NCJ Number
95572
Date Published
1981
Length
733 pages
Annotation
During 3 days of hearings, representatives from organizations favoring and opposing capital punishment testified on a bill, modeled after Georgia's law, that delineates criteria for imposing the death penalty for aggravated treason, espionage, and murder.
Abstract
A Department of Justice official expressed that agency's view that S.114 is constitutional and an appropriate framework for restoring the Federal death penalty. The bill also was endorsed by a professor of criminal law formerly a Federal prosecutor, the executive director of the National Sheriff's Association, and a citizens' crime organization called Protect the Innocent. After hearing representatives from the International Association of Chiefs of Police speak in favor of capital punishment, the committee listened to the American Civil Liberties Union's views that the death penalty is not needed and violates the Constitution. Witnesses representing the United States Catholic Conference also opposed capital punishment on the grounds that the legitimate purposes of punishment in contemporary society do not justify the death penalty. On the third day, the author of a book on capital punishment defended the death penalty on moral rather than deterrence grounds, while Amnesty International opposed the death penalty from a human rights perspective. Other capital punishment opponents who testified included the D.C. Coalition Against the Death Penalty, a woman whose daughter was murdered, an innocent man who had spent 4 years on Georgia's death row, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the American Friends Service Committee. The final witness, a representative of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, supported S. 114. Witnesses' statements, the bill's text, and numerous materials on capital punishment are included.