Death Penalty Moratorium Bill Introduced

Statement By Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Wednesday, April 5, 2000

Justice Harry Blackmun once said that "the execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder."

That's why I, along with ten of my colleagues, have introduced H.R. 4162, The Accuracy In Judicial Administration Act of 2000 (AJA). The AJA calls for a minimum 7-year national moratorium on all executions until all inmates currently sitting on death row have an opportunity to explore potentially exculpatory DNA and similar evidence.

Science has provided the criminal justice system with a means of definitively answering questions of guilt or innocence without relying on eyewitness testimony or circumstantial evidence. Since the taking of a life is the supreme expression of a state's power over its citizens, that power should not be used without offering the accused every possible opportunity to present evidence that may keep the state out of the unimaginable position of executing innocent people. The installation of standardized procedures to use DNA and similar evidence in capital cases will also decrease the possibility that innocent people will end up on death row in the future.

In the past few years, there have been great scientific advances in DNA and forensic evidence testing. New technologies are available that can explore evidence that was previously unusable. However, many of the inmates currently sitting on death row have not had access to these scientific advances when presenting their case to the courts. This leads to a situation where innocent people are unable to adequately address their legal problems with definitive evidence of innocence.

This issue has been most clearly represented in Illinois, a state that has executed 12 people since it reinstated the death penalty in 1977. During that same time, however, Illinois has had to release 13 people who were wrongfully convicted of capital crimes. This situation has led death penalty supporter and Republican Illinois Governor George Ryan to put a moratorium on all executions until a panel could review the capital conviction process in the state. Gov. Ryan told the press "I can't support a system which in its administration has proven to be so fraught with error and come so close to the ultimate nightmare -- the state's taking of innocent life." Thus, this legislation addresses a fundamental flaw in our current legal system, an error which could lead to the execution of innocent people wrongfully convicted of capital crimes.

The "Ford Heights Four" are four young men from my congressional district who spent nearly two decades in prison -- two of them were on death row for over a decade -- before it was discovered that they were totally innocent as a result of DNA testing.Just yesterday in Tennessee, Robert Glen Coe and Philip Ray Workman -- one possibly incompetent and one possibly innocent -- received stays from a federal appeals court just hours before their scheduled executions. They would have been the first executions in Tennessee in 40 years. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati granted both men stays and "expedited reviews" before a full 15-member court, delaying their executions indefinitely.

In the past, many complained that death row inmates were given too many chances to appeal a conviction, dragging out the process for years and tying up the courts. In an effort to address this, Congress passed the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), limiting an inmate's rights to appeal a capital conviction. However, in limiting an inmate's ability to appeal the death sentence, Congress also limited the ability of innocent Americans wrongfully convicted to prove their innocence.

The Death Penalty Information Center reported that the average time between a capital conviction and execution is eight years. The average time that innocent people have spent on death row before proving their innocence is seven years. The provisions in AEDPA effectively cut the time between sentencing and execution in half, almost guaranteeing that innocent people will be executed before having an opportunity to prove their innocence. The execution of innocent people is abhorrent to the American system of justice and does a disservice to the criminal justice system.

The AJA is a narrowly tailored piece of legislation that protects one of American citizens' most fundamental constitutional rights, the right to substantive due process. In so doing, it also respects federalism concerns by allowing states to develop their own procedures to implement the testing under the approval of the U.S. Attorney General.

Joining me as original co-sponsors of H.R. 4162 are Representatives Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Bill Clay (D-MO), Tom Barrett (D-WI), Danny K. Davis (D-IL), Sam Farr (D-CA), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Julia Carson (D-IN) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).

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