an armed robbery in 1961, according to an article in The Post.

He and two accomplices were holding up a Manhattan tavern, and he shot Marini when she responded slowly to his demand for her purse, police said at the time. Her purse was later found to have been empty.


The twisted wreck of the Home Depot truck Saipov used to run down eight people in 2017.
Saipov could be the first inmate executed in New York since the mid-20th century.
AP

In terms of federal court, where Saipov was convicted, the last person executed in New York after being found guilty was Gerhard Arthur Puff, who was put to death Aug. 12, 1954, for slaying FBI agent Joseph Brock during a shootout with authorities.


A twisted Citi Bike after Saipov ran it down in 2017.
Saipov jumped out of his truck yelling, “God is great” in Arabic before a cop shot him.
SDNY

Before being put to death, Puff appealed directly to then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower for a new trial. Ike turned him down.  

More recently, the feds tried to execute reputed Bloods member Ronell Wilson for the 2003 slayings of undercover NYPD Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews.

But an appeals court overturned one of the death sentences against Wilson in 2010, and in 2016, a federal judge deemed him ineligible for the ultimate punishment, saying he was too “intellectually disabled” to be executed.

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