CLINTON DELAYS FEDERAL EXECUTION ONCE AGAIN HE CITES DISPARITIES IN  PROSECUTIONS, LEAVES MATTER TO SUCCESSOR
 Mike Dorning

Chicago Tribune
December 8, 2000

Citing unresolved concerns that there are racial and regional  inequities in the prosecution of federal death penalty cases,  President Clinton on Thursday postponed for at least six months what
would have been the first federal execution in decades, leaving the matter for the next president to decide.

Clinton, who already has twice delayed the execution of Juan Raul Garza, acted just five days before the marijuana trafficker was scheduled to die by lethal injection for three drug-related murders.  The scheduled Tuesday execution in Terre Haute, Ind., had  intensified calls from civil rights, political and religious leaders  for a halt to federal executions while the Justice Department studies striking statistical disparities in capital prosecutions.

"In issuing the stay, I have not decided that the death penalty  should not be imposed in this case, in which heinous crimes were  proved," Clinton said in a statement. "Nor have I decided to halt all  executions in the federal system."  But, citing the racial and regional disparities in death penalty
prosecutions, Clinton said, "We do not ... fully understand what lies behind those statistics," and Garza's case "may implicate the very  issues at the center of that uncertainty."

The postponement may not do Garza much good. Both Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush support the death penalty. Bush has  presided over a record number of executions as governor of Texas, where he has brushed aside concerns about the operation of that state's capital punishment system.

Garza is Hispanic and was prosecuted in Texas; Hispanics and African-Americans account for an especially large proportion of federal death penalty defendants, and a disproportionate share of the
cases originate in a handful of states, including Texas.  Clinton said he ordered the Justice Department to complete an analysis of the issue by next April.

Clinton's order produced mixed reactions from those who support  calls for a moratorium on federal executions and outright scorn from one conservative Republican senator. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who has sponsored legislation requiring a moratorium, said he was "grateful for he president's courage and leadership."  Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), also a sponsor of the moratorium legislation, expressed frustration at the limited scope of Clinton's action. "It's good for the individual on Death Row, but not good for the  system," Jackson said. "Mr. Garza will clearly get a temporary reprieve under President  Clinton's very limited, very narrow moratorium," Jackson continued. "It is still ineffective and not as comprehensive as is needed to deal with what the Justice Department's own statistics have shown, that the death penalty in the federal system is administered in a racially discriminatory way, in a way that penalizes poor criminal defendants and not the educated and affluent."

Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a dedicated supporter of the death penalty and a former federal prosecutor, called Clinton's  stay an example of "politics trumping law."  "The reasons are breathtaking: He says he has concerns about the administration of the death penalty while he and his appointed  attorney general are the ones managing it," Sessions said.

Clinton's decision Thursday in the final weeks of his administration brought the president back to an issue that played a crucial role in his rise to the White House. As Arkansas governor in  1992, Clinton underscored his support for the death penalty by  interrupting his presidential primary campaign to oversee the execution of a brain-damaged African-American convicted of killing a
police officer. He also aired television commercials in battleground  states emphasizing his support for capital punishment. Clinton's position helped to define him as a political centrist and to distance him from public perceptions that Democrats were soft on punishing criminals.

But shortcomings in the administration of the death penalty gained fresh attention this year after Republican Gov. George Ryan imposed a  moratorium on executions in Illinois. Ryan acted in January after a series of cases in which prisoners awaiting execution were freed  through the efforts of journalists and college students, and after a  Tribune investigative series examined each of the state's nearly 300 capital cases and exposed how bias, error and incompetence had undermined many of them.

Against that backdrop, a Justice Department review issued in September found wide racial and regional disparities in federal death penalty prosecutions. Clinton said at the time that he was
"disturbed" by the findings, and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno responded by asking for a deeper examination of federal prosecutors' charging  decisions in capital cases, work that has not been completed. Since 1995, 80 percent of the 682 people who faced federal capital  charges were minorities. Federal prosecutors asked the Justice Department for approval to pursue the death penalty against 183 defendants, 74 percent of whom were racial minorities.  Twenty inmates are on the federal Death Row in Terre Haute. All but four are minorities. The capital cases were concentrated in a handful of states,  including Texas, Virginia and Missouri, and also Puerto Rico. Six of the 20 prisoners on federal Death Row were prosecuted in Texas, where state authorities executed a record 40th prisoner of the year Thursday night.

Garza and his attorneys, who filed a clemency petition asking Clinton to commute his sentence to life imprisonment, made their case almost exclusively in terms of the disparities, which they contend
are the result of "long-standing racial bias."  Garza attorney Greg Wiercioch said he was disappointed with the president's decision.

Clinton previously has rejected calls for a moratorium on federal executions, emphasizing the distinction between criticism of the federal death penalty system and the problems identified in Illinois
and other states. Erroneous convictions by state courts have focused attention on inadequate and incompetent representation of indigent defendants in capital cases and convictions based on questionable evidence. There has not been evidence of similar problems in the federal system.
 
A Justice official said that the department has gathered most of the data for an internal review of prosecutors' decisions and that Reno has been briefed on preliminary results. But Reno also has asked for an independent study and the department has not chosen a researcher to conduct it, another official said.

Although the number of federal crimes punishable by death has increased dramatically during the Clinton administration, to almost 60 offenses, federal courts still impose only a small fraction of
 death sentences. Most are handed down by state courts, where the vast majority of criminal cases are tried. The president has the power to grant pardons and reprieves only for convictions under federal law.

The last federal execution was carried out under President John Kennedy in 1963, when Victor Feguer was hanged in Iowa for kidnapping and killing a doctor.

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