Leader Dr. Richard Koral was interviewed by News12 Long Island in response to efforts by Republican Representative Lee Zeldin (NY-1) to re-instate the death penalty, which Ethical Culture societies in New York fought for years to have the practice outlawed in the state nearly twenty years ago:
Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, who is also running for governor, was one of the first lawmakers to call for reinstating the death penalty after the upstate shooting. Two Republican state lawmakers introduced legislation Monday to bring it back for certain crimes.
However, some community leaders say they are not ready to take the state back to almost two decades ago.
Dr. Richard Koral, with the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island, says he disagrees with any efforts to bring back the death penalty to New York after Saturday’s deadly shooting.
“I think that’s the wrong response,” he says. “It’s too easy to mirror the violence and respond with that kind of reactive result.”
[…]Koral says New York should remain a state without the death penalty.
“The death penalty is a knee-jerk reaction, not a considered reaction and there’s no evidence whatsoever that the death penalty deters crime,” he says.
