[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 8, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1437-H1438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           CRIME LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Fox] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, as a former prosecutor in 
Pennsylvania, I found today's discussions about addressing crime most 
illuminating. I have spent much of my life battling criminals in our 
courts and trying, in my own way to make the streets of my home--
Montgomery County, PA--a little bit safer.
  I have had the opportunity to witness the frustration of police 
officers, prosecutors, and judges as skillful defense attorneys have 
manipulated the system to place violent repeat criminals back on the 
streets despite overwhelming evidence against them.
  I've seen families terrorized by the very memory of the unspeakable 
crimes against them and the reality that the perpetrators may be 
released by the system.
  The bills considered by this body today will take a dramatic step 
forward to end the terror of victims and the frustration of law 
enforcement officials who are hamstrung by technicalities. H.R. 666, 
the Exclusionary Rule Reform Act is important and long-overdue 
legislation which will ensure that those guilty of violent crimes 
against other persons get exactly what they deserve, and that is time 
in prison.
  Current law provides that a guilty defendant may be set free to again 
terrorize innocent victims based upon the exclusion of evidence seized 
by law enforcement officers who have acted in the good faith belief 
that their conduct did not violate the defendant's constitutional 
rights.
  In such cases, the conduct of a police officer does not involve 
coercion of a confession or other wrongful conduct, but technical 
errors that have nothing to do with the defendant's guilt or innocence. 
The release of guilty defendants on technicalities makes a mockery of 
our society's laws. We need to place the rights of the victims above 
all else. When I served in the district attorney's office I prosecuted 
a case where a 12-year-old young lady was viciously and forcibly raped. 
She and her family were so traumatized by the violence of the crime 
that they never returned to that house.
  My fellow members, I do believe that a person is innocent until found 
guilty but I don't believe in placing impediments to prosecution which 
have no basis in fact or law. H.R. 666 removes those impediments.
  Finally, I would say the Effective Death Penalty Act H.R. 729 has 
been 
[[Page H1438]] strongly endorsed by the National District Attorneys 
Association. It will provide the kind of habeas corpus reform that will 
stop the endless appeals of capital cases where a defendant has been 
found guilty of murder, the death penalty sentence was issued, and 
there was no trial error or constitutional infirmity.
  By passing this kind of tough anti-crime legislation like the 
exclusionary rule modifications and habeas corpus reform we will send a 
clear message to those who would break our laws that crime does not 
pay, and the victims will find a measure of protection that can come 
from Congress.

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