Islamic fanatic who mowed down 8 people may be executed in New York for the first time in more than 60 years

An Islamic fanatic who fatally mowed down eight people near the Hudson River in Manhattan in 2017 could become the first person to be executed in New York City in more than 60 years.

On Monday, the jury began weighing the fate of Saifullo Saipov’s sentencing, after he was found guilty of a heinous crime last month and the death penalty is pending.

If he is sentenced to death and executed, it will be the first time the Empire State has used the death penalty since 1963, when armed assassin Eddie Mays died in the Sing Sing electric chair, according to the Death Penalty Clearinghouse.

According to the center, New York City has long had the death penalty, which has been in use since before the founding of the United States.

Between 1608 and 1972, New York had the second highest number of executions of any state in the Union. Only Virginia had more.

New York has also shown to be particularly resourceful in its methods, using everything from burning at the stake and a hangman’s noose to firing squads, the electric chair, and even an ancient breaking wheel.

But the state is gradually moving away from the “eye for an eye” punishment, the center said.

So while prisoners have lived on death row in New York for many years, it has been decades since anyone has actually been executed.

According to an article in The Post, Mays was convicted in state court for the shooting and murder of 31-year-old Maria Marini during an armed robbery in 1961.

He and two accomplices robbed a Manhattan tavern and shot Marini dead when she slowly responded to his demand for her purse, police said at the time. It was later revealed that her purse was empty.

As far as the federal court where Saipov was convicted, the last person to be executed in New York after being found guilty was Gerhard Arthur Puff, who was executed on August 12, 1954 for killing FBI agent Joseph Brock during a shootout with authorities.

Prior to his execution, Puff approached then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower directly to request a new trial. Ike refused him.

Most recently, the feds attempted to execute prominent Bloods member Ronell Wilson for the 2003 murders of undercover NYPD detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews.

But an appeals court overturned one of Wilson’s 2010 death sentences, and in 2016 a federal judge found him ineligible for capital punishment, saying he was too “mentally retarded” to be executed.