UNITED STATES SENATOR MAINE

 

 

SUSAN COLLINS

       PRESS                   RELEASE

For Immediate Release                        Contact: Felicia Knight
June 27, 2001                        (202) 224 2523

 

ENSURING COMPETENT COUNSEL IN DEATH PENALTY CASES

 

SENATOR SUSAN COLLINS

Testimony Before U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary

 

Mr. Chairman, Senator Hatch, other members of the Judiciary Committee, I want to thank you for inviting me to testify today at this important hearing focusing on how to ensure competent counsel in death penalty cases.

 

To appreciate the importance of the issue of procedural safeguards in death penalty cases, consider what price our society would be willing to pay to prevent the execution of just one innocent individual. The price, of course, cannot be measured. And yet the threat of such a wrongful execution is all too real.

 

Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, 720 people have been executed nationwide, including 37 this year. In this same time period, nearly 100 people who were sentenced to die had their convictions overturned and were released from death row. Each of these individuals has lived the Kafkaesque nightmare of condemnation and imprisonment for crimes they did not commit.

 

Thirty-seven hundred prisoners now sit on death row. It is impossible to know, for certain, how many of them are innocent of the crimes for which they have been sentenced to death. But if history is a guide, some undoubtedly are.

 

My home State of Maine ushered in the first era of death penalty reform in 1835 with what came to be known as the “Maine Law.” The Maine Law held that all felons sentenced to death had to remain in prison at hard labor and could not be executed until one year had elapsed and then only on the governor’s order. No governor ordered an execution under the Maine Law for twenty-seven years, and Maine finally abolished the death penalty in 1887 after a botched hanging.

 

But Maine is one of only twelve states to abolish the death penalty. And so, under the great majority of state court systems and under the federal system, executions can and do occur. It is our responsibility to make sure that the frightening power to take another’s life is wielded judiciously, with the greatest care.

 

I am proud to join many in this room in cosponsoring the Innocence Protection Act, and I commend the Chairman, Senator Smith, and Senator Feingold for their tireless efforts to see this

 

 

 

172 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING · WASHINGTON, DC 20510 · 202-224-2523 FAX: 202-224-2693

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bill through to passage. I believe that, over time, and as more capital convictions are overturned, more and more Americans will embrace the principles of this important bill.

 

Take Title II of the bill, which is designed to ensure competent legal counsel in death penalty cases. Instead of attempting to impose federal requirements created out of whole cloth, the bill establishes a commission of prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges tasked with developing standards for providing adequate legal representation for indigents facing the death sentence. It then provides grants to help States implement the Commission’s standards as well as disincentives for States that choose to ignore them.

 

I know there are those who will oppose any attempt to persuade States to adopt uniform standards for competent counsel. And as a life-long federalist, I do not lightly advocate for national standards. But the stakes in capital cases are simply too high. And our national interest in protecting the innocent are too great.

 

I feel similarly about the DNA testing provisions of the bill. Convicted offenders ought to have access to DNA testing in cases where it has the potential to help prove an inmate’s innocence. The Innocence Protection Act sets procedures governing DNA testing in the Federal system and encourages States to adopt their own adequate procedures to ensure that testing is available and that biological material is preserved. In recognition that the stakes are higher in death penalty cases, our bill would prohibit States from denying applications for DNA testing by death row inmates if the testing could produce new, exculpatory evidence.

 

Mr. Chairman, Senator Hatch, thank you again for inviting me to testify today, and for addressing an issue of such profound significance to our nation. I am hopeful that this Congress we will reach across the aisle to enact meaningful safeguards to protect the innocent from paying the ultimate price, and society from committing the paramount transgression.