Coalition Letter Urging President Bush to Impose Federal Death Penalty Moratorium

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States 
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush: 

As you know from our previous correspondence to you and to President Clinton, Citizens for a Moratorium on Federal Executions (CMFE) is a growing coalition of individuals with differing views on the authority of government to impose the death penalty. Some who have signed letters to you and to President Clinton agree that capital punishment is appropriate in principle, provided that it can be carried out fairly, equitably and reliably. However, all of us agree that current information about the administration of the federal death penalty calls for an immediate executive moratorium on federal executions. 

Citizens for a Moratorium on Federal Executions originally came together to urge President Clinton to declare a moratorium when Juan Raul Garza was scheduled to be the first individual executed by the federal government system since 1963. Results of the Department of Justice survey of the administration of the federal death penalty released in September of last year revealed disturbing evidence of geographic and racial disparities. The outcome of the DOJ review and concerns expressed by the former Attorney General and the former Deputy Attorney General were focal points of the CMFE's letters to President Clinton in November and January. In those letters, we urged that "no federal execution should be carried out at a time when the nation questions the reliability and fairness of capital punishment and no person should be executed until it is certain that the process does not discriminate. The very reason for a moratorium is to allow a period for careful study about the administration of the federal death penalty. Whatever one's views on the appropriateness of the death penalty, it is unconscionable to carry it out while questions remain about the fairness of its application." 

On December 7, 2000, President Clinton announced that he had granted a reprieve to Mr. Garza because of his conclusion that "the examination of possible racial and regional bias should be completed before the United States goes forward with an execution in a case that may implicate the very questions raised by the Justice Department's continuing study." The President called upon the Department of Justice to conclude a further examination of the federal death penalty system by the end of April of this year in advance of June 19, the execution date now scheduled for Juan Raul Garza. Then-Deputy Attorney General Holder followed up by expanding the internal Department of Justice inquiry to include gathering internal data that had been missing from the September 2000 survey. 

Ultimately, Attorney General Reno, Deputy Attorney General Holder, and Acting Director of the National Institute of Justice Julie Samuels concluded that April of this year was not a realistic deadline for completion of a thorough examination of the system. The Department determined that a credible evaluation of the federal death penalty could not be conducted without studies by independent experts. It recognized that a reliable study required that data be collected and analyzed that had not been maintained by the United States Attorneys in the 94 federal districts. The Department authorized the National Institute of Justice to commence this process. In January, representatives of the NIJ met with experts to begin discussions essential to designing and carrying out independent studies. 

Your Administration's early statements and actions indicated its concurrence with this course of action. Responding to questions during the confirmation process, the nation's new Attorney General, John Ashcroft, stated that evidence of racial disparities in the application of the federal death penalty "troubles me deeply." Acknowledging that he was "unsure" why more than half the federal capital prosecutions were initiated in less than one-third of the states, the Attorney General agreed that he was also "troubled" by this evidence. He expressed his approval of a "thorough study of the system," and also stated, "Nor should race play any role in determining whether someone is subject to capital punishment." While declaring that he "personally" did not believe a moratorium on federal executions was warranted, the Attorney General answered with an unequivocal "yes" when asked: "Do you agree with President Clinton that there is a need for 'continuing study' of 'possible racial and regional bias' because '[i]n this area there is no room for error?'" 

Unfortunately, the Attorney General's more recent actions and statements cast doubt on your Administration's commitment to the principles he set forth at his confirmation hearing. There has been no indication that the Department intends to continue the necessary independent investigation of racial and geographic bias in the death penalty, which was to have been administered by the National Institute of Justice. Moreover, Attorney General Ashcroft's statements to members of Congress, including his testimony before the House Appropriations Committee in early May, suggest that even the internal inquiry that the Department of Justice embarked upon will consist of little more than a re-analysis of the same data already examined and found to demonstrate "troubling" racial and geographic disparities. While Attorney General Ashcroft and Department of Justice press advisories indicated that the supplemental study would be made public before May 16, it was not. This sequence of events is far from the "thorough study of the system" that the Attorney General promised. 

