Thank you Chairman Feingold for allowing me to make some opening remarks and for convening this important hearing. The death penalty is a subject on the minds of many Americans in light of the execution this week of Timothy McVeigh for the murder of 168 innocent people in the worst incident of domestic terrorism in our nation’s history. The death penalty is the ultimate punishment society can impose, and it is appropriate that we scrutinize its use in our federal criminal justice system.

       While we may disagree about whether capital punishment should be permitted in our country, we all agree that it must be meted out fairly. In my view, the studies released by former Attorney General Reno and Attorney General Ashcroft show that there is no invidious racial discrimination in the application of the federal death penalty. Indeed, if anything these studies show that the federal government has sought the death penalty for proportionately fewer minorities than whites. Put another way, if you were being prosecuted by the federal government for conduct that could be charged as a capital offense, your chances of facing the death penalty at trial are greater if you were White than if you were Black or Hispanic. In light of this evidence, as the editors of the Atlanta Constitution concluded, "no objective and fair-minded person can seriously argue that the [federal] system used to determine which federal cases merit death-penalty prosecution is biased."

       Nevertheless, we all must share Attorney General Ashcroft’s concern that nearly 80% of defendants in federal capital cases are minorities. We also must commit ourselves to identifying and solving the socio-economic factors that underlie these statistics. Doing something about this, however, requires that we first have the courage to acknowledge a painful but undeniable fact: the offenses that may lead to homicides and capital charges in the federal system are not evenly distributed across all population groups. Moreover, while many complain about the racial disparity among death penalty defendants, there is hardly a mention of the disparity among murder victims. As former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder pointed out last year, "although young African-American men are only 1 percent of our nation’s population, they are fully 18 percent of our nation’s homicide victims. . . . Although black people make up 12 to 15 percent of the nation’s population, they are about 50 percent of the nation’s homicide victims." Sounding the call of racism makes for good political theater, but it unjustly defames our federal law enforcement professionals and more important, does nothing to address the socio-economic factors that cause the problem.

       In releasing this latest report, Attorney General Ashcroft continues to fulfill the commitments he made during his confirmation hearing. He has also completed one of the projects undertaken by former Attorney General Reno in the waning days of the Clinton Administration. Given the deadline imposed on this project by former President Clinton and the need to make as complete an analysis as possible prior to the previously scheduled executions, it was important for General Ashcroft to complete the internal review of the expanded data which was gathered for this supplemental report. This does not mean that other studies have been or will be terminated. In fact, to the contrary, Attorney General Ashcroft has informed the Committee that studies – including studies utilizing outside experts – are continuing as called for by the previous administration. Attorney General Ashcroft promised to continue those efforts, he has done so, and he will continue to do so.

       Predictably, some death penalty opponents still insist there should be a moratorium on all pending executions until completion of these additional research projects. I respectfully submit that such an action is simply not warranted on the facts before us. That was the conclusion of the prior administration, as made clear by the public statements of President Clinton, Attorney General Reno, and Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. It is not surprising, therefore, that the current administration takes the same position.

       As stated last year by Attorney General Reno, there simply is no question of the guilt of the current defendants on death row. While we can – and will — continue to seek to better understand and improve the current system, there is no justifiable reason to fail to carry out the sentences properly imposed in these cases.

       The case of Juan Garza, who is scheduled to be executed next week, illustrates why the call for a moratorium is misguided. No one seriously questions that he is guilty of murdering three members of his drug trafficking organization. The evidence also shows that he was responsible for five additional murders, and that while in custody pending trial, Garza threatened prosecutors and jurors.

       In addition to his certain guilt, no one can seriously argue that Garza was the victim of a racist system. All but one of Garza’s victims were Hispanic, the judge hearing his case is Hispanic, and the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted him is Hispanic. Furthermore, the majority of the jurors who convicted and sentenced him to death had Hispanic surnames.

       Nor is there any evidence that Mr. Garza was unfairly exposed to the death penalty because he is Hispanic. Statistics show that there was no large proportion of federal capital cases involving Hispanic defendants in the period in which Garza’s case arose; the federal district in which he was prosecuted generated few cases involving charges of capital crimes at any time; and that particular district sought the death penalty in only one case– Garza’s-- in the overall 1988-2000 period examined in the Department’s study.

       Like all of the defendants on federal death row, Mr. Garza faces execution not because of his race, ethnicity, or place of residence, but because he is guilty of committing heinous crimes. Attorney General Ashcroft, like Attorney General Reno before him, is right to reject calls for a moratorium.