Delahunt Statement on Justice for All Act
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DELAHUNT INNOCENCE BILL PASSED BY FULL SENATE AND HOUSE
To Strengthen Crime Prevention, Protect Victims and Proves Innocence; Legislation Unites Opponents and Advocates of Capital Punishment
WASHINGTON, DC - Culminating a five-year effort, the US Senate and House of Representatives have passed pioneering legislation drafted by Congressman Bill Delahunt to assist federal and state authorities to solve crimes and to prevent wrongful convictions. The bill now heads to the White House, where the President is expected to sign it into law.
After a feverish final burst of Administration opposition, the bill won final approval today in the Senate. The House had voted its approval earlier this week. A key partner in the bipartisan effort was Republican James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
The bill, HR 5107, contains the text of the Innocence Protection Act (IPA), one of Rep. Delahunt’s highest legislative priorities. Working against steep odds, Delahunt earned support from scores of advocates and opponents of capital punishment. The measure also contains the full text of an unprecedented victims rights bill, S 2329, described by the National Center for Victims of Crimes as “one of the most important rape prevention bills in history.”
After years of negotiations, Delahunt helped craft an agreement to include the IPA into HR 5107, providing death row prisoners greater access to DNA testing that could prove their innocence. In recent years, 111 people in 25 states have been released after spending years on death row for crimes they did not commit - leading to over 50 convictions of the real perpetrators.
Delahunt’s IPA bill, co-authored with Chairman Sensenbrenner and Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL), also authorizes grants to states to improve the legal representation for indigent defendants in capital cases. Court-assigned lawyers are often inexperienced, overworked or incompetent - a leading cause of wrongful convictions.
“The search for truth is a fallible process and mistakes happen,” said Delahunt, who tried dozens of murder cases as Norfolk County District Attorney for more 20 years. “Think of the human costs when an innocent person is executed or spends long years in jail. Imagine the scars when a victim waits years to know the identity of their assailant. We are not talking about hypothetical scenarios. We are talking about real people, ordinary Americans facing the most extreme miscarriages of justice.”
HR 5107 contains President Bush’s DNA Initiative and authorizes $755 million for the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program to eliminate the current backlog of unanalyzed DNA samples in the nation’s crime labs. It further authorizes additional grant programs to expand the capacity of federal, state and local crime labs to conduct DNA analyses, train personnel in using DNA evidence and promote the use of DNA technology to identify missing persons.
Delahunt said, “At its core, this is a serious crime prevention bill that will help stop sexual predators across the country, solve crimes and restore public confidence in the American justice system.”
