David Durenberger: “I rise to explain why I will oppose the amendment expressing the sense of the Senate that the crime bill conferees…”

“I rise to explain why I will oppose the amendment expressing the sense of the Senate that the crime bill conferees should reject the Racial Justice Act. I make no secret of the fact that I am an opponent of the death penalty. I oppose it for philosophical reasons; I believe it perpetuates the cycle of violence and I believe it is unbecoming for a civilized nation. I also oppose capital punishment for practical reasons; there is no evidence that it deters violent crime, and it actually costs our criminal justice system more to execute a person than it does to incarcerate a person for life. However, even those who favor the death penalty should be concerned by evidence that it is not being applied fairly. We all want to believe that justice is blind in America. But I am not so naive as to trust that the ugliness of racial bias no longer festers in our criminal justice system. According to a significant body of evidence, minority defendants are much more likely than white defendants to be charged with a capital crime and sentenced to death, especially when the victim was white.”