The Death Penalty: Capital Punishment Legislation in the 110th Congress

Publication Date: September 2007

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Justice

Type: Report

Coverage: United States United States

Abstract:

Most capital offenses are state crimes. In 1994, however, Congress revived the
death penalty as a federal sentencing option. More than a few federal statutes now
proscribe offenses punishable by death. A number of bills were offered during the
110th Congress to modify federal law in the area. None were enacted. One, S. 447
(Senator Feingold)/H.R. 6875 (Representative Kucinich), would have abolished the
federal death penalty. Another, H.J.Res. 80 (Rep McCollum), would have amended
the Constitution to abolish capital punishment as a sentencing alternative for either
state or federal crimes. Other proposed amendments would have eased constitutional
limitations on the death penalty as a sentencing option, particularly in cases involving
the rape of children, H.J.Res. 83 (Representative Broun), H.J.Res. 96 (Representative
Chabot).
Several bills would have increased the number of capital offenses to include one
or more newly created offenses or existing non-capital offenses newly designated as
capital offenses, e.g., H.R. 855 (Representative Lungren), H.R. 880 (Representative
Forbes), H.R. 1118 (Representative Keller), H.R. 1645 (Representative Gutierrez),
H.R. 2376 (Representative Franks), H.R. 3147 (Representative Wilson), H.R. 3150
(Representative Keller), H.R. 3156 (Representative Lamar Smith), S. 330 (Senator
Isakson), S. 607 (Senator Vitter), S. 1320 (Senator Kyl), S. 1348 (Senator Reid), and
S. 1860 (Senator Cornyn).
Numbered among the new capital offenses and newly designated capital
offenses were murder related to street gang offenses or Travel Act violations, murder
committed during and in relation to drug trafficking, murder committed in the course
of evading border inspection, murder of disaster assistance workers, and various
terrorism-related murders.
A third category of proposals would have adjusted in one way or another the
procedures used to try and sentence capital defendants, including those relating to
where a capital offense may be tried, the appointment of counsel in capital cases, the
pre-trial notification which the parties must exchange in capital cases, the procedures
that apply when the defendant claims to be mentally retarded, adjustments in the
statutory aggravating and mitigating circumstances, jury matters, and the site of
federal executions. Among the bills offering one or more of these proposals were:
H.R. 851 (Representative Gohmert), H.R. 880 (Representative Forbes), H.R. 1645
(Representative Gutierrez), H.R. 1914 (Representative Carter), H.R. 3150
(Representative Keller), H.R. 3153 (Representative Gerlach), H.R. 3156
(Representative Lamar Smith), S. 1320 (Senator Kyl), and S. 1860 (Senator Cornyn).