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American Morning

Law Representative Denies Racial Bias in Federal Death Penalty

Aired June 13, 2001 - 10:20   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.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Are there racial and geographic disparities in the administration of the federal death penalty? That's the question being explored by a Senate subcommittee this morning.

One of those testifying, James Fotis of the Law Enforcement Alliance, does not think so. I spoke with him earlier and asked why he opposes a moratorium on federal executions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES FOTIS, LAW ENFORCEMENT ALLIANCE: We don't want to see what happened back in the 1970s happen again. From 1967 to 1976, we had moratorium on the death penalty. Our murder rate rose incredibly. It doubled in that ten-year period. We were having 11,000 murders in a year in the United States; It went up to almost 24,000 murders during that period of time.

We don't want to see that happen again. We believe it could happen again. And again, although we don't look at the death penalty as a deterrent, we do look at the death penalty as something that is appropriate for the crime that's committed.

MESERVE: Attorney General John Ashcroft issued report last week in which he said he found no evidence of racial bias in the administration of the death penalty. Critics say it's misleading, it's incomplete. They say only two of the 20 people now on federal death row are white. How do you explain that? Do you think racial prejudice in the system?

FOTIS: As I said earlier, I do believe that there could certainly be some racial prejudice in the system at any point. We could have racially prejudiced jurors. We could have a prejudiced prosecutor. But we need all the components put together for one verdict. You have 12 jurors; they all have to say that this is a capital offense, charge murder, and then bring the death penalty into it.

So I believe that this system actually worked. We've seen people get out of jail because this system has worked in the last five years.

MESERVE: But you said there could be prejudice in the system somewhere. If there isn't better to say wait, go slow, let's look, let's study this some more? FOTIS: No, because the system works, and these people have been tried by a jury of their peers. They've been through numerous appeals. The average person is on death row for at least 10 years. So I think that they've had the full extent of the system, and if there were prejudice at any level, that prejudice certainly didn't follow all the way through the system.

MESERVE: James Fotis, thanks so much for joining us here today.

FOTIS: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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