He does have a point. As he said, there have been 90,000 murders in the United States during the past four years, up more than 10 percent from the prior four-year period. In one week alone last month in Washington, there were 24. Cynics everywhere like to juxtapose the fortress that is the White House with the violence and mayhem that occur just up the block, let alone in the Congress Except for stiffer sentences and new prison construction, little criminal-justice reform has made it through Washington over the past decade.
In scope or design, Clinton’s crime package is hardly revolutionary. Most of its provisions wended their way through Congress last year–only to die before final passage. This time, the new administration went out of its way to accommodate legislators, as well as state law-enforcement officials. Even the Republican Senate leader, Bob Dole, has pledged to play ball. In a phone call to Clinton congratulating him on his budget victory, the first item of “bipartisan cooperation” be offered was on the crime bill.
The newest–and costliest–part of the bill calls for $3.4 billion in federal spending over five years for 50,000 new police officers. This would fulfill half of Clinton’s campaign promise to put 100,000 cops on the beat and would represent the first time the federal government directly paid for cops on the local level. Clinton also aims to expand “boot camps” for local offenders and to establish a $100 million Police Corps to recruit college students into law enforcement.
Gun control once again makes the legislative wish list–again in the form of the Brady bill. It would make purchasers wait five days before getting their guns and subject them to background checks. Passage is by no means certain; the still-powerful National Rifle Association opposes it as a measure that will deny only the law-abiding of their weaponry. Sen. Joseph Biden, whose Judiciary Committee will take up the crime bill, wants the Brady provision considered separately to increase its chances. While Dole has acknowledged the public’s sentiment for even tougher gun control, other conservatives may not be as willing to give in.
More cops and fewer guns could conceivably affect crime rates. But the bill’s highest-profile provisions, dealing with the death penalty, would have only symbolic value. The key proposal would further restrict the ability of condemned state inmates to file repeated appeals in federal court. The Supreme Court has already cut back on these appeals; Congress would now impose filing deadlines, which might stop some executions from being delayed for years. Yet, even with that speedup, the total number of American executions would be unlikely to rise by more than several dozen a year. “This is the James CarVille section of the crime package, says David Bruck, a death-penalty defense lawyer in South Carolina.
The most glamorous capital section of the bill makes roughly 50 new offenses punishable by death. For legislators enthusiastic about executions, this makes the bill look downright draconian; even for those with more reservations, this is palatable because they can claim it was all lumped together in an omnibus bill. For those grounded in reality, though, the provisions are less exciting. There just aren’t that many crooks likely to be convicted for, say, killing the president, a park ranger or a chicken inspector for the Agriculture Department. As it is, Congress, with great self-satisfaction, last expanded the death penalty in 1988 to include drug “kingpins” who were involved in homicides. Since then, the Justice Department has authorized only 29 capital prosecutions (eight by Janet Reno). Eight of the 29 have gone to trial and six inmates currently reside on federal death row. The last federal execution? 1963.
