[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 14 (Tuesday, January 29, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E108-E109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           INTRODUCING THE INNOCENCE PROJECT GOLD MEDAL BILL

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                           HON. BOBBY L. RUSH

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 29, 2008

  Mr. RUSH. Madam Speaker, today I rise to introduce a bill to award 
the Congressional Gold Medal to Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in 
recognition of their outstanding service to the Nation as co-founders 
and co-directors of the Innocence Project.
  Madam Speaker, the Innocence Project is responsible for exonerating 
210 innocent individuals who were on Death Row. In my home State of 
Illinois, through their work in the Innocence Project, Mr. Scheck and 
Mr. Neufeld have helped free 27 innocent individuals. Twenty-seven, 
Madam Speaker, twenty-seven individuals that if not for the work of 
these two men and their colleagues may be dead right now.
  Dead for crimes they did not commit.
  Madam Speaker, in addition to helping with wrongful convictions Mr. 
Scheck and Mr. Neufeld have worked to create clinics across the country 
that help prove the innocence of the wrongfully convicted. Furthermore, 
their work through the Innocence Project has been instrumental in 
encouraging States across the country to reform their death penalty 
systems. These reforms range from preservation of evidence, to 
providing access to DNA evidence for convicted individuals.
  Madam Speaker, even today the inconsistencies and injustice of the 
death penalty system continues to come to light.
  A recent study by the American Bar Association illustrates the very 
problems that the work of these two men hopes to counter. For example, 
the ABA study found that:
  ``States are not requiring that crime laboratories and medical 
examiner offices be accredited'';
  States ``are failing to provide for the appointment of counsel in 
post-conviction proceedings'';

[[Page E109]]

  ``Most states fail to require that the jury be instructed that it may 
impose a life sentence if a juror does not believe that the defendant 
should receive the death penalty'';
  ``Every state studied appears to have significant racial disparities 
in its capital system, particularly those associated with the race of 
the victim''; and
  ``States do not formally commute a death sentence upon a finding that 
the inmate is incompetent to proceed on factual matters requiring the 
inmate's input''.
  As illustrated by this small sampling, these injustices are so grave, 
Madam Speaker, that the ABA--an organization normally silent in regards 
to the death penalty--has called for a nationwide moratorium.
  Madam Speaker, in light of such regular occurrences of injustice in 
our system, it is important now more than ever to celebrate the work of 
individuals who are correcting the ills in our judicial system.
  I encourage my colleagues to join me in bestowing upon Barry C. 
Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld the Congressional Gold Medal. Their work to 
ensure that we, as a country, remain a nation devoted still to ``truth, 
justice, and the American way'' is admirable and must be recognized.

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