Senate Adopts Death Penalty Amendment To Hate Crimes Provision


(7/21/2009)

Expansion Of Federal Death Penalty Counter To Furthering Civil 
Rights, Says ACLU

CONTACT: (202) 675-2312; media@dcaclu.org

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate yesterday passed an amendment extending 
the death penalty for certain hate crimes. The amendment, sponsored 
by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), was added to the hate crimes 
amendment to the Defense authorization bill that passed last 
Thursday. In a letter sent to Senators, the American Civil Liberties 
Union urged lawmakers to oppose this misguided and wrong expansion of 
the federal death penalty.

“The expansion of the federal death penalty stands in stark contrast 
to furthering the cause of civil rights in the United States,” said 
Christopher Anders, ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel. “The death 
penalty is always wrong. Capital punishment has been proven to be 
such an expensive and discriminatory punishment that Congress should 
oppose any effort to expand its scope and reach. At a time when 
evidence is mounting that scores of innocent defendants have been 
sentenced to death, Congress should steer clear of expanding the 
death penalty."

Problems, such as inadequate defense counsel and racial disparities, 
have always plagued the death penalty system in the United States. 
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 135 innocent 
people have been exonerated from death row since 1973, including five 
so far in 2009 alone.

In addition to this death penalty amendment, the ACLU also did not 
support the underlying hate crime provision in the defense 
authorization bill which would have a chilling effect on free speech 
and association. The U.S. House of Representatives has a welcome 
version of the hate crimes bill that protects speech and association 
as well as gives the federal government new authority to prosecute 
certain violent acts based on race, color, national origin, religion, 
gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.

The ACLU letter to Senators is available at http://www.aclu.org/
crimjustice/deathpenalty/40374leg20090720.html

For a copy of a letter from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights 
to Senators, go to http://www.aclu.org/crimjustice/deathpenalty/
40375leg20090720.html

http://www.aclu.org/capital/federal/40381prs20090721.html?s_src=RSS