Arlen Specter

How many in this room think that cooperating with police is a bad thing to do and you'd be classified as a snitch?

But doesn't the judge give limiting instruction?

So you would concede that, as in your own words, the Inquirer did do some real public service in some lines?

When you said his picture was posted, amplify what you meant by that.

And was that the reason he tried to burn down the house?

To what extent does the District Attorney's Office have resources to provide protection?

There have to be consequences and the consequences have to be significant in order for people to get the message.

There is a legitimate intimidation factor that's out there, there's no question about that.

We've got to find a way to do something to make people feel safe and secure if they do step forward and provide information.

Do you think there's any inherent superiority in the appointing process with judicial commissions and appointments as opposed to the electoral process?

I think an appointment system might be better for the average person going to vote. But no system is perfect.

I have been pressing for mandatory sentences on Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

We're going to take a look, before we're finished on these hearings, at the Federal Witness/Victim Protection program.

When you call for a national commission, Senator Webb and I have introduced the Webb-Specter bill calling for such a commission.

How about on the issue of the underlying causes of crime, the issues of education, poverty, housing, job training?

This hearing has been recognized following an extensive series of articles in the Philadelphia Inquirer, maintaining major problems in the criminal justice system setting in Philadelphia.

How many of you think that to cooperate with police and report a crime is something that you ought to do?

Thank you very much.

Have we made any improvements in the intensity of the big-city crime problem?

Criminal trials cannot proceed unless there are witnesses, and if witnesses are subject to intimidation or subject to the ultimate elimination, through murder, obviously criminal cases cannot go forward.

How do we do that? You're a professor.

But you thought the Armed Career Criminal bill was a good bill?

Thank you very much, Mr. Coard.

Well, thank you for providing that testimony, Mrs. Clowden.

Why did the boy want to burn down your house?