Finally, revelations just days before May 16 that the FBI had failed to provide defense counsel for Timothy McVeigh with thousands of documents to which they were entitled have further shaken confidence in the reliability and fairness of the administration of the federal death penalty. In announcing a delay in Mr. McVeigh's execution, the Attorney General declared that "if any questions or doubts remain about this case, it would cast a permanent cloud over justice, diminishing its value and questioning its integrity." In expressing your support for the Attorney General's decision, Mr. President, you stated that '[t]oday is an example of the system being fair." You emphasized that the Attorney General's action was appropriate because "we live in a country that protects certain rights." 

Mr. President, the doubts and questions that were raised about the fairness and reliability of the federal death penalty system remain. In your own words, they call into question precisely whether the "system [is] fair" and whether "we live in a country that protects certain rights." We await action by this Administration which will assure the American public that if we are to have a federal death penalty, reliability, fairness and equality will be guaranteed. Those assurances cannot be given today because, as Attorney General Ashcroft has recognized, there is need for a "thorough study." We again urge you to declare an immediate moratorium on all federal executions. 

Sincerely, 

Barbara Arnwine
Executive Director, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law 

Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton
Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Detroit 

Elizabeth Frawley Bagley
Former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal 

Wade Henderson
Executive Director, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) 

Dr. Mary Frances Berry
Chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 

Reverend Jesse Jackson
Civic and Political Leader; 
President and Founder, Rainbow Coalition/PUSH 

Harry Belafonte
Artist/Activist 

Fred Korematsu 
Japanese American Civil Rights Leader 

Julian Bond
Chairman of the Board, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) 

Dean Anthony Kronman
Dean, Yale Law School 

Kerry Kennedy Cuomo
Human Rights Activist; 
Founder and Former Executive Director, RFK Center for Human Rights 

Reverend James Lawson, Jr.
Pastor Emeritus, Holman United Methodist Church, Los Angeles 

Norman Lear
Director and Founding Member, People for the American Way; 
Chairman, ACT III Communications 

Michael S. Rosier
President-Elect, National Bar Association 

Robert S. Litt
Former Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice 

Dr. Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich
Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer, Black Leadership Forum, Inc. 

Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery
Co-Founder and President Emeritus, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) 

Stanley Sheinbaum
Economist; 
Founding Publisher, New Perspectives Quarterly 

Cardinal Roger Mahony
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles 

Sidney Sheinberg
Former President and Chief Operating Officer, MCA, Inc./Universal Pictures 

Karen K. Narasaki 
President, National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium 

Senator Paul Simon
U. S. Senate, 1984-1997; 
U.S. House of Representatives, 1974-1984 

Mario G. Obledo
President, National Coalition of Hispanic Organizations 

Tavis Smiley
Commentator, Author, Civil Rights Leader 

Angela E. Oh
Member, Advisory Board One America:The President's Initiative on Race 

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
Editor in Chief, The American Spectator 

George M. Ong
National President, Organization of Chinese Americans 

John Van de Kamp
California Attorney General, 1983-1991 

Sister Helen Prejean
Author, Dead Man Walking; 
Chair, The Moratorium Campaign 

Reverend C.T. Vivian 
Founder and Board Chair, Center for Democratic Renewal (formerly the National Anti-Klan Network); 
President, Black Action Strategies and Information Center (B.A.S.I.C.) 

Hugh B. Price
President, National Urban League 

Bud Welch
Board Member, Murder Victims' Families For Reconciliation 

Arturo S. Rodriguez
President, United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO 

John W. Whitehead
Founder and President, The Rutherford Institute 

Reverend Jim Wallis
Editor-in-Chief, Sojurners Magazine 

cc: 
John D. Ashcroft, Attorney General
Alberto Gonzalez, White House Counsel