[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 8, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1377-H1378]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SUPPORT URGED FOR BILL TO LIMIT FEDERAL APPEALS FOR CONVICTED FELONS

  (Mr. WHITE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. WHITE. Mr. Speaker, in 1982, in my district, a man named Charles 
Campbell slit the throat of an 8-year-old girl, her mother, and a next-
door neighbor. He was convicted by a county jury, and under elaborate 
procedures designed to give him every benefit of the doubt, he was 
sentenced to the death penalty by a separate jury. Yet last April, 12 
years after his sentence, the sentence had still not been carried out.
  Why? He had spent his time in five separate appeals, three Federal 
appeals, trying to evade his sentence. None of the appeals had any 
merit, and he was finally executed last May.
  Mr. Speaker, none of us is happy when a criminal has to be executed, 
but the present system makes a mockery not only of the death penalty 
but 
[[Page H1378]] of our entire system of criminal justice. We have to be 
clear that when we impose a sentence, we are going to carry it out, and 
that is why I hope every Member of this House will give serious 
consideration to the bill we will consider this afternoon that will 
limit the number of Federal appeals for convicted criminals.

                          ____________________