[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 149 (Thursday, November 10, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SECURE ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND COURT PROTECTION ACT

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                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 10, 2005

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House considered the so-called 
Secure Access to Justice and Court Protection Act, H.R.1751.
  We have all heard of the tragic and deeply troubling violence 
directed at judges or other court employees. In just March of this 
year, U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow came home from a day at work 
to discover her husband and mother shot dead in the basement. We 
clearly need to act to help protect the lives and security of all 
federal court employees, including judges.
  H.R. 1751 would authorize the appropriation of additional funds over 
the next five years to increase court security, and to provide grants 
to States do the same and to help protect witnesses. The bill would 
also toughen the penalties on the books for threatening or committing 
acts of violence against federal judges or court employees.
  While I support and believe we need to protect federal court 
employees, there are too many troubling and fundamental problems with 
this bill for me to support it.
  This bill creates 22 new mandatory minimum penalties. Mandatory 
minimum penalties do not work. They discount mitigating factors in 
crimes, prevent judges from meting out punishments that are tailored to 
the criminal, and mandatory minimum have proven discriminatory to 
people of color. They may make legislators feel good but they have been 
shown not to reduce crime rates. Even the Judicial Conference, the 
group that represents Federal judges, has said that mandatory minimums 
violate common sense.
  Also troubling is the fact that this legislation creates seven 
additional death penalties. Yet, research has shown that capital 
punishment is not a deterrent to crime. Let me repeat, the death 
penalty simply does not reduce crime. The death penalty is also flawed 
because it is applied unevenly and unjustly along racial lines, and far 
too often is applied to someone who is only later exonerated, often too 
late.
  Given these two deeply troubling problems with this bill, I cannot 
support it.

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