The Conference of Chief Justices over­whelm­ing­ly passed a res­o­lu­tion urg­ing Congress to not pass the pro­posed Streamlined Procedures Act, which is aimed at cur­tail­ing death penal­ty appeals. The res­o­lu­tion was passed by the Chief Justices from state courts around the coun­try at their annu­al meet­ing in Charlestown, South Carolina. Only the chief jus­tice of Texas’ Supreme Court vot­ed against the res­o­lu­tion, stat­ing that he did not have enough time to review the doc­u­ment.

Critics of the Streamlined Procedures Act say it would sharply restrict fed­er­al courts’ abil­i­ty to con­sid­er peti­tions from state pris­on­ers who claimed that their con­sti­tu­tion­al rights had been vio­lat­ed or who had evi­dence of their inno­cence. In their res­o­lu­tion, the Chief Justices, who rep­re­sent a broad spec­trum of beliefs regard­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, not­ed that the Act ​“may pre­clude state defen­dants in both cap­i­tal and non-cap­i­tal” cas­es from seek­ing relief in the fed­er­al courts ​“and may deprive the fed­er­al courts of juris­dic­tion in the vast major­i­ty of these mat­ters, all with unknown con­se­quences for the state courts and the admin­is­tra­tion of jus­tice.” The jus­tices urged Congress to con­duct addi­tion­al study and analy­sis of the cur­rent fed­er­al death penal­ty laws before pass­ing any new bills.

​“I am very much in favor of try­ing to speed up the crim­i­nal jus­tice process, includ­ing cap­i­tal cas­es, but there is an over­rid­ing con­cern I, and my fel­low jus­tices, have with fair­ness,” said Ronald M. George, California’s chief jus­tice, who sup­ports the death penal­ty and twice argued death penal­ty cas­es before the U.S. Supreme Court when he worked for the California attor­ney gen­er­al’s office. ​“What we are say­ing to the (Senate Judiciary) Committee mem­bers is: ​‘Don’t rush this through,’ ” said Ohio Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, the longest-serv­ing chief jus­tice in the nation. (Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2005). See Innocence, and Recent Legislative Activities. 

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