Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 11, 1990 TAG: 9006110169
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES J. KILPATRICK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 73-page anti-crime bill pending in the Senate is not a bad bill; it is just an overblown bill.
In its first section, the bill would extend the death penalty to several federal crimes, such as murder committed by a life-termer in a federal prison. But given the long list of "mitigating circumstances" that a sentencing jury must consider, capital punishment rarely would be ordered. The primary purpose of this section is to give members a chance to show how exceedingly tough they are.
Title II is intended to shorten the endless delays that now accompany imposition of a death sentence. An inmate on Death Row now can avoid execution for 10 to 15 years. Under the pending bill, the time frame would be greatly shortened, but prisoners would be guaranteed the assistance of experienced counsel in pursuing their appeals.
Title III is sound and desirable. It deals with the judge-made rule by which relevant evidence may be excluded at trial if it has been obtained without perfect obedience to the Fourth Amendment. The section would order such evidence admitted "if the search or seizure was carried out in reasonable reliance on a warrant issued by a detached and neutral magistrate ultimately found to be invalid." This may sound highly technical, but in an astonishing number of criminal cases the exclusionary rule results in a judicial travesty.
Title IV has excited the most passion. As a tool for fighting crime, it is the least important. Here Congress would prohibit the transfer or possession of nine specified "assault weapons," beginning with the Kalashnikovs and the Uzis and extending to a fearsome firearm known as "Street Sweeper and Striker 12."
Ho hum. Proponents of the ban argued that no law-abiding citizen really needs a Uzi semiautomatic weapon, and this is true. Opponents contended that the ban would not affect criminals or maniacs who can readily obtain the forbidden weapons, and this is equally true.
Well, said proponents, the ban might help a little bit. Yes, said opponents, but that little bit would put Congress on a slippery slope toward banning the kind of semiautomatic guns that sportsmen have been using for a hundred years. On winds of hot air, Title IV narrowly survived parliamentary assault.
The remaining two titles arouse less cosmic emotion. Title V would direct a study of ways to imprint an electronic coding device upon currency. The idea is to make it more difficult for the lords of organized crime to transfer great bundles of $100 bills. Title VI would reorganize the bureaucracy of the Department of Justice to create a new Organized Crime and Dangerous Drugs Division with its very own assistant attorney general.
If the bill becomes law, it will benefit honest cops on the one hand and overburdened federal judges on another. The ban on assault weapons could result in additional makeweight charges in some cases. On the whole, the bill would mainly serve the manly pretensions of politicians who want to be perceived as Tough on Crime! So do we all, so do we all.
Universal Press Syndicate
by CNB