WASHINGTON (July 6) - 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, 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, 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.
Looks like the GOP wants to become the party of death.
I'm not sure I want to get into this debate on whether the death penalty actually works. It is a debate that has been going on as long as abortion (Where the GOP considers themselves the party of life), and where there has been no resolution to the debate. Like it or not, this issue reeks--prosecutors have almost unlimited funds to try death cases, while public defenders are overworked, there is probably a greater number of blacks and minorities on death row over that of whites, and the evidence may not be as clear in death penalty cases as in non-death penalty cases. If new evidence is revealed that shows an individual is innocent of a crime that he was previously tried, convicted, and is serving time in prison, then that individual can be released from prison. That individual becomes a free man. If new evidence is presented that an individual is innocent of a crime that he has been tried, convicted, and has been placed to death--oh well, that's just tough luck. The state has killed an innocent man for a crime he/she never committed.
I would rather see these death penalty appeal cases being dragged out over time, than having the GOP murder an innocent man because of their haste in speeding up the killing machine. I'll accept the death penalty as it is, with its current appeals process. Death is the ultimate form of punishment a society can impose on its citizens. Society should provide an extensive appeals process to make sure that those who are truly guilty deserve this punishment.
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