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Statement
of Senator Patrick Leahy
The Justice For All Act Of
2004
October 9, 2004
Mr. LEAHY: On
February 1, 2000, I came to the floor to call attention to the growing
national crisis in the administration of capital punishment. I noted
that since the reinstatement of capital punishment in the 1970s, 85
people had been found innocent and released from death row. And I urged
Senators on both sides of the aisle, both those who supported the death
penalty and those who opposed it, to join in seeking ways to minimize
the risk that innocent persons will be put to death. A few days later,
I introduced the Innocence Protection Act of 2000.
That was
more than four years ago. During that time, many more innocent people
have been freed from death row – the total is now 117, according to the
Death Penalty Information Center. During that time, the Republican
Governor of Illinois commuted all the death sentences in his State to
life in prison, having lost confidence in a system that exonerated more
death row inmates than it executed. During that time, we learned about
problems at the Houston crime lab so serious that the city’s top police
official called for a moratorium on executions of the inmates who were
convicted based on evidence that the lab handled or analyzed. And
during that time, the bipartisan, bicameral coalition supporting the
Innocence Protection Act has continued to grow.
Earlier this
week, the House of Representatives passed the Justice For All Act of
2004, a wide-ranging criminal justice package that includes the
Innocence Protection Act. The House bill also includes the Debbie Smith
Act and the DNA Sexual Assault Justice Act, which together authorize
more than $1 billion over the next five years to eliminate the DNA
backlog crisis in the Nation’s crime labs and fund other DNA-related
programs. Finally, the House bill includes crime victims’ rights
provisions that I sponsored with Senators Feinstein and Kyl, and which
already passed the Senate earlier this year.
Today, at long
last, the Senate is poised to pass the Justice For All Act and to send
this important legislation to the President. I hope he will sign it,
despite his Justice Department’s continued efforts to kill this bill.
The reforms it enacts will create a fairer system of justice, where the
problems that have sent innocent people to death row are less likely to
occur, where the American people can be more certain that violent
criminals are caught and convicted instead of the innocent people who
have been wrongly put behind bars for their crimes, and where victims
and their families can be more certain of the accuracy, and finality, of
the results.
This bill
has been many years in the making, and there are many people to
acknowledge and thank. Let me begin by thanking Kirk Bloodsworth,
Debbie Smith, the Justice Project, and through them all the crime
victims and the victims of a flawed criminal justice system who have
made these changes possible. Without their commitment and dedication,
these straightforward reforms simply would not have happened. Kirk and
Debbie sat patiently, hour after hour, through our committee’s work on
this bill, and their presence was strong and eloquent testimony of the
need for this legislation.
Part
of this legislation is appropriately named for Kirk Bloodsworth. Kirk was a young man, just out of the
Marines, when he was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death for a
heinous crime that he did not commit. DNA evidence ultimately freed him
and identified the real killer. He became the first person in the
United States to be freed from a death row crime through use of DNA
evidence. The years he spent in prison were hard years, and he was
treated horribly even after he was released. He could have become
embittered by all he has endured. But instead, he has chosen to turn
his experience into something constructive, to help others, and one way
he has chosen to help is by being part of the effort to enact this
bill. Kirk and his wife Brenda are remarkable people, and I thank them
both. I am proud to have come to know them through our work together on
this constructive cause.
I want to
commend the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman James
Sensenbrenner, who spearheaded this effort in the House. Chairman
Sensenbrenner deserves high praise for steering this bill through some
very rough patches to final passage. We would not be where we are today
without his leadership, tenacity, and steadfast commitment to getting
this done.
I also want to
thank my longtime colleagues in this endeavor, Representative Bill
Delahunt of Massachusetts and Representative Ray LaHood of Illinois.
They have worked tirelessly over many years to pass the Innocence
Protection Act, and they deserve much of the credit for building the
strong support for the bill in the House.
I also want to
acknowledge Senator Hatch, the Chairman of our Committee, with whom I
have debated these issues for years and with whom I have cosponsored
many measures over the last 10 years. Had he continued to oppose these
efforts we could never have been successful. Over the last couple of
weeks he has focused on this bill, and the Judiciary Committee reported
the Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act under his leadership
just a few weeks ago. I am grateful for his help in overcoming
objections to the bill from his side of the aisle. I know how hard he
has worked to do that.
Thanks, too, to
the many members on both sides of the aisle, in the Senate and in the
House, who have supported this legislation over this long struggle for
reform. Working together, we have finally begun to address the many
problems facing our capital punishment system. Here in the Senate,
Senator Biden has championed additional funding for rape kit testing.
