[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 179 (Monday, November 13, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             TEMPORARY INCREASE IN THE STATUTORY DEBT LIMIT

                                 ______


                               speech of

                           HON. LOUIS STOKES

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 9, 1995

  Mr. STOKES. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the so-called 
Habeas Corpus Reform provisions of H.R. 2586, the Short-term Debt Limit 
Extension Act of 1995. Let me state from the beginning that I have 
consistently, throughout my career, believed in and fought for the 
protection of all Americans rights under habeas corpus. As Chief 
Justice Salmon P. Chase described it in ex parte Yerger U.S. (1868), 
habeas corpus is ``The most important human right in the Constitution'' 
and ``The best and only sufficient defense of personal freedom.''
  Therefore, I cannot support this measure before us today because the 
very belief upon which our judicial system was created--the protection 
of an individual's fundamental constitutional rights balanced with 
society's right to be free from harm--is at risk if these oppressive 
provisions are included in this necessary debt limit extension. I 
cannot and will not support the anti-human rights and anti-Constitution 
provisions the Republican majority is attempting to attach to H.R. 
2586.
  It is my belief that our judicial system's major focus should be to 
protect its citizens' fundamental constitutional rights. As a Nation, 
we cannot afford to compromise the cherished habeas corpus protections 
guaranteed each of us in the U.S. Constitution. Rooted in the Magna 
Carta (1215), the writ of habeas corpus is as Justice Brennan pointed 
out in Fay versus Noia (1963),

       Inextricably intertwined with the growth of fundamental 
     rights of personal liberty * * * its root principle is that 
     in a civilized society, Government must always be accountable 
     to the judiciary for a man's imprisonment: if the 
     imprisonment cannot be shown to conform with the fundamental 
     requirements of law, the individual is entitled to his 
     immediate release.

  Mr. Speaker, the arbitrary 1-year limitation on the filing of general 
Federal habeas corpus appeals after all State remedies have been 
exhausted entirely fails to address the true cause of any delay in the 
capital punishment system. The lack of competent counsel at the trial 
level and on direct appeal constitutes the primary basis for the delay 
of many appeals. Provision of competent counsel at the trial and 
appellate stages of capital litigation would eliminate the need for 
many of the habeas appeals currently in our court system. Despite the 
fact that this is the case, the habeas corpus provisions of this bill 
do not make any effort whatsoever to provide counsel for State post-
conviction proceedings.
  It is no secret that I am opposed to the death penalty. This 
legislation fails to include any provisions to end the repugnant 
practice of the disproportionate application of the death penalty on 
minorities. In fact, this bill specifically makes it easier to impose 
the death penalty by limiting citizens rights to challenge the legality 
of their convictions. While I agree that strong measures must be taken 
to curb the crime epidemic, I do not believe that any actions should be 
taken to the detriment of an individual's basic rights and 
constitutional liberties.

  When closely examined, the sentencing history of the death penalty 
has generally been arbitrary, inconsistent and racially biased. It is 
my belief that the Federal death penalty is overly harsh, particularly 
because it fails to address the economic and social basis of crime in 
our most troubled communities. The fact is that there has always been a 
racial double-standard in the imposition of capital punishment in the 
United States. Even after the black codes of the 1860's were abolished, 
blacks were more severely punished than whites for the same offenses in 
our penal system. By the time the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the 
existing process for imposing the ultimate penalty unconstitutional in 
1972, more than half of the persons condemned or executed were African-
American--even though they were never more than 15 percent of the 
population. The advances in statistical analysis of the last 20 years 
have allowed numerous experts to test the raw data with disturbingly 
consistent results.
  Mr. Speaker, in 1990, after 29 studies from various jurisdictions 
were reviewed, the General Accounting Office confirmed that there is a 
consistent pattern of disparity in the imposition of the death penalty 
in the United States and that race is often a crucial factor that 
determines the outcome. Since the resumption of executions in 1977, of 
the 236 persons who have been executed, 200 persons, or an alarming 85 
percent, were executed for the murder of white victims. In fact, 
statistics show that blacks convicted of killing whites are 63 times 
more likely to be executed than whites who kill blacks.
  In 1991, the United States Justice Department's Bureau of Justice 
Statistics reported that African-Americans accounted for 40 percent of 
prisoners serving death penalty sentences. These statistics reflect how 
the African-American community is disproportionately affected by the 
death penalty. Furthermore, in a Nation where the number one leading 
cause of death for young African-American males is homicide, further 
disproportionate application of the death penalty will not resolve the 
epidemic of violence of our Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my belief that we cannot afford to compromise our 
fundamental rights in exchange for excessive discriminatory tactics. We 
all have an obligation to uphold the Constitution and protect the 
rights of all Americans to be free from unjustified imprisonment. I 
urge my colleagues to uphold our fundamental rights, protect the 
American people, and vote down this unconscionable invasion upon one of 
our most important guarantees.

                          ____________________