[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 145 (Tuesday, October 13, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H10672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

  (Mr. BARR of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARR of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, Matthew Shepard a 21-year-old 
student in Wyoming is dead, brutally murdered by those who for one 
reason or another did not like him. The perpetrators need to be 
punished swiftly, thoroughly and appropriately, namely, the death 
penalty.
  Wyoming is trying to do its job. Let us here in the Congress let 
Wyoming do its job. Wyoming provides for the death penalty in cases 
such as this. Yet there are those who are clamoring for Federal 
legislation to ``increase penalties for such crimes.'' One really 
wonders what would be an increased penalty over the death penalty. I 
would be interested to see. It may very well violate the constitutional 
ban against cruel and unusual punishment.
  Let us not rush to judgment and pass vastly expansive Federal 
legislation such as that which came before the Subcommittee on Crime 
earlier this year which included terms which would provide the basis 
for Federal jurisdiction which were nowhere defined in Federal law. 
Passing legislation as a knee jerk reaction to an awful incident is not 
the best way to govern. We need to resist the urge, let Wyoming and the 
other States do their jobs.

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