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American Morning

Death Penalty Opponents Criticize Justice Department Study

Aired June 07, 2001 - 09:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Death penalty opponents are criticizing a Justice Department study on capital punishment. They dispute the report's conclusion that there is no intentional ethic or racial bias in federal death penalty cases.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve is joining us from Washington with more on that - Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donna, good morning.

Late yesterday, Attorney General John Ashcroft told a congressional committee the Justice Department, first under Janet Reno and now under him, had studied 950 death penalty cases.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Neither she, nor I, as attorney general, on the basis of those studies could find a reason for a moratorium. There is no indication that in the federal death penalty system there is any prejudice on the basis of race or bias on the basis of race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: The American Bar Association has a death penalty representation project. It is headed by our guest Elisabeth Semel.

Thanks so much for joining us.

ELISABETH SEMEL, DEATH PENALTY OPPONENT: Good morning.

MESERVE: You have called this report a whitewash, why?

SEMEL: Well, first of all, we have to go back to what Attorney General Reno found in September in which significant disparities based on race - excuse me - and geography were predominant in the administration of the federal death penalty. What Attorney General Ashcroft has done is added, literally, 200 new cases to the same pool that were studied or examined and come up with nothing new. We still have gross racial and geographic disparities in the federal death penalty.

MESERVE: Now, the attorney general did point out that minorities are more likely to be charged with a capital crime. Is that where the problem lies?

SEMEL: Well that's certainly part of where the problem lies. What Attorney General Reno said and what President Clinton said in December when he granted a reprieve to Raul - Juan Raul Garza is that we need to look further. We need to go back to the front end of the process and understand why it is that Blacks and Hispanics are being selected - that is, brought into the process in disproportionate numbers.

MESERVE: And what's your theory on that?

SEMEL: Well, my theory really, I think, has much to do with the analogy to racial profiling. When for years police officers and law enforcement were saying we're simply targeting Black and Hispanic drug traffickers in making these stops, that is the explanation for why it is disproportionate numbers of Blacks and Latinos were being stopped and being prosecuted.

Here, John Ashcroft is saying we are targeting Black and Hispanic gang members. The big question is: What does that mean? That means that, for example, members of -- for using the vernacular --the white mob who are committing multiple murders are not being charged with the federal death are certainly not ultimately ending up on federal death row. And what I'm suggesting is then looking at the totality of the system. John Ashcroft cannot pronounce a not guilty verdict on the Department of Justice.

MESERVE: He did acknowledge that there was a problem in the plea agreement portion of this - that whites were twice as likely to win a reprieve through plea agreements.

SEMEL: Right. And that strongly suggests that there is some disproportionality, some bias in the system in favor of individuals who are white. But again, the very thing that John Ashcroft committed to doing during the confirmation hearings was to undergo a thorough study of the administration of the federal death penalty, something Janet Reno committed to do. Adding 200 more cases to a potential pool of 1,000 or more cases that need to be studied is by no definition a thorough study.

MESERVE: Elisabeth Semel of the American Bar Association, thanks so much for coming in.

SEMEL: Thank you.

MESERVE: And the first impact of this will be on Juan Raul Garza. He is scheduled to die on the 19th of June.

Donna, Leon, back to you.

KELLEY: All right. Jeanne Meserve, in Washington, thank you.

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