[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 139 (Sunday, October 29, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11323-S11324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   A FEDERAL MORATORIUM ON EXECUTIONS

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, the last time the Federal Government 
executed someone was in 1963. That year, the Federal Government 
executed Victor Feguer, who had kidnapped and killed a young doctor. At 
5:30 in the morning of February 15, 1963, at Fort Madison, IA, a 
Federal hangman tied a noose around Feguer's neck and put him to death.
  Feguer's execution was the first and last Federal execution of the 
1960s. In fact, the Federal Government has carried out executions 
fairly infrequently during the entire twentieth century. Only 24 
Federal executions took place between 1927 and 1963. One-third of those 
were for wartime espionage or sabotage.
  But, Mr. President, all of that is about to change. In the next 2 
months, two inmates on Federal death row could become the first to be 
executed by the Federal Government in nearly forty years. Their names 
are David Hammer and Juan Garza.
  As many of my colleagues recall, Congress modernized the federal 
death penalty in 1988 and then significantly expanded it in 1994. Those 
votes are about to have very real consequences. Like it or not, the 
national debate over the death penalty is actually intensifying and 
will build further next month, the months after that, and in the year 
to come.
  And we should have this debate. We should have this debate, because 
the Federal Government is heading in a different direction from the 
rest of the country. The States have learned some serious lessons about 
the administration of capital punishment, and the Federal Government, 
above all, should learn from them.
  After the Supreme Court's 1976 decision reinstating the death 
penalty, most States swept the cobwebs off their electric chairs and 
resumed executions. And most of these states have not looked back 
since. Just last year, the United States set the record for the number 
of executions in one year in this modern death penalty period: 98 
executions. And already this year, there have been 70 executions in the 
United States.
  But recently, in States all across America, awareness has been 
growing that the death penalty system has serious flaws and that its 
administration has sometimes been far from fair. From Illinois to Texas 
to North Carolina to Pennsylvania, I believe that a consensus is 
building that there is a problem. Since the 1970s, 89 people--Mr. 
President, 89 people--who had been sent to death row were later proven 
innocent. Nine of these 89 were exonerated on the basis of modern DNA 
testing of biological evidence. Defendants have sometimes been 
represented by lawyers who slept during trial, were drunk during trial, 
or who were so incompetent that they were later suspended or disbarred. 
Prosecutorial and police misconduct sometimes have led to faulty 
convictions. The death penalty has been applied disproportionately to 
African Americans and the poor. The revelations of problems with the 
system mount. These are very real, serious problems that fail to live 
up to the fundamental principles of fairness and justice on which our 
criminal justice system is based.
  Just last month, the Justice Department released data on Federal 
death penalty prosecutions. That Justice study showed racial and 
geographic disparities in the administration of the Federal death 
penalty. The study found that whether the Federal Government seeks the 
death penalty appears to relate to the color of the defendant's skin or 
the Federal district in which the defendant is prosecuted. Both the 
President and the Attorney General have acknowledged--they have 
acknowledged--that this data paints a disturbing picture of the Federal 
death penalty system. The Attorney General admits that she does not 
have answers to the questions raised by the DOJ report.
  My colleagues may believe that the system is flawed, but some of them 
seem to fear that the people will object to efforts simply to address 
these inequities. The American people, however, are in fact ahead of 
the politicians on this, as they are on so many issues. A majority of 
the American people are troubled. They are troubled by these flaws in 
the death penalty system that they support a moratorium on executions. 
An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll taken this past July found that 63 
percent of Americans supported a suspension of executions while 
questions of fairness are reviewed. And in a bipartisan poll released 
just this last month, 64 percent of Americans supported a suspension of 
executions while questions of fairness are reviewed.

  Mr. President, as you have said and others have said, the Federal 
Government can often learn from the States. Let's apply that to the 
administration of the death penalty.
  With so many nagging questions raised and still unanswered, how can 
the Federal Government go forward--how can the Federal Government go 
forward with its first execution in almost 40 years?
  I believe it is unconscionable for the Federal Government to resume 
executions under these circumstances.
  Earlier this year, I introduced two bills that would suspend 
executions

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while an independent, blue ribbon commission simply reviews the death 
penalty system. The National Death Penalty Moratorium Act would suspend 
executions at the state and federal levels. The Federal Death Penalty 
Moratorium Act would suspend executions at the Federal level. And I am 
pleased that Senators Levin, Wellstone, Durbin and Boxer have joined me 
on one or both of these bills. The five of us may not--in fact, do 
not--agree on whether the death penalty is a proper punishment, but we 
are united in our belief that our nation should pause and thoroughly 
review the system that has sent many who were later proven innocent to 
death row.
  Addressing flaws in the death penalty system is, Mr. President, 
unfortunately, yet another chapter of the unfinished business of this 
Congress. With two executions scheduled for after adjournment, I must 
urge President Clinton to suspend Federal executions and order a 
comprehensive review of the Federal death penalty system.
  Next Congress, when we return, I intend to reintroduce my 
legislation. I shall keep pushing forward on this issue. We have made 
progress this year, but we still have a long way to go toward restoring 
the integrity of our criminal justice system. I look forward to working 
with my colleagues toward that goal in the year to come.

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