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| Death Penalty Commission Proposed |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/06/2001 |
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The first thing Michael Graham realized after being sent to a Louisiana prison for two murders he said he didn't commit was that he was sleeping on a dead man's bed. 'The night before, the state had executed another inmate and I was given his cell,' said Graham. He stayed in prison for almost 14 years, represented by one lawyer who had never tried a death penalty case and another who had just graduated from law school. Graham was released in December after his new lawyers showed prosecutors withheld evidence of his innocence. He has since moved to Roanoke, Va., and will get married in October. 'During my wasted 14 years on death row, I always hoped my nightmare would count for something. That's why I'm here today,' Graham told the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'I ask you to listen to my story and to the many others like mine, and do what you can to fix the process.' Whether the federal government should step in and force states to ensure that accused murderers facing the death penalty have competent lawyers was the focus of the Wednesday's hearing. Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has offered a bill that would create a national commission to set minimum standards for death penalty lawyers. Congress would provide $50 million in grants to help start the process, and would make states forfeit part of their federal prisons grants if they don't comply. Also, none compliant states' death penalty cases would be looked at more carefully than others, Leahy said. When he was released, Graham said he was the 92nd innocent person released from death row since 1973. In just the last six months, six people - including Graham - have been have been cleared of the crimes that sent them to death row, Leahy said. 'The goal of our bill is simple but profoundly important: to reduce the risk of mistaken executions,' he said. Sen. Orrin Hatch, the committee's top Republican, told Leahy that he could support providing DNA testing to death row inmates who didn't have access to it during their trials but not this part. 'No legislative scheme we enact will be able to predict, prior to trial, whether a particular lawyer will fall asleep during trial, or whether he will develop a problem with alcoholism,' Hatch said. 'That is why our current system is designed the way it is, to evaluate after the trial whether a lawyer has provided competent representation to his or her client.' |
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