Bob Dole: “I want to take a few moments to express my support for the amendment offered by my distinguished colleague from New…”

“I want to take a few moments to express my support for the amendment offered by my distinguished colleague from New York, Senator D'Amato. Mr. President, last month, the House of Representatives took a big step backward in the war against crime by adopting something deceptively called the Racial Justice Act. The Racial Justice Act became title IX of the House-passed crime bill. Under title IX, a convicted murderer sentenced to death can challenge his capital sentence simply by offering evidence that "at the time the death sentence was imposed, race was a statistically significant factor in decisions to seek or, impose the sentence of death in the jurisdiction in question." Statistical evidence that death sentences were being imposed significantly more frequently, upon persons of one race than upon persons of another race could be used to prove this point. The practical effect of all this is to prohibit the death penalty unless it is carried out strictly by-the-numbers, according to rigid death-penalty quotas.”