[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14593-14594]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              JUSTICE FOR ALL REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2013

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as one who had the privilege of being a 
prosecutor, I have great faith in our criminal justice system and the 
men and women who have dedicated their lives to making it work. 
Sometimes mistakes are made, and those mistakes have catastrophic 
consequences. They can mean an innocent person spends his or her life 
in prison, or worse, is executed. They mean a guilty person remains 
free--able to victimize again. When mistakes are made, lives are 
destroyed.
  We would like to think these kinds of mistakes are few and far 
between, but they happen all the time. Just this month we saw that two 
innocent men in North Carolina were exonerated. They had served 30 
years behind bars for a crime they did not commit. One of those men had 
been sentenced to death.
  Can you imagine being in a prison and having those steel doors close 
every day all the while knowing you are there--perhaps never to leave 
until you die--for a crime you never committed? But even worse, you 
know that the person who committed the crime is out free.
  Can you imagine that? I know some of these people. I have talked with 
them. I know it and can just begin to understand what gnaws at them 
when they are behind bars for a crime they didn't commit, knowing that 
the person who committed the crime is out free to do it again.
  Henry Lee McCollum and his half brother Leon Brown were teenagers. 
They were arrested in 1983 for a heinous crime--the rape and murder of 
an 11-year-old girl. They were interrogated for hours, and then these 
two mentally disabled teens gave false confessions. They were 
ultimately convicted of a crime they did not commit. While these 
innocent men sat behind bars, the unthinkable happened--the real 
offender went on to rape and murder another young girl.
  These men have lost so much. They were not there when their mother or 
grandmother died. They have never married or had children. Mr. McCollum 
had to be placed in isolation every time another inmate was taken to 
the execution chamber to keep him from harming himself in his distress. 
It was only this year when a cigarette butt left at the crime scene was 
finally tested for DNA that their names were cleared and the real 
perpetrator identified.
  That critical DNA test was made possible by the Kirk Bloodsworth 
Post-Conviction DNA Testing Grant Program, which is part of the 
Innocence Protection Act that I wrote more than 14 years ago. I was 
proud to be there with President Bush when he signed it into law as 
part of the Justice for All Act of 2004. The program was named for a 
man whom I consider my friend, Kirk Bloodsworth. Kirk was a young man 
just out of the Marines when he was arrested, convicted, and sentenced 
to death for a heinous crime he did not commit. He was the first person 
on death row to be exonerated by DNA evidence. He had been convicted on 
eye witness identification, even though he made it very clear he wasn't 
anywhere near where this happened. Do my colleagues know that when they 
finally exonerated him and identified who the real person was, there 
was someone at the prison who said, Oh, yeah, we have that guy locked 
up for another crime. Boy, they do look alike, don't they?
  Unfortunately, hundreds of others have gone through the same hell 
Kirk lived through. Well over 300 Americans have been exonerated using 
DNA testing. But then I wonder how many others are going to have to 
suffer before we act. The U.S. attorney in Washington, DC, announced 
last Thursday he will launch a conviction integrity unit following five 
recent exonerations. Similar programs exist in Dallas, Chicago, 
Philadelphia, San Jose, and Detroit.
  This underscores the fact that mistakes can happen all too often. Any 
good prosecutor fears the possibility of a mistake happening because 
usually prosecutors are going to get convictions. They want to make 
sure they prosecute the right person. Unfortunately, though, there are 
some who have been willing to accept less than adequate evidence or 
ignore the fact that no real effort was made to find all of the 
adequate evidence.
  For example, we are just beginning to understand the scope of the 
systemic errors committed by hair and fiber analysts at the FBI crime 
lab in the 1980s and the 1990s. I know as a young prosecutor I relied 
on that FBI crime lab. Now we find there were errors and they were 
hidden and covered up--errors involving the question of the convictions 
of 2,600 defendants, including 45 on death row.
  In a separate inquiry involving the same FBI unit, more than 60 death 
row convictions were potentially tainted by agent misconduct.

[[Page 14594]]

  Those statistics are bad enough, but according to the Justice 
Department's inspector general, three of those defendants were executed 
before their attorneys were notified of the misconduct. One of them 
would not have been eligible for the death penalty without the FBI's 
flawed work. Whether someone is for or against the death penalty, it 
should shock our conscience. It is unacceptable. We may have executed 
an innocent man. I will hold the FBI accountable. I will demand they 
take the necessary steps to ensure that such a systemic failure never 
occurs again. I know the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, 
Senator Grassley, shares my outrage about this situation.
  So it is against this backdrop of these shocking cases that I come to 
the floor and urge the Senate to take swift action. Let us reauthorize 
the Justice for All Act, which includes the post-conviction DNA testing 
program that is a lifeline to the wrongfully convicted.
  There is nothing partisan or political about ensuring we have the 
right person behind bars and we are not locking up an innocent person. 
That is an issue both Republicans and Democrats agree on, and that is 
why the Justice for All Act has the support of the ranking member of 
the Judiciary Committee, Senator Grassley, and the Republican leader, 
Senator McConnell, and as I said cosponsored by me and Senator Cornyn.
  Justice is the bedrock of our great country. Our Founders understood 
that a government's legitimacy is eroded every time an innocent person 
is sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. They sought to protect 
against this erosion by enshrining fundamental protections for the 
accused in our Bill of Rights. While those protections are critical, 
they are not fail-safe. We have to do more. Lives are in the balance. 
Lives are in the balance.
  The dozens of exonerations made possible by the Justice for All Act 
are testament enough to its value. Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown 
are just the latest examples. The injustice they survived--and the fact 
that North Carolina nearly executed an innocent man--should dispel any 
doubt this legislation is needed. It is time for the Senate to pass 
this bipartisan Justice for All Reauthorization Act. First giving 
appropriate notice to both leaders, I will be asking unanimous consent 
that we take it up and pass it.
  I see my distinguished colleague and friend on the floor, and I yield 
the floor.
  Mr. WICKER. I thank the distinguished President pro tempore.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.

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