Political Quotes

“this resolution directs conferees on the crime bill to reject the House provisions on racial justice, and I intend to vote against it. The Senate crime bill expands the death penalty to over 50 new Federal crimes. Inclusion of the Racial Justice Act is important to ensure that the death penalty is applied in a nondiscriminatory manner. This provision is a civil rights measure designed to eliminate race discrimination in capital cases. It would allow courts to consider evidence of a consistent pattern of racially biased sentencing in similar death penalty cases to determine whether discrimination has occurred in a particular case. The defendant would bear the burden of collecting and analyzing the data to show a pattern of racially biased death sentences in factually similar cases in the same jurisdiction. The legislation would not apply retroactively so it would not apply to the 2,700 people currently on death row. The Racial Justice Act addresses the fact that the death penalty is not sought in all cases that fit the statutory criteria for its imposition. In most jurisdictions, capital punishment laws authorize, but do not require, the death penalty in a large number of cases. Of the many cases eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors pick only a few for capital prosecution.”