"I haven't seen 76 members of the Assembly [a majority in the 150-member house] say they are going to oppose the death penalty for people who kill a cop," Pataki told reporters.

"Let's put a vote out there and see if there are 76 members of the Assembly who believe you should get the death penalty if you kill a police officer in the line of duty. Let's have a vote."

All 212 legislators return to the Capitol tomorrow to take up Pataki's call for a crackdown on criminals after two city cops were killed recently by gun-wielding thugs.

Pataki contended the death penalty will carry the day if Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) allows a vote in the lower chamber.

Whether there will be a vote on the death penalty remains unclear.

"Everything is wide open for discussion right now," a key Silver lieutenant, Assembly Codes Committee Chairman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn), told the Daily News. "There is nothing that is dead on arrival, including the death penalty."

Lentol said that because Assembly Democrats are split on whether the death penalty should be reinstated, it's questionable whether Silver will allow a vote to proceed.

To further complicate matters, the Assembly wants the Senate to take up its call for more stringent controls on legal gun dealers, an idea that Republicans have resisted.

Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan) accused Pataki of pushing an agenda he knows the Assembly Democrats will never accept.

"Reopening the debate on the death penalty is a way to guarantee failure," Schneiderman said.

Originally published on December 20, 2005