<P> Capital punishment is not in force in the State of New York . The last execution took place in 1963, when Eddie Mays was electrocuted at Sing Sing Prison . The state was the first to adopt the electric chair as a method of execution, which replaced hanging . Following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling declaring existing capital punishment statutes unconstitutional in Furman v. Georgia (1972), New York was without a death penalty until 1995, when then - Governor George Pataki signed a new statute into law, which provided for execution by lethal injection . </P> <P> In June 2004, the state's highest court ruled in People v. LaValle that the state's death penalty statute violated the state constitution, and New York has had an effective moratorium on capital punishment since then . Subsequent legislative attempts at fixing or replacing the statute have failed, and in 2008 then - Governor David Paterson issued an executive order disestablishing New York's death row . Legislative efforts to amend the statute have failed, and death sentences are no longer sought at the state level, though certain crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government are subject to the federal death penalty . </P> <P> During various periods from the 1600s onward, New York law prescribed the death penalty for crimes such as sodomy, adultery, counterfeiting, perjury, and attempted rape or murder by slaves . In 1796, New York abolished the death penalty for crimes other than murder and treason, but arson was made a capital crime in 1808 . </P>

When did new york get rid of the death penalty