[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 321 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 321

  To assure protection for the substantive due process rights of the 
 innocent, by providing a temporary moratorium on carrying out of the 
death penalty to assure that persons able to prove their innocence are 
                             not executed.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 31, 2001

   Mr. Jackson of Illinois introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To assure protection for the substantive due process rights of the 
 innocent, by providing a temporary moratorium on carrying out of the 
death penalty to assure that persons able to prove their innocence are 
                             not executed.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Accuracy in Judicial Administration 
Act of 2001''.

SEC. 2. TEMPORARY MORATORIUM.

    (a) In General.--
            (1) Establishment.--During the period set forth in 
        subsection (b) applicable to a governmental authority of a 
        State or the Federal Government, that authority shall not carry 
        out the penalty of death.
            (2) Standards.--
                    (A) In general.--The Attorney General shall 
                prescribe standards to provide overwhelming confidence 
                that innocent parties will not suffer the death 
                penalty.
                    (B) Discovery.--Such standards shall include 
                procedures to assure an effective opportunity for 
                pretrial discovery by defendants of forensic evidence 
                in the possession of the prosecuting authority.
                    (C) Post conviction procedures.--Such standards 
                shall include procedures to assure that each individual 
                convicted of a capital offense has a full and fair 
                opportunity--
                            (i) to produce any exculpatory DNA or 
                        similar evidence which was not available to 
                        that individual at the time of the trial that 
                        resulted in the sentence of death; and
                            (ii) to obtain an effective judicial 
                        vitiation of the conviction and sentence of 
                        death if the reviewing court determines that 
                        evidence indicates a reasonable doubt that the 
                        individual was guilty as convicted.
    (b) Period of Moratorium.--The period referred to in subsection (a) 
begins on the date of the enactment of this Act and ends on the later 
of--
            (1) 7 years after that date; or
            (2)(A) in the case of a State authority, the date on which 
        a declaratory judgment with respect to the State of which that 
        authority is a governmental authority is entered under 
        subsection (c); and
            (B) in the case of a Federal authority, the date on which 
        the Attorney General certifies to the public that the Federal 
        authority operates consistently with the standards prescribed 
        in subsection (a).
    (c) Declaratory Judgment.--In a civil action commenced by a 
governmental authority of a State, an appropriate United States 
district court may enter a declaratory judgment under subsection (b) 
ending the period of moratorium for the relevant State if the court 
finds that the State has established procedures consistent with the 
standards prescribed by the Attorney General under subsection (a).
                                 <all>