For Immediate Release: Further Information: November 5, 2003 Steve Schwadron (202) 225-3111FULL HOUSE OF REPS APPROVES DELAHUNT INNOCENCE PROTECTION ACTBipartisan Consensus Culminates Five Years of Work Against Wrongful Convictions WASHINGTON, DC The US House of Representatives today passed landmark legislation co-authored by Congressman Bill Delahunt to address the causes of wrongful convictions in capital cases. The 357- 67 vote culminates years of work by Delahunt, a former prosecutor who is profoundly disturbed by the scores of innocent people who find themselves on death row.The bill passed today includes the entire text of the Innocence Protection Act, a measure Rep. Delahunt first introduced several years ago with Rep. Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican. The bill will help ensure eligible federal and state inmates access to DNA testing to establish their innocence, and will authorize grants to states to improve the quality of legal representation in capital cases for both indigent defendants and the public.For Delahunt, who previously served for two decades as Norfolk County District Attorney, the bill has been a key legislative priority. Excerpts follow from his remarks during House debate today:The criminal justice system is about the search for the truth. Like all human enterprises, it is fallible. Judges, jurors, police, eyewitnesses, defense attorneys and prosecutors are all human beings, and all make mistakes. As a prosecutor for over 20 years, I certainly made my share of them. But we have the means at our disposal to minimize the possibility of errorand, especially where lives are at stake, we must use them. Debbie Smith, a courageous advocate who has done so much to help her fellow survivors of sexual assault, and for whom title I of our bill is named, has said, It gives no comfort to the victims and their families to know that the wrong person is behind bars and the real perpetrator is free to walk the streets. Surely no person in America understands this better than Kirk Bloodsworth, for whom we have named another portion of the bill. Mr. Bloodsworth was the first death row inmate to be exonerated by DNA testing. Not only did DNA establish that he did not commit the terrible crime of which he was convicted, but only a few weeks ago it brought about the identification of the true perpetrator. Debbie Smith and Kirk Bloodsworth are both among the innocent whom we seek to protect. By eliminating the backlog of unanalyzed DNA samples in the nations crime labs, the bill will help ensure that DNA technology is fully deployed to solve past crimes and prevent future ones. And by ensuring that eligible Federal and State inmates have access to post-conviction testing that can establish their innocence, the bill will help correct wrongful convictions when they occur.No one knows whether innocent people have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. We do know that there have been some very close calls. Since 1976, 111 people in 25 States have been released after spending years on death row for crimes they did not commit. Some of them came within days or hours of being put to death. Its cases like these that have caused conservative judges like Justice OConnor to express concern that the system, and I quote, may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed. Its cases like these that convinced former Governor George Ryana longtime supporter of the death penaltyto suspend executions in Illinois. Many of these miscarriages of justice can be corrected by giving eligible inmates access to DNA testing. DNA was responsible for exonerating 12 of the people freed from death row, and another 126 who were wrongfully convicted of serious crimes. In at least 34 of these cases, the same test that exonerated an innocent person led to the apprehension of the real perpetrator. Yet access to testing is often opposed by prosecutors and must be litigated, sometimes for years. Evidence that might have established innocence has been misplaced or destroyed. If we are to advance justice, we must ensure that biological material is preserved and DNA testing is made available in every appropriate case. The bill takes a significant step toward achieving this goal, by ensuring eligible Federal inmates access to DNA testing to establish their innocence, and establishing the Kirk Bloodsworth Post-Conviction DNA Testing Program, which will help States defray the costs of post-conviction DNA testing. But DNA is not a magic bullet that will eliminate the problem of wrongful convictions. Biological evidence is available in fewer than 20 percent of violent crimes. And even where such evidence exists, post-conviction testing only tells us that the system failedit doesnt prevent the failures from taking place. The best way to do that is to make sure that every indigent defendant who is facing the death penalty has access to a competent lawyer. I was a prosecutor for over 20 years. And I know that the adversarial process can find the truth only when both the prosecution and the defense are up to the job. Our system of justice depends on it.We cannot tolerate a system that leaves capital defendants at the mercy of lawyers who are poorly trained and poorly compensated, who fail to conduct a proper investigation and examine the evidence, or worsewho drink or sleep their way through the trial. We cannot tolerate a system that relies on reporters and journalism students to develop new evidence that was never presented in court. We cannot tolerate a system in which chance plays such a profound role in determining whether a defendant lives or dies. The bill addresses this problem by authorizing grants to the States to improve the quality of legal representation for both indigent defendants and the public in capital cases. Lawyers assigned by the court to these unpopular and unprofitable cases are often inexperienced, overworked or incompetent. It is little wonder that over half of all death sentences are overturned on appeal or after post-conviction review because of errors at trial. We are hopeful that by helping the States to create effective systems for the appointment and performance of qualified counsel, together with better training and monitoring for both the defense and the prosecution, the bill will lead to significant improvements in the 38 death penalty jurisdictions across the country. Ultimately, however, the bill is not about the death penalty. Its not about DNA backlogs. Its about restoring public confidence in the integrity of the American justice system as a whole. That is a goal on which we stand united, and I look forward to working closely with my colleagues to see that this important initiative is signed into law.The bill also contains two other major provisions. First, it authorizes funding for the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program to eliminate the current backlog of unanalyzed DNA samples in the nations crime labs. Second, it authorizes grant programs to expand and improve the capacity of federal, state and local crime labs to conduct DNA analyses, reduce other forensic science backlogs, train criminal and medical personnel in the use of DNA evidence, and promote the use of DNA technology to identify missing persons.The legislation now goes to the US Senate, where Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) lead a bipartisan consensus on its behalf.-30-
