>Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 22:02:52 -0500
>From: Senator Russell Feingold <russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov>
>X-Sender: Senator Russell Feingold <russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov>
>X-WWW-Site: http://www.blackradicalcongress.org/
>
>http://www.senate.gov/~feingold/991111.html
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>Senator Russell Feingold
>716 Hart Senate Office Building
>Washington, DC 20510-4904
>(202) 224-5323
>TDD (202) 224-1280
>russell_feingold@feingold.senate.gov
>http://www.senate.gov/~feingold/
>
>November 11, 1999
>
>FEINGOLD CALLS FOR ABOLITION OF FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY
>TO MARK THE NEW MILLENNIUM
>
>"As we enter a new millennium, time for us to look into the mirror"
>
>WASHINGTON, D.C. -– U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) has called for the
>end to the federal death penalty in the United States. Feingold introduced
>a bill to abolish the federal death penalty and called on all states that
>impose the death penalty to cease the practice. He said that as the United
>Nations nears a vote on the death penalty and the 20th century draws to a
>close, it is time for America to leave the death penalty behind and take a
>hard look at its justice system, one that adds to a culture of violence
>and killing.
>
>"Let us step away from the culture of violence and restore fairness and
>integrity to our criminal justice system," said Feingold. "We are a nation
>that prides itself on the fundamental principles of justice, liberty,
>equality and due process. We are a nation that scrutinizes the human
>rights records of other nations. We are one of the first nations to speak
>out against torture and killings by foreign governments. It is time for us
>to look in the mirror. At the end of 1999, as we enter a new millennium,
>our society is still far from fully just. The continued use of the death
>penalty demeans us. The death penalty is at odds with our best traditions.
>It is wrong and it is immoral. The adage ‘two wrongs do not make a right'
>could not be more appropriate here."
>
>Feingold outlined several concerns he has with both the philosophy
>underlying the death penalty as well as the way the death penalty is
>currently administered:
>
>The use of the death penalty by the United States stands in stark contrast
>to the majority of nations that have abolished the death penalty in law or
>practice. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has called for a
>worldwide moratorium on the use of the death penalty. And soon, Italy and
>other European nations are expected to introduce a resolution in the UN
>General Assembly calling for a worldwide moratorium. The European Union
>bans membership in the Union to nations that use the death penalty.
>
>He reminded his Senate colleagues that the United States is one of only
>six nations that imposes the death penalty for crimes committed by
>children. The others are Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan and Iran.
>In the last two years, the United States was the only nation in the world
>to put to death people who were minors when they committed their crimes.
>"Is this the kind of company we want to keep?" Feingold asked. "Is this
>the kind of world leader we want to be?"
>
>Feingold said he's not so sure that government doesn't contribute to a
>casual attitude sometimes seen toward killing and death. "With each new
>death penalty statute enacted and each execution carried out, our
>executive, judicial and legislative branches, at both the state and
>federal level, add to a culture of violence and killing," he said. "With
>each person executed, we're teaching our children that the way to settle
>scores is through violence, even to the point of taking a human life."
>
>The use of the death penalty at the state and federal level is often not
>consistent with principles of due process, fairness and justice. Innocent
>people have been put on death row. Since the modern death penalty was
>reinstated in the 1970s, 79 men and women have been released from death
>row because they were innocent. That amounts to one death row inmate
>proven innocent for every seven executed. "That's a pretty poor
>performance for American justice," Feingold charged. "A wrong conviction
>means that the real killer may have gotten away. The real killer may still
>be on the loose and a threat to society. What an injustice that the
>victims' loved ones cannot rest because the killer is still not caught.
>What an injustice that an innocent man or woman has to spend even one day
>in jail. What a staggering injustice that innocent people are sentenced to
>death for crimes they did not commit. What a disgrace when we carry out
>those sentences, actually taking the lives of innocent people in the name
>of justice."
>
>Additionally, states that have the death penalty are more likely to put
>people to death for killing white victims than for killing black victims.
>And there are a disproportionate number of minorities on death row. At the
>federal level, 21 people have been sentenced to death. Of those 21
>defendants, 14 are black, one is Hispanic and another Asian. That means 16
>of the 21 people on federal death row are minorities. In 1997, the
>American Bar Association called for a death penalty moratorium because it
>found that the application of the death penalty raises fairness and due
>process concerns. In large part because of concerns over due process and
>fairness, death penalty moratoriums have been considered by the
>legislatures of at least ten states over the last several months.
>
>Feingold said the death penalty is not an effective deterrent to crime.
>The federal government and most states in the U.S. have a death penalty,
>while our European counterparts do not. Yet the murder rate in the U.S. is
>six times higher than the murder rate in Britain, seven times higher than
>in France, five times higher than in Australia, and five times higher than
>in Sweden. Feingold also noted that the majority of the nation's police
>chiefs do not believe the death penalty is an effective law enforcement
>tool, according to a 1995 Hart Research poll. When asked to rank the
>various factors in reducing crime, police chiefs ranked the death penalty
>last. Rather, the police chiefs cited reducing drug abuse as the primary
>factor in reducing crime, along with a better economy and jobs,
>simplifying court rules, longer prison sentences, more police officers,
>and reducing the number of guns.
>
>Feingold continued: "Let me be clear, I believe murderers and other
>violent offenders should be severely punished. I'm not seeking to open the
>prison doors and let murderers come rushing out into our communities. I
>don't want to free them. The question is: should the death penalty be a
>means of punishment in our society."
>
>Feingold said he vividly recalls the first involuntary execution that
>followed the Supreme Court's Gregg decision in 1976. It was May 25, 1979
>and "I had just finished my last law school exam that morning," he told
>his colleagues. "Later that day, I recall turning on the television and
>watching the news report that Florida had just executed John Spenkelink. I
>was overcome with a sickening feeling. Here I was, fresh out of law school
>and firm in my belief that our legal system was advancing through the
>latter quarter of the twentieth century. Instead, to my great dismay, I
>was witnessing a throwback to the electric chair, the gallows and the
>routine executions of our nation's earlier history.
>
>"I haven't forgotten that experience or what I thought and felt on that
>day. At the end of 1999, at the end of a remarkable century and millennium
>of progress, I cannot help but believe that our progress has been
>tarnished with our nation's not only continuing, but increasing the use of
>the death penalty."
>
>As of November 10, 1999, the United States has executed 584 people since
>the reinstatement of the death penalty in1976. In those 23 years, there
>has been a sharp rise in the number of executions. This year the United
>States has already set a record for the most executions in our country in
>one year since 1976 - 84 people.
>
>"This is astounding and it is embarrassing," said Feingold.
>
>Feingold today called for renewed public debate about the death penalty.
>"What has happened to our nation's sense of striving to do what we know to
>be the right thing? Those who favor the death penalty should be pressed to
>explain why fallible human beings should presume to use the power of the
>state to extinguish the life of a fellow human being on our collective
>behalf. Those who oppose the death penalty should demand that explanation
>adamantly, and at every turn."
>
>-30-
>
>
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