U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy (D‑VT) and Arlen Specter (R‑PA) (pic­tured) are urg­ing the Justice Department to delay new rules that would give Attorney General Alberto Gonzales author­i­ty to lim­it the time death row inmates spend pur­su­ing appeals before being exe­cut­ed. Senator Leahy chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Specter is the rank­ing Republican mem­ber of that com­mit­tee. The two recent­ly sent a bipar­ti­san let­ter to Gonzales express­ing con­cerns about whether states have ade­quate pro­tec­tions in place to ensure com­pe­tent legal coun­sel for indi­gent defen­dants fac­ing the death penal­ty. ​“States must be required to take mean­ing­ful steps to guar­an­tee ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion of death row pris­on­ers before cer­ti­fi­ca­tion occurs. This is espe­cial­ly impor­tant in light of the accel­er­at­ed tim­ing and abridged fed­er­al court review. … It is cru­cial that the leg­isla­tive changes to this com­plex and heav­i­ly lit­i­gat­ed area of the law be suc­cess­ful­ly and appro­pri­ate­ly imple­ment­ed, espe­cial­ly giv­en the tremen­dous stake for indi­vid­ual defen­dants,” the Senators wrote.

The new­ly pro­posed reg­u­la­tions stem from pas­sage of the Patriot Act, leg­is­la­tion that gives the Attorney General new pow­er to approve requests from states seek­ing manda­to­ry dead­lines for cap­i­tal defen­dants who wish to appeal their cas­es to fed­er­al courts. The law requires that the Attorney General decide whether a state has a sys­tem in place to pro­vide rep­re­sen­ta­tion for those fac­ing the death penal­ty, but some experts feel the new reg­u­la­tions fail to ensure that these attor­neys are ade­quate­ly pre­pared to han­dle such cas­es. ​“All a state has to do is report it has a sys­tem. There seems to be no mech­a­nism that’s going to hold them to deter­min­ing if a sys­tem is in fact in place, and if it func­tions so as to ensure that peo­ple are not wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death. That real­ly should con­cern Americans, ​“said Kathryn Kase, co-chair of the death penal­ty com­mit­tee for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The Senators, who share Kase’s con­cerns, have asked Gonzales to delay imple­men­ta­tion of the rules until October 5 at the ear­li­est. They note that this change will allow addi­tion­al time to make sure the new reg­u­la­tions include spe­cif­ic and clear rep­re­sen­ta­tion guide­lines. The Justice Department is cur­rent­ly plan­ning to enact the rules fol­low­ing a pub­lic com­ment peri­od that ends on September 23.

(Associated Press, August 15, 2007). See Representation.

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