On Nov. 21, the New York Court of Appeals granted CJLF's motion to file an amicus brief in People v. Taylor. Taylor was sentenced to death for a robbery-massacre in a Wendy's restaurant before the NYCA threw out the entire New York death penalty law in People v. LaValle. That decision is a remarkable piece of jurisprudential jujitsu. The court leveraged a minor problem on jury instructions in the case of deadlock into a complete invalidation of the New York death penalty, despite an express severability clause in the statute and its own precedent on the effect of that clause. That portion of the LaValle opinion is not only wrong, our brief argues, but it is so superficial, lacking in analysis, and contrary to both precedent and statute that it is not entitled to respect as stare decisis.