Arlen Specter: “the time has arrived for consideration of the pending bill on terrorism. The issues which are going to be taken up this…”

“the time has arrived for consideration of the pending bill on terrorism. The issues which are going to be taken up this morning involve habeas corpus reform. Mr. President, the Specter-Hatch habeas corpus reform bill, S. 623, is a very important piece of legislation. The provisions of that bill will be taken up now as part of the pending antiterrorism bill. This bill is an appropriate place to take up habeas corpus reform, because the acts of terrorism in the atrocious bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City would carry with it the death penalty, and habeas corpus reform is very important in order to make the death penalty an effective deterrent. In order to have an effective deterrent, the penalty has to be certain and the penalty has to be swift. We have seen in the course of the appeals taken on cases from death row that they last sometimes as long as 20 years.”