Islamic fanatic who mowed down 8 people could be first execution in NY in more than 60 years

The Islamic fanaticcould become the first person executed in New York in more than 60 years.

A jury began weighing Sayfullo Saipov’s sentencing fate Monday, after he was convicted of the heinous crime last month, and the death penalty is on the table.

If he is sentenced to death and executed, it would be the first time the Empire State has carried out capital punishment since 1963, when armed-robbery killer Eddie Mays died in Sing Sing’s electric chair, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

New York has a previous long history of capital punishment that predates the founding of the United States, the center said.

Between 1608 and 1972, New York had the second most executions of any state in the union. Only Virginia had more.

New York showed it could be particularly creative with its methods, too, employing everything from burning at the stake and the hangman’s noose to firing squads, the electric chair and even the ancient breaking wheel.

But the state has slowly moved away from eye-for-an-eye punishment, the center said.

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So although inmates lived on New York’s death row over the years, it’s been decades since anyone has actually been executed.

Mays was convicted in state court of shooting and killing Maria Marini, 31, during an armed robbery in 1961, according to an article in The Post.

He and two accomplices were holding up a Manhattan tavern, and he shot Marini when she responded slowly to his demand for her purse, police said at the time. Her purse was later found to have been empty.

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In terms of federal court, where Saipov was convicted, the last person executed in New York after being found guilty was Gerhard Arthur Puff, who was put to death Aug. 12, 1954, for slaying FBI agent Joseph Brock during a shootout with authorities.

Before being put to death, Puff appealed directly to then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower for a new trial. Ike turned him down.  

More recently, the feds tried to execute reputed Bloods member Ronell Wilson for the 2003 slayings of undercover NYPD Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews.

But an appeals court overturned one of the death sentences against Wilson in 2010, and in 2016, a federal judge deemed him ineligible for the ultimate punishment, saying he was too “intellectually disabled” to be executed.