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H.R. 3199, the Patriot ReauthorizationAct
November 11, 2005
Legislation: The Senate and the House have both passed their own versions of The Patriot Reauthorization Act and are now in the process of meeting to iron out the differences in the two bills. The House version would radically change the rules of criminal procedure in terrorism-related cases. It would: (a) permit prosecutors to impanel a new sentencing jury any time one or more jurors resists imposing the death penalty; (b) allow judges to reduce the number of jurors deciding the death penalty to fewer than twelve persons; and, (c) increase the current number of federal crimes eligible for the death penalty. The USCCB is asking the Senators and Representatives participating in these discussions to oppose the House version and instead support the Senate version which does not include these provisions.
What the House Provisions of H.R. 3199 Will Do: Under current law, a defendant cannot be given the death penalty if the sentencing jury fails to reach a unanimous verdict. Under this legislation, a non-unanimous verdict would guarantee prosecutors the right to re-impanel a new jury and try for the death once more. The legislation would also allow for the jury – either a re-impaneled jury or the initial jury—to be fewer than twelve members, further making it easier for the prosecution to secure a unanimous verdict in favor of death. The House provisions also triple the number of death penalty-eligible terrorism related crimes. Whereas under current law, the death penalty can be imposed in 20 terrorism-related crimes, the legislation would increase the number of terrorism-related crimes that carry the death penalty to 61.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: If your Senator or Representative is on the conference negotiating the final bill (see the list of names below), please contact him/her today at 202-224-3121, and ask him/her to oppose the language in the House version of H.R. 3199, the Patriot Reauthorization Act. House and Senate conferees hope to produce a final version of the legislation in the next week, which will then go to the floor for an up-or-down vote. If there is no opposition in the Senate, the final version of the legislation will likely include these provisions.
USCCB Position: The bishops of the United States oppose the use of the death penalty in our country. Catholic teaching on capital punishment is clear: If non-lethal means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity with the dignity of the human person (Catechism of the Catholic Church).
Nothing illustrates the need for non-lethal punishment more than the disturbingly large number of death row inmates across our country who have been exonerated (more than 120 since 1973), some within days or hours of being put to death. At a time when there should be more safeguards put in place to protect the innocent from wrongful conviction and to prevent lethal mistakes in death penalty cases, the House version of the Patriot Reauthorization Act attempts to take away some of those safeguards.
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