Political Quotes

“an example of the misimpression that has been conveyed of the Derrick amendment came from the gentleman from Illinois when he said, to show how inconsistent it was, he cited a statement by the gentleman from North Carolina that said there was no retroactivity in the bill and then compared that to a sentence which talked about petitions in the plural. There is no inconsistency between petitions in the plural and retroactivity. The gentleman from Illinois started out with one point and ended up with another. That is typical of, I think, the lack of accuracy that we have had with regard to the way this was described. In fact, let us be very clear about what we are talking about. No one is talking about letting anybody loose. Nothing here says you walk the streets. We are talking about people who are on death row. That is conceded. They are confined. The question is: Do we trust the Federal court system to have a chance to retry or rehear a case in an exceptional situation? The amendment offered by the gentleman from South Carolina says no retroactivity, unrefuted, in fact, by the gentleman from Illinois. So the question is: If someone comes up with some new evidence a little late, if someone can find a good reason that would persuade the courts to overturn a death sentence, should they be allowed to do it? No one, as I said, is menaced. No one is talking about anyone being let loose. The amendment is a procedural amendment. it is not creating any new rule of law.”