Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 17, 2006 23:42:32 GMT -5
Pigott May Provide Swing Vote on 2 Major Cases
Eugene Pigott, named to the state's highest court Friday, is likely to
provide the swing vote in two major cases: the death penalty and funding
for education.
Three weeks from now, Pigott, of Grand Island, will be listening to
arguments on how the state's public schools should be funded.
Sometime next year, he will help decide a case that is likely to determine
the fate of the death penalty in New York State.
He will also decide with the other Court of Appeals judges on the legality
of confining felony sex offenders in mental health facilities when they
are released from prison and another case with broad implications for the
state's liquor industry.
"I know what's coming," Pigott said after his unanimous confirmation by
the state Senate Friday.
Pigott, described as a moderate with deep Republican Party ties, joins a
court that has been moving to the right in recent years with appointments
by Gov. George E. Pataki, who nominated Pigott for the vacancy created by
the departure of a liberal judge. And he takes his seat on a court
described by observers as in flux; as many as three of the court's members
could be leaving in the next 15 months, paving the way for Pataki's
replacement next year to place his imprint on the court.
"For the next year, the court is going to be finding its way," said
Michael Hutter, an Albany lawyer who has appeared often before the court.
The confirmation of Pigott, 59, came a day after he appeared to go out of
his way to assure lawmakers that he cherishes the legal notion of
separation of powers and basing decisions on the laws passed by the
Legislature.
Pigott appears unlike several of the more predictable jurists Pataki has
appointed, according to Vincent Bonventre, an Albany Law School professor
and observer of the high court.
"He really hasn't been a lopsided conservative," Bonventre said of Pigott.
"He doesn't seem to be consistently liberal or conservative."
"I think he's his own person," Hutter added.
The state's legal and political communities will be closely watching
Pigott next year, when he will help decide whether the death penalty is
brought back in New York. The Legislature restored capital punishment in
certain cases in 1995, though no one has been put to death since.
In 2004, the Court of Appeals for all practical purposes, invalidated the
law when it tossed out the death sentence of a convicted murderer because
of concerns that the statute's provisions involving instructions to jurors
could tilt them toward a death sentence. The court ruled 4-3 in that case,
with Judge George Bundy Smith writing the majority decision. Pigott is
replacing Smith.
Since that decision, a judge in a case against a man convicted of killing
5 people in a Wendy's restaurant in Queens considered the 2004 case and
changed how he instructed the jury. The Court of Appeals sometime next
year will consider if those jury instructions were legal. If they were,
the court could then get to the larger question: is the death penalty
itself legal.
"That will be a major, major case," said Hutter, who is also chairman of
the board of the state's Capital Defender Office, which represents
individuals in death penalty cases.
If the court gets past the sentencing issue, Hutter said, "then they have
to address directly, there's no other way around it, whether the death
penalty is cruel and unusual punishment."
Pigott's first major case will come Oct. 10, when the court hears
arguments in a case that will affect school aid funding across the state.
The case was first brought in 1993 by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, and
this will be the third time the high court will be hearing the case.
(source: The Buffalo News)
Eugene Pigott, named to the state's highest court Friday, is likely to
provide the swing vote in two major cases: the death penalty and funding
for education.
Three weeks from now, Pigott, of Grand Island, will be listening to
arguments on how the state's public schools should be funded.
Sometime next year, he will help decide a case that is likely to determine
the fate of the death penalty in New York State.
He will also decide with the other Court of Appeals judges on the legality
of confining felony sex offenders in mental health facilities when they
are released from prison and another case with broad implications for the
state's liquor industry.
"I know what's coming," Pigott said after his unanimous confirmation by
the state Senate Friday.
Pigott, described as a moderate with deep Republican Party ties, joins a
court that has been moving to the right in recent years with appointments
by Gov. George E. Pataki, who nominated Pigott for the vacancy created by
the departure of a liberal judge. And he takes his seat on a court
described by observers as in flux; as many as three of the court's members
could be leaving in the next 15 months, paving the way for Pataki's
replacement next year to place his imprint on the court.
"For the next year, the court is going to be finding its way," said
Michael Hutter, an Albany lawyer who has appeared often before the court.
The confirmation of Pigott, 59, came a day after he appeared to go out of
his way to assure lawmakers that he cherishes the legal notion of
separation of powers and basing decisions on the laws passed by the
Legislature.
Pigott appears unlike several of the more predictable jurists Pataki has
appointed, according to Vincent Bonventre, an Albany Law School professor
and observer of the high court.
"He really hasn't been a lopsided conservative," Bonventre said of Pigott.
"He doesn't seem to be consistently liberal or conservative."
"I think he's his own person," Hutter added.
The state's legal and political communities will be closely watching
Pigott next year, when he will help decide whether the death penalty is
brought back in New York. The Legislature restored capital punishment in
certain cases in 1995, though no one has been put to death since.
In 2004, the Court of Appeals for all practical purposes, invalidated the
law when it tossed out the death sentence of a convicted murderer because
of concerns that the statute's provisions involving instructions to jurors
could tilt them toward a death sentence. The court ruled 4-3 in that case,
with Judge George Bundy Smith writing the majority decision. Pigott is
replacing Smith.
Since that decision, a judge in a case against a man convicted of killing
5 people in a Wendy's restaurant in Queens considered the 2004 case and
changed how he instructed the jury. The Court of Appeals sometime next
year will consider if those jury instructions were legal. If they were,
the court could then get to the larger question: is the death penalty
itself legal.
"That will be a major, major case," said Hutter, who is also chairman of
the board of the state's Capital Defender Office, which represents
individuals in death penalty cases.
If the court gets past the sentencing issue, Hutter said, "then they have
to address directly, there's no other way around it, whether the death
penalty is cruel and unusual punishment."
Pigott's first major case will come Oct. 10, when the court hears
arguments in a case that will affect school aid funding across the state.
The case was first brought in 1993 by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, and
this will be the third time the high court will be hearing the case.
(source: The Buffalo News)