"I believe we should revisit the restrictions placed on the habeas petitions of death row inmates in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996."
"this bill will fix the law as it stands to protect innocent Americans from execution."
"we are laying the groundwork for comprehensive reform of Federal habeas corpus."
"We need to pass the 'Effective Death Penalty Appeals Act,' and quickly, before another potentially innocent American is executed."
"I thank Chairman Nadler for holding this important hearing and for his indispensable assistance in helping to develop H.R. 3986."
"Wouldn't it be better, instead of wasting a lot of time, money, and effort as to whether the procedures were followed properly, to get to the heart of the matter on the merits?"
"So in other words, one has to assume that if X percent of people would have been executed but for DNA evidence where DNA evidence is available, then probably a similar amount of people who are innocen..."
"I would hate to see us completely eviscerate a State's rights to impose punishment."
"To me, it is a clear case of someone who was executed even though they were innocent in this country."
"Saying that we shouldn't change something because Congress did it is never a good argument, because we are always changing something."
"We're going to be looking at all the sections of the PATRIOT Act as we look at this."
"It is tragic and absolutely unacceptable that it took nine deaths to produce this belated concession on the matter of clear law."