Religions > Atheism > Republicans want to speed up death penalty (Ah, that Christian Compassion, Empathy, and Love)
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
07 Jul 2005 07:27:35 PM |
| Object: |
Republicans want to speed up death penalty (Ah, that Christian Compassion, Empathy, and Love) |
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=1&u=/nm/20050706/pl_nm/crime_death_dc
Republicans want to speed up death penalty
By Alan Elsner Wed Jul 6,10:27 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in Congress have launched a new
effort to speed up executions in the United States by limiting the
ability of those sentenced to death to appeal to federal courts.
The "Streamlined Procedures Act of 2005," introduced into the House of
Representatives by California Rep. Dan Lungren and in the Senate by
Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl (news, bio, voting record), would limit the
ability of defendants facing the death sentence to have their cases
reviewed by federal courts in what are known as habeas corpus appeals.
"You see delays in death penalty cases where they are allowed to drag
on for 15 or even 25 years. Defense attorneys have come to believe the
longer they delay, the better it is for their clients," Lungren said
in an interview.
"We're trying to ensure that habeas corpus is not used as a reason for
interminable delays and that defendants get one bite of the apple and
not multiple bites," he said.
Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott (news, bio, voting record), the ranking
Democrat on the subcommittee considering the bill, conceded there was
little chance of blocking it in the House.
"The House has been very supportive of anything that would strip the
innocent of a fair hearing. This bill will ensure that more innocent
people will be put to death," he said in a telephone interview.
Death penalty opponents say the law would strip the ability of federal
courts to review most claims in capital cases.
"It seeks a radical cutting and slashing of our existing process of
habeas corpus reviews of state convictions," University of Chicago law
professor Bernard Harcourt said last week in a hearing before the
House subcommittee reviewing the legislation. "This new bill would
effectively gut habeas corpus review where states have imposed a
sentence of death."
Habeas corpus -- the phrase in Latin for "you have the body" -- has
been a centerpiece of Anglo-American jurisprudence since it was first
developed over 300 years ago in Britain. It gave a defendant the right
to have their imprisonment reviewed by a court.
In U.S. death penalty cases, defense lawyers consider the right to
have federal courts oversee state court decisions as a vital weapon in
their armory.
POORLY FUNDED LAWYERS
"It is critical. Often, the defendant's original lawyers are so poorly
funded and so overworked that they cannot do the basic research that
the case requires. That's why the error level is so high in death
penalty cases," said one California defense lawyer, who asked not to
be named.
A study headed by Columbia University statistician and political
scientist Andrew Gelman of all 5,826 death sentences imposed in the
United States between 1973 and 1995 found that 68 per cent were
reversed on appeal.
The most common reasons were "egregiously incompetent lawyering,
prosecutorial misconduct or suppression of evidence, misintruction of
jurors or biased judges or jurors," said the study published in the
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.
Federal courts examining habeas corpus appeals overturned 40 percent
of the cases that had previously been upheld by state appeals courts
-- a fact the authors called worrisome.
The number of death sentences handed down in the United States has
fallen to around 150 a year from around 300 a year in the late 1990s,
according to figures compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Last year, there were 58 executions in the United States and there
have been 27 so far this year. The average time a person spends on
death row before execution is 11-12 years.
Ronald Eisenberg, a deputy district attorney from Philadelphia, said
federal judges often threw out death sentences for frivolous reasons.
In Pennsylvania, they have overturned 19 of 20 habeas corpus cases
litigated in the past 10 years.
"Whether or not they actually reverse a conviction, federal habeas
corpus courts drag litigation out for years of utterly unjustifiable
delay, creating exorbitant costs for the state and endless pain for
the victims," he told the House subcommittee last week.
© 2005 Reuters
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
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