[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 126 (Monday, October 3, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10826-S10827]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CRAIG (for himself, Mr. Roberts, and Mr. Brownback):
  S. 1813. A bill to amend titles 10 and 38 of the United States Code, 
to modify the circumstances under which a person who has committed a 
capital offense is denied certain burial-related benefits and funeral 
honors; to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I have sought recognition to comment on 
legislation I am introducing that will fix a problem that many of us 
thought was corrected 8 years ago. My legislation will close a loophole 
in the law that now allows capital offenders to be buried in America's 
national cemeteries. My legislation will ensure that no one who may be 
given a life sentence or who may be sentenced to death for murder will 
be honored at their funerals by the presence of a military funeral 
detail. And, finally, my legislation will direct the Secretary of 
Veterans Affairs, the Secretary of the Army, and other military service 
Secretaries to each prescribe a proactive process by which officials 
can ascertain whether there exists a burial or funeral honors 
prohibition on individuals who may have been capital offenders.
  In 1997, the Congress learned that the perpetrator of the Oklahoma 
City bombings--Timothy McVeigh--was, in fact, eligible for burial and 
memorialization in a VA national cemetery and, under certain 
circumstances, Arlington National Cemetery. Largely, but not 
exclusively, in response to McVeigh's eligibility, Public Law 105-116 
was enacted to deny interment in Arlington National Cemetery, VA 
National Cemeteries, and State veterans' cemeteries funded with VA 
grants, to any person convicted of a Federal capital crime or a State 
capital crime for which a sentence of death or life imprisonment 
without parole is given. Later, in 2002, Public Law 107-330 was enacted 
to deny to capital offenders VA-provided flags, headstones and markers, 
and Presidential Memorial Certificates. The intent of the 1997 and 2002 
laws was clear: We should not bury brutal murderers alongside America's 
honored dead and we should not provide memorialization benefits to 
those who have so dishonored themselves through their own post-service 
conduct.
  The circumstances surrounding the placement of the cremated remains 
of a convicted double-murderer--Russell Wayne Wagner--at Arlington 
National Cemetery in late July caused me, and many of my colleagues, to 
wonder what impact the 1997 law actually had. The media coverage of 
former Chief Justice William Rehnquist's Arlington Cemetery funeral 
only served to confirm my bewilderment: How could an individual like 
Wagner who committed such heinous acts be placed in the same hallowed 
ground as Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice Thurgood Marshall, President 
Kennedy, and hundreds upon hundreds of servicemembers to whom this 
country owes its eternal respect?
  Russell Wayne Wagner's two life sentences carried with them the 
possibility of parole. The 1997 law only bars national cemetery 
interment to State capital offenders sentenced to death or life in 
prison without parole. Thus, we have our first example of the ``parole 
loophole.''
  To further explore how wide the ``parole loophole'' is for State 
capital offenders, I asked the Congressional Research Service to 
analyze the sentencing of Dennis Rader, the infamous ``BTK serial 
killer,''--``BTK'' being short for Rader's method to dispose of his 10 
victims: Bind, Torture, Kill. Rader was given ten consecutive life 
terms for which he must serve a minimum of 175 years in prison. 
However, because the Kansas law under which Rader was tried did not 
allow for a sentence of death, nor did it allow for a sentence of life 
without parole, CRS concluded that, as an honorably discharged veteran 
of the Air Force, ``it would appear that he is not statutorily 
precluded from interment in a national cemetery.'' If the 1997 law 
cannot prevent the interment of a notorious serial killer, then what 
good is it? I called a hearing in September to find an answer to that 
question.
  The Committee heard from Mr. Vernon Davis, son of Wagner's victims, 
who described in vivid detail how Wagner repeatedly stabbed his elderly 
parents to death. I was so astounded that an individual who committed 
such a cowardly action could be buried at Arlington that I immediately 
introduced legislation--S. 1759--to have his remains removed.
  The Committee also heard from VA and Arlington cemetery officials who 
described the process that is in place to deny burial in national 
cemeteries to capital offenders. Unfortunately, the process appears to 
be a passive one. The Deputy Superintendent at Arlington told me that 
Arlington officials do

