I do not know if this will make my colleague from North Carolina more comfortable or less, but it is our prediction that this will be a large amount of money that will be reserved, because I do not believe the States are going to qualify…

What we have here in this full and fair concept is a throwback to an outmoded idea first advanced in the other body that would effectively end all rights of habeas corpus, if minimal State guarantees are satisfied. In other words, there…

there is a major omission in the bill that goes to the heart of due process and fundamental fairness: An innocent man should never be executed. The McCollum bill gives a criminal defendant ``one bite at the apple'' but would not permit any…

H.R. 729 is the latest in a series of legislative proposals dating back a decade that have attempted to speed up the execution of the more than 2,300 people on death row in this country. The common thread in these proposals is imposing a…

Sixty-three years ago, in Powell versus Alabama, the case involving the Scottsboro boys, the Supreme Court established as a constitutional principle that indigent defendants would not be sentenced to death unless they were represented by…

this is an exceedingly important debate, one that I feel very privileged to be the ranking member on the Democratic side to advance, because we are now talking about a part of the so-called Contract With America that now inflicts…

Mr. Chairman, to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Hyde], our chairman, I would have him remember that the exclusionary rule was put in place to make sure that the police behave rather than allowing 'anything goes,' and then we have years…

I simply want to point out the fact that as we move through this process, we are beginning to bring to the floor six bills that comprised the Contract With America crime legislation that the Republicans, when we took over as the majority…

For example, let us assume that you have a single mother, a single parent, who is going to come to court to testify against a criminal defendant. That person may not be the victim in the sense of having been the person who was harmed, but…

Mr. Chairman, the gentleman's, my friend's explanation is a little disingenuous. This is the mother of all warrantless searches that we have before us and will ultimately, I predict, be found unconstitutional because we put the objective…

And what that means then is that the gentleman's bill itself will soon be rendered unconstitutional. And I think that this proposal, which repeats the fourth amendment, will likely stand. What we would not do is sanctify warrantless…

What the gentleman from Pennsylvania has proved here today is he cannot tell us why he would change the existing law, which I am codifying by amendment in the Leon case. He does not have an example, because we have already given dozens of…

first of all I am always pleased to receive congratulations from my colleague from Pennsylvania with whom I have worked on these matters across the years. May I remind the gentleman that intermediate court decisions are secondary at best…

this is the fourth amendment to the Constitution. I have never remembered voting on it, Mr. Chairman, and what happens here is that the reason that he had to replace it in its entirety is that there is a great likelihood that the McCollum…

I am very happy that the gentlewoman has again put her finger on precisely what is in difference over this H.R. 666. Because we have now, and I think the other side will agree, we have all kinds of exceptions written into the exclusionary…

When a person pulls a gun in the presence of a law enforcement officer, I say to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Hyde], he does not have to go to a magistrate to determine whether he can arrest him. He is also in imminent danger of his…

May I reacquaint the gentleman, because he is a distinguished member and chair of the committee, of the United States versus Watson, in which it has been held as inviolate law that arrests in public areas where there is probable cause does…

I would like to review the important factor of judicial review under the proposed amendment. As currently drafted, the Barton substitute is totally silent on the issue of judicial review, creating what could be a serious legal quagmire…

all I can think of is what has been the weight or the effectiveness of the discussion on amending the Constitution of the United States that has transpired on this floor today, and I think on balance, as we study our Congressional Record…

we must consider four questions if this is to be considered as a serious and compelling force to constitutionally bar cuts in Social Security benefits. First, is it true that Social Security is currently off budget? Answer: Yes. In 1991…

I support this assault weapons ban because the time has come to halt the arms race in the United States and a ban be placed on these weapons of war. Semiautomatic assault weapons are lethal killing machines, designed to tear the life out…

I rise in support of the Hughes amendment to require the U.S. Sentencing Commission to conduct a study on the disparity in sentencing for crack and powder cocaine. People convicted of crack cocaine offenses are punished 100 times more…

over a year ago, the President and Vice President asked Congress to undertake comprehensive reform of how the Government buys goods and services. They know what we know: that in government procurement there is too much paperwork, too…

Let me point out that Dr. Lee Brown, the Director of the National Office on Drug Policy, has said that he believes the crack cocaine law has a racially discriminatory impact because crack, used predominantly by African-Americans, has a…

about 6 years ago I introduced this amendment in its original instance. We have had good years in the House where it passed, and we have had other less successful years, like last year, when it did not. But let us face the facts: For many…