Statement by Mario Cuomo for June 4 - New York State's First

Annual Anti-Death Penalty Day.

I applaud New Yorkers Against The Death Penalty, The New York Civil Liberties Union, and all the other groups involved for sponsoring today's campaign to invalidate and repeal the death penalty.

But what a sad day it is. Today , in the Empire State, the state that has always set the example for the rest of the country, we are having the first annual anti-death penalty day to protest the new law passed this year that made New York state the 38th state to have the death penalty.

As Governor, it was my greatest privilege to veto the death penalty bill 12 years in a row. It was one of the most important things I could do.

We all know what's wrong with the death penalty.

We all know it doesn't work.

We all know the death penalty has never been shown to deter crime.

We all know that the death penalty costs more than life imprisonment without parole.

We all know that the death penalty has taken the lives of innocent people--at least 23 people are believed to have been wrongfully executed since the turn of the century in the United States, and sadly New York holds this notorious record -- our state has put eight innocent people to death since 1905.

But we also know that the death penalty is extremely popular.

It's clear that this is a troubling time when people are justifiably wracked with fear of crime -- think of the horror in Oklahoma city.

And I have felt that fear myself and I understand it. I understand the desire for retribution, for vindication...even for revenge.

But I know something else.

I know that this society should strive for something better than what we are in our worst moments.

For more than 30 years, I have studied the death penalty. I have heard all the arguments. And always I have concluded that the death penalty would only make things worse:

I've said this thousands of times, and I'll continue to say it until I can no longer speak -- the death penalty is an instruction in responding to brutality with more brutality. What we need now more than we have in a long time is not an instruction in brutality but an instruction in civility.

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The universe moves gradually toward greater integrity and truth -- but it moves in fits and starts. Sometimes we pause in our progress and slip backward for a while. But inexorably we move forward, toward the light.

For the moment, the other side may have the upper hand. But if you begin to doubt that we can ever hope to turn the tide -- remember that the real story of human progress has always been a tale of unexpected triumphs and sudden reversals.

It is not the extraordinary power of your principle and conviction -- not the momentary roar of their political victory -- that will carry the day.

For now, we must continue to raise our voices -- louder if we have to -- speeding the time when civility replaces harshness, intelligence overwhelms anger, and we return to the path upward.

Thank You and Excelsior

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