Melvin Watt: “I am as upset about the Trade Center bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing as anybody in America. But we are about to…”

“I am as upset about the Trade Center bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing as anybody in America. But we are about to perpetrate a fraud on the American people, because this bill is not any longer about terrorism, the bill is about matters that go well, well beyond terrorism and we are, unfortunately, using these two terrorist acts as the predicate for undoing some important constitutional protections. I will not even spend my time talking about the death penalty provisions in this bill. What I will spend my time talking about is the importance of the Great Writ of Habeas Corpus, which most people are not going to understand, because a lot of people think habeas corpus is about the death penalty. It is not. Only 1 percent or less of habeas corpus petitions involve the death penalty at all. That is, less than 100 out of 10,000 habeas corpus petitions involve the death penalty. Habeas corpus appeals have been brought by gun owners who feel that they have been unjustly imprisoned for exercising their second amendment rights.”