Less than a year after they shot and killed Patrolman James Killion during a robbery, the four men implicated in the murder were executed minutes apart in “Old Sparky,” (above) as Sing Sing’s electric chair was affectionately known.

“That was justice in the appropriate form,” said State Sen. Thomas Morahan, son-in-law of the murdered cop.

“I don’t like reading about somebody who killed someone in 1980 being executed in 2002,” the senator said. “I think it’s such a disconnect when family members may not even survive the killer.

“If people are going to be executed for a heinous crime like killing an officer, then it ought to be within a time-frame that is connected both for the public and the family, so that lack of closure doesn’t hang out there for 20 years or so.”

The senator also criticizes the refusal of some district attorneys to enforce the death penalty before it was struck down on constitutional grounds by the State Court of Appeals “You could have committed the same crime and got the death penalty in Brooklyn or Queens but not in Manhattan or the Bronx because of a DA’s personal views,” he said. “That’s just unfair.”

Senator Morahan wants the death penalty rewritten to pass constitutional muster and made law again in New York State. He has supported legislation increasing penalties for assaulting law enforcement officers, enacted following several recent New York City police slayings. “I’d do anything to help our police officers,” he said, glancing at the photo of the father-in-law he never knew.