December 18, 2000
Clinton delays federal execution
___By Kenny Byrd
___Associated Baptist Press
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--President Clinton has postponed what would be the first federal execution in 37 years, pending a study of whether capital punishment is implemented fairly.
___Clinton postponed until June 2001 the execution of Juan Raul Garza, an inmate on federal death row.
___Clinton said the delay would give the Justice Department time to gather and analyze information about alleged racial and geographic disparities in the federal death-penalty system.
___"I believe the death penalty is appropriate for the most heinous crimes," Clinton said in a Dec. 7 statement staying the execution until a new president is in the White House.
___"Whether one supports the death penalty or opposes it, there should be no question that the gravity and finality of the penalty demand that we be certain that when it is imposed, it is imposed fairly," he said.
___This fall, the Department of Justice released the results of a statistical survey of the federal death penalty. It found that minority defendants and certain geographic districts are disproportionately represented in federal death-penalty prosecutions.
___In light of those disparities, Clinton said, broader review of statistics is needed. "I am not satisfied that, given the uncertainty that exists, it is appropriate to go forward with an execution in a case that may implicate the very issues at the center of that uncertainty."
___In news reports, religious leaders opposed to the death penalty praised Clinton's action as a good start.
___"It's a good opening hymn, but it's not the sermon," said Joseph Lowery, chairman of the Black Leadership Forum. The forum had asked Clinton to declare a federal moratorium on the death penalty, citing "racial disparities that plague the administration of capital punishment across the land and, in particular, the gross racial disparities reflected in the federal death row population."
___In another recent development involving capital punishment, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear a Texas death penalty case involving a man who is said to be mentally retarded.
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