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Sunday, June 7, 1998 Published at 03:31 GMT 04:31 UK
World: Americas
Landmark death sentence ordered in New York
New York reinstated the death penalty three years ago
For the first time in more than 30 years, a jury in New York has ordered a man to be sentenced to death.
The man, 39-year-old Darrel Harris, a former prison guard, was convicted of murdering three people during a robbery at a social club.
The jury in the New York borough of Brooklyn faced a choice of sentencing him to life imprisonment or to death by lethal injection.
After four days they made their decision, although two jurors burst into tears in the court-room and two others were reported to have come to blows.
The case will automatically go to appeal with the defence attorney in the case, Russel Neufeld, describing the decision as a tragedy for the people of New York.
The death penalty was outlawed in New York State in 1962, but the current state governor, George Pataki, ordered it to be reinstated. The last execution in New York state took place in 1963.
Successive New York governors, led by Democrat Mario Cuomo, fought to keep the death penalty banned from the state, until the decision was reversed by the current Republican governor, George Pataki, three years ago.
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