[[Page S10827]]

not even ask whether a person on whose behalf burial is sought is a 
convicted capital offender. While I understand that finding out such 
information needs to be handled delicately and with tact, to have no 
screening process at all is unacceptable.
  Finally, we heard the unified testimony of 5 veterans' organizations, 
who reminded us that decisions to take away benefits earned by virtue 
of honorable military service should never be made without careful, 
reasoned deliberation.
  Based on the testimony from the Committee's hearing, I have joined 
with my colleagues from Kansas--Senators Roberts and Brownback--in 
introducing this legislation today. Section 1 of the legislation would 
remove the language in law that provides capital offenders--like Wagner 
and the BTK Killer--with their continued burial eligibility. 
Furthermore, to address situations where a capital offender may have 
plea-bargained his or her way out of a death or life sentence, section 
1 would remove the language in statute that ties the prohibition of 
cemetery burial to a capital crime sentence that was received and would 
replace it with language tying the prohibition to a capital crime 
sentence that may be received. This statutory language change would 
recognize that while the actual sentence for those who commit heinous 
acts may vary, the underlying action meriting those criminal sentences 
should be treated equally for purposes of burial prohibition.
  Section 2 of the legislation would deny the provision of military 
honors and burial at a military cemetery of a person convicted of a 
Federal capital crime or a State capital crime for which a life 
sentence or the death penalty may be imposed. Section 3 would deny 
funeral honors--where at least two members of the Armed Forces are made 
available at veterans' funerals to fold and present the American flag, 
and play Taps--to those same persons, irrespective of whether burial is 
sought at national, state, or private cemeteries.
  Finally, section 4 of the legislation would require the appropriate 
military service and VA to each prescribe regulations to ensure that a 
person is neither buried, nor provided funeral honors, before a good-
faith effort is made to determine whether such person is ineligible as 
a capital offender.
  This legislation is a necessary reform to the 1997 law. Let me be 
clear that while the effect of the legislation would be to take away 
benefits that were otherwise earned by honorable military service, the 
intent of it is not punitive. Rather, my intention is to preserve the 
dignity of America's national cemeteries.
  President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address at one of our 
Nation's first, and most revered, national cemeteries. Then he spoke of 
the ``honored dead'' who gave their ``last full measure of devotion.'' 
My legislation will ensure that we bring no dishonor to those who 
belong in our national cemeteries by inappropriately honoring those 
who, by their own actions, do not.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1813

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. PROHIBITION AGAINST INTERMENT IN NATIONAL 
                   CEMETERY.

       Section 2411 of title 38, United States Code, is amended--
       (1) in subsection (b)--
       (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``for which the person 
     was sentenced to death or life imprisonment''; and
       (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``for which the person 
     was sentenced to death or life imprisonment without parole''; 
     and
       (2) in subsection (d)--
       (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``the death penalty or 
     life imprisonment'' and inserting ``a life sentence or the 
     death penalty''; and
       (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``the death penalty or 
     life imprisonment without parole may be imposed'' and 
     inserting ``a life sentence or the death penalty may be 
     imposed''.

     SEC. 2. DENIAL OF CERTAIN BURIAL-RELATED BENEFITS.

       Section 985 of title 10, United States Code, is amended--
       (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``who has been convicted 
     of a capital offense under Federal or State law for which the 
     person was sentenced to death or life imprisonment without 
     parole.'' and inserting ``described in section 2411(b) of 
     title 38.'';
       (2) in subsection (b), by striking ``convicted of a capital 
     offense under Federal law'' and inserting ``described in 
     section 2411(b) of title 38''; and
       (3) by amending subsection (c) to read as follows:
       ``(c) Definition.--In this section, the term `burial' 
     includes inurnment.''.

     SEC. 3. DENIAL OF FUNERAL HONORS.

       Section 1491(h) of title 10, United States Code, is 
     amended--
       (1) by redesignating paragraphs (1) and (2) as 
     subparagraphs (A) and (B), respectively;
       (2) by striking `` means a decedent who--'' and inserting 
     the following: ``--
       ``(1) means a decedent who--'';
       (3) in subparagraph (B), as redesignated, by striking the 
     period at the end and inserting ``; and''; and
       (4) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(2) does not include any person described in section 
     2411(b) of title 38.''.

     SEC. 4. RULEMAKING.

       (a) Department of Defense.--The Secretary of Defense shall 
     prescribe regulations to ensure that a person is not interred 
     in any military cemetery under the authority of the Secretary 
     or provided funeral honors under section 1491 of title 10, 
     United States Code, unless a good faith effort has been made 
     to determine whether such person is described in section 
     2411(b) of title 38, United States Code, or is otherwise 
     ineligible for such interment or honors under Federal law.
       (b) Department of Veterans Affairs.--The Secretary of 
     Veterans Affairs shall prescribe regulations to ensure that a 
     person is not interred in any cemetery in the National 
     Cemetery System unless a good faith effort has been made to 
     determine whether such person is described in section 2411(b) 
     of title 38, United States Code, or is otherwise ineligible 
     for such interment under Federal law.

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