Orrin Hatch: “the Senate crime bill's death penalty provisions provide the death penalty for, among other crimes, espionage. There are…”

“the Senate crime bill's death penalty provisions provide the death penalty for, among other crimes, espionage. There are efforts underway in the other body to defeat the death penalty or attach gutting amendments that will make the death penalty virtually impossible to impose. For years, many of my colleagues and I have been fighting for passage of a true, workable Federal death penalty that will appropriately punish and deter capital crimes against our Nation. For years these efforts have been thwarted by death penalty opponents. As a result, there is no death penalty for espionage, and the maximum penalty Aldrich Ames faces, if convicted for selling our country's secrets--all for $1.5 million and a more comfortable lifestyle--is life imprisonment. That is the most that he would suffer. And that is taking into consideration that it appears at least 11 people who have worked for the United States have been murdered as a result of his espionage and of his treason to our Government. The Senate-passed crime bill authorizes the imposition of the death penalty in espionage cases where 'in the commission of the offense the defendant knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person.' It is clear from court records that Mr. Ames compromised the safety of U.S. operatives overseas, and the prevailing wisdom is that several agents may have been murdered as a result of intelligence that he crassly sold to a foreign government.”