J. Thurmond: “I rise today to speak against a provision in the House-passed crime bill which would effectively abolish the death…”

“I rise today to speak against a provision in the House-passed crime bill which would effectively abolish the death penalty across the Nation, at the Federal and State levels. The antideath penalty provision is title IX in the House-passed crime bill and often mislabeled by its proponents as the Racial Justice Act. This language would allow death-sentenced murderers the opportunity to avoid the death penalty by using a statistical quota system to challenge their sentence. We have defeated this legislation time and time again in the Senate when offered by those who are opposed to the death penalty. To those who claim that this provision is necessary to prohibit a death sentence based on considerations of race, I would point them to the 14th amendment to the Constitution. The 14th amendment, along with other protections, contains a fundamental proposition which prohibits any person from being sentenced to death on the basis of race. Title IX in the House-passed crime bill would permit a defendant in a capital case to make a showing that race was a statistically significant factor in decisions to seek or impose the death sentence in the jurisdiction in question.”