Senators Kennedy, Kohl, Feingold and Durbin have been longtime and
steadfast proponents of sensible reform. Senators Feinstein and Specter
were strong supporters of the Innocence Protection Act in the 107th
Congress, and have been constructive partners in the effort in this
Congress. Senator Gordon Smith and Senator Collins were early
cosponsors of the Innocence Protection Act as well. Senator DeWine was
a lead sponsor of the Senate DNA bill, and has made many important
contributions. I have spoken to the Majority Leader a number of times
over the last year having learned of his interest in these matters and
thank him for allowing the Senate to turn to this important matter even
as we approach adjournment of this session.
Many people have
been generous with their time and expertise and experience over the
years. Steve Bright, Bryan Stevenson, George Kendall, Jim Liebman,
Larry Yackle, Scott Wallace and Kyl O’Dowd have offered useful and
important suggestions on how to improve state indigent defense systems.
Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck have been invaluable resources on the
intricacies of post-conviction DNA testing. Ron Weich has offered
superb legal counsel to both Republican and Democratic Senators and
their staffs as we have worked on this bill. Pat Griffin’s masterful
advice has also been invaluable.
I have already
mentioned the Justice Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to
criminal justice reform, which has been a staunch supporter of this bill
from the beginning. I particularly want to recognize the contributions
of my good friend Bobby Muller, as well as John Terzano, Cheryl Feeley,
Laura Burstein, Cynthia Thomet and Peter Loge.
Finally, I want
to thank several staff members of the Senate and House Judiciary
Committees who worked tirelessly, some for years, to accomplish this
goal. I commend the Chief Counsel to Chairman Sensenbrenner, Phil
Kiko. He was instrumental in keeping the process moving over the past
year. His hard work, fairness and judgment helped fulfill his
Chairman’s dogged determination to get this done and make these needed
changes. Also on the Chairman’s staff, I acknowledge the efforts of Jay
Apperson and Katy Crooks. I want to express my deep gratitude to Mark
Agrast, former counsel for Representative Delahunt, and his successor,
Christine Leonard.
In the Senate, I
want to acknowledge several Judiciary Committee staff members who made
immeasurable contributions during this long and challenging effort. On
Chairman Hatch’s staff, I want to thank Bruce Artim, Brett Tolman, and
Michael Volkov, a former detailee, for investing so much of their time
and expertise in helping us to arrive at this moment. My staff and I
appreciate the contributions of Neil MacBride, Jonathan Meyer, and
Louisa Terrell on Senator Biden’s staff, David Hantman on Senator
Feinstein’s staff, and Robert Steinbuch with Senator DeWine. On my own
staff, I want to express my appreciation to an entire team of talented
and dedicated attorneys and staff who have devoted themselves so long to
this effort and to this commitment to justice. Julie Katzman, a senior
counsel on my staff, has devoted innumerable hours over the past four
and a half years to accomplishing this goal, and I want to extend my
deeply felt gratitude to her. Tara Magner began as a law clerk, and
later as my counsel has dedicated herself to this effort with superb
results. Beryl Howell, my former general counsel, guided this effort
for years, and Bruce Cohen, my Chief Counsel, guided all of their
efforts. Tim Rieser, Luke Albee, David Carle and more all supported and
contributed to this extraordinary effort.
I also want
personally to thank the Senate Legislative Counsel, in particular Bill
Jensen and Matt McGhie, who labor in obscurity to produce the
legislative text that is being constantly revised to reflect the
understanding reached during this arduous process.
This bill is a
rare example of bipartisan cooperation for a good cause. It reflects
many years of work and intense negotiation. No one who has worked on
this bill is entirely satisfied with everything in it, but that is what
the legislative process is all about – finding the substantive,
meaningful, middle ground that a broad majority can support.
The Justice For
All Act is the most significant step we have taken in many years to
improve the quality of justice in this country. DNA is the miracle
forensic tool of our lifetimes. It has the power to convict the guilty
and to exonerate the innocent. And as DNA has become more and more
available, it also has opened a window on the flaws of the death penalty
process. This is a bill to put this powerful tool into greater use in
our police departments and our courtrooms. It also takes a modest step
toward addressing one of the most frequent causes of wrongful
convictions in capital cases, the lack of adequate legal counsel. These
reforms, to put it simply, will mean better, faster, fairer criminal
justice.
I thank each one
of my colleagues in both bodies who worked hard to resolve conflicts and
congratulate them on this legislative achievement.
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