[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3039]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now 
be a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for 
up to 10 minutes each.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


               Supreme Court's ruling in Roper v. Simmons

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, today, the Supreme Court struck down the 
death penalty for juvenile persons 17 years old or younger. I commend 
the Court for its wise and courageous decision.
  Three years ago, the Supreme Court held that the eighth amendment to 
the Constitution prohibits the execution of the mentally retarded. In 
reaching that decision, the Court emphasized the large number of States 
that had enacted laws prohibiting executions of the retarded after 
1989, when the Court had earlier declined to hold them 
unconstitutional. As the Court observed in reaching its decision 3 
years ago to ban them, ``It is fair to say that a national consensus 
has developed'' against such executions.
  The Court cited several factors showing why executing the mentally 
retarded is unconstitutional: Mentally retarded persons lack the 
capacity to fully appreciate the consequences of their actions; they 
are less able to control their impulses and learn from experience, and 
are therefore less likely to be deterred by the death penalty; they are 
more likely to give false confessions, and less able to give meaningful 
assistance to their lawyers.
  Today, the Supreme Court recognized that this logic also applies to 
the execution of juveniles. The Court cited a number of factors--
including the rejection of the juvenile death penalty in the majority 
of States, the infrequency of its use even where it remains legal, and 
the consistency of the trend toward abolition of the practice. It 
concluded that these factors provide ``sufficient evidence that today 
our society views juveniles, in the words used respecting the mentally 
retarded, as `categorically less culpable than the average criminal' ''
  Today's ruling is a welcome victory for justice and human rights. 
Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, 
there have been 21 executions of juvenile offenders. In the last 5 
years, only the United States, Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo, 
and China have executed a juvenile offender. It is long past time that 
we wipe this stain from our Nation's human rights record.
  Other steps need to be taken as well to reform our system of capital 
punishment.
  For too long, our courts have tolerated a shamefully low standard for 
legal representation in death penalty cases. Some judges have even 
refused to order relief in cases where the defense lawyer slept through 
substantial portions of the trial.
  I am hopeful that the legislation proposed by our colleagues Patrick 
Leahy and Gordon Smith in the Senate, and Bill Delahunt and Ray LaHood 
in the House, and signed into law by the President last year, will 
serve to improve the quality of counsel in capital cases.
  I am heartened by the strong statement in President Bush's State of 
the Union Address last month in support of that program. I am also 
encouraged by the President's pledge to dramatically expand the use of 
DNA evidence to prevent wrongful convictions.
  As we work together to remedy the most flagrant defects in the 
application of the death penalty, however, we must never lose sight of 
its basic injustice. Experience shows that continued imposition of the 
death penalty will inevitably lead to wrongful executions. Many of us 
are concerned about the racial disparities in the imposition of capital 
punishment and the wide disparities in the States in its application. 
The unequal, unfair, arbitrary and discriminatory use of the death 
penalty is completely contrary to our Nation's commitment to fairness 
and equal justice for all, and we need to do all we can to correct 
these fundamental flaws.
  I yield the floor.

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