The Post-Standard News |
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Post-Standard,
The (Syracuse, NY) June 17, 2004 LEGISLATION TARGETS LAW FLAW THAT ALLOWED JEFF CAHILL TO AVOID CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. Erik Kriss Albany bureau The state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would close the "Cahill loophole" in the state's death penalty. James "Jeff" Cahill III killed his wife by illegally entering her room at University Hospital, where she was recovering from a severe baseball bat beating he inflicted six months earlier, and poisoning her. But Cahill, of Spafford, escaped the death penalty because the state's highest court ruled 4-2 that he committed the 1998 hospital burglary to facilitate the murder, rather than committing the murder to facilitate the burglary. The court's majority reasoned that the burglary - Cahill entering the hospital room - was not an "aggravating factor" in the murder, which is required to raise a homicide to first-degree murder and make it eligible for the death penalty. The Senate approved a bill 46-11 that would change the law to make such a murder eligible for capital punishment. The bill's sponsor, Sen. John DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, called the Court of Appeals' ruling absurd at the time and reiterated that in a memo supporting his legislation. His bill must pass both houses of the Legislature, but it has no sponsor in the Democrat-controlled Assembly. The legislative session will end for the year next week. DeFrancisco said the change cannot affect the Cahill case. Cahill, 43, was resentenced in January to 371/2 years to life. He will be eligible for a parole hearing in 34 years.
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