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Page 10-Wednesday, June 10, 1981-The Michigan Daily
Senate approves death penalty
WASHINGTON (AP)-The Senate Judiciary Committee
voted yesterday to restore the death penalty for some federal
crimes, including attempted assassination of a president.
With little debate, the committee voted 13-5 to approve a
broad capital punishmenj bill designed to meet Supreme
Court rules for protecting the rights of defendants convicted
of capital crimea.
BUT THE AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union and other
groups say the legislation is unconstitutional, and will likely
be struck down by the courts even if it gets through the
Congress.
The Senate seems sure to approve the bill this year; a
major floor fight is expected in the House.
Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), chairman of the heavily
conservative judiciary panel, said polls show that two-thirds
of Americans favor capital punishment for some serious
crimes.
SPECIFICALLY, the legislation would permit the death
penalty for treason and espionage, for carrying explosives
across state lines, kidnapping, hijacking an airplane, and the
attempted, or actual, assassination of a president.
Thurmond has said he added attempted assassination as a
direct result of the-attempt to kill President Reagan March
30.
Except for treason and espionage and attempted
assassination, someone would have to be killed for there to be
an execution under the proposal, which has strong support
from law enforcement groups.
THE LEGISLATION also sets upa two-part trial in which a
jury would make a separate decision during the second stage
on whether to impose the death penalty.
During the death penalty portion of the trial, a defendant
could present mitigating evidence on why he should not be
executed, while the prosecution would present aggravating
circumstances on why there should be an execution.
The ACLU has argued that the procedures under which a
federal jury could decide to impose capital punishment are
inadequate.
REPUBLICAN SEN. Charles Mathias of Maryland was
joined by four Democrats in opposing the bill, which Thur-
mond has said is one of his chief priorities in the Republican-
controlled 97th Congress.
The Democrats were Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware, Ed-
ward Kennedy of Massachusetts, Howard Metzenbaum of
Ohio, and Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
The death penalty vote came after a four-hour committee
debateon budget cuts in the Justice Department.
SEN. CHARLES Grassley (R-Iowa) said the small amount
of time spent on such an important issue as capital punish-
ment shows distorted priorities.
"We only spent 20 minutes deciding whether to put
someone to death who commits a felony," said Grassley, who
is nonetheless a strong supporter of capital punishment.
d
Thurmond
. .. seeks to expand death penalty
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