PENA MORTE: USA; GIUDICE LA DICHIARA INCOSTITUZIONALE OPINIONE MAGISTRATO VERMONT RIGUARDA PENA DI MORTE FEDERALE

NEW YORK, 24 SET - Un giudice del Vermont ha dichiarato incostituzionale la pena di morte federale, ed e' la seconda volta che un magistrato americano si pronuncia in questo senso nello spazio di pochi mesi.

Secondo il giudice William Sessions della Corte Distrettuale di Montpelier i codici non proteggono a sufficienza i diritti dell'imputato per garantirne la costituzionalita'.

''Se la pena di morte deve essere parte del nostrio sistema giudiziario, le garazie previste dal Sesto Emendamento richiedono che gli standard e le salvaguardie che governano il tipo di prove ammissibili in giudizio devono essere rigorose'', ha detto il giudice Sessions.

In luglio il giudice di New York Jed Rakoff gli aveva aperto la strada dichiarando incostituzionale la legge del 1994 che ha reintrodotto la pena di morte federale per una sessantina di reati particolarmente efferati: Rakoff aveva citato casi in cui persone innocenti sono state per sbaglio condannate a morte.

Le due opinioni non condizionano le leggi sulla pena di morte dei 38 stati americani in cui il boia e' entrato in azione.

New York,  24/09/02

Pena di morte, giudice Usa la dichiara incostituzionale

 Un giudice del Vermont ha dichiarato incostituzionale la pena di morte federale, ed � la seconda volta che un magistrato americano si pronuncia in questo senso nello spazio di pochi mesi.

Secondo il giudice William Sessions della Corte distrettuale di Montpelier i codici non proteggono a sufficienza i diritti dell'imputato per garantirne la costituzionalit�. "Se la pena di morte deve essere parte del nostrio sistema giudiziario, le garazie previste dal Sesto Emendamento richiedono che gli standard e le salvaguardie che governano il tipo di prove ammissibili in giudizio devono essere rigorose", ha detto il giudice Sessions. 

In luglio il giudice di New York Jed Rakoff gli aveva aperto la strada dichiarando incostituzionale la legge del 1994 che ha reintrodotto la pena di morte federale per una sessantina di reati particolarmente efferati: Rakoff aveva citato casi in cui persone innocenti sono state per sbaglio condannate a morte. Le due opinioni non condizionano le leggi sulla pena di morte dei 38 stati americani in cui il boia � entrato in azione. 

Second Ruling Against U.S. Death Penalty

September 25, 2002

By PAM BELLUCK

BOSTON, Sept. 24 - A federal judge in Vermont has ruled that the federal death penalty law is unconstitutional, saying the law denies defendants' rights to due process, allowing evidence and procedures that could not be used at trial to be used to sentence a convicted person to death.

The judge, William K. Sessions III of the Federal District Court in Burlington, ruled that the law, which expanded the list of federal crimes that qualify for capital punishment, was incompatible with three recent Supreme Court decisions, including one in June that found juries rather than judges must make the crucial factual determinations to support a death penalty.

Those decisions rigorously safeguard due process in a way that the "relaxed" standards of the federal death penalty law do not, Judge Sessions ruled.

Capital punishment legal experts said that today's ruling, while limited to the Vermont case, was likely to provide new ammunition for challenging death penalty cases across the country.

"If the death penalty is to be part of our system of justice, due process of law and the fair trial guarantees of the Sixth Amendment require that standards and safeguards governing the kinds of evidence juries may consider must be rigorous, and constitutional rights and liberties scrupulously protected," Judge Sessions wrote. "To relax those standards invites abuse, and significantly undermines the reliability of decisions to impose the death penalty."

Judge Sessions cited examples in the case before him, in which Donald Fell, 22, is accused of kidnapping and fatally bludgeoning Teresca Ruth King, 53, in 2000 during a carjacking. Mr. Fell has pleaded not guilty.

The judge said that prosecutors would not be allowed to introduce at trial a confession by Robert Lee, a man accused of being Mr. Fell's accomplice, because Mr. Lee is dead, having killed himself in prison. But under the federal law, that confession would be admissible during the sentencing phase.

In addition, the judge said, the law prevents defendants convicted of capital crimes from confronting and cross-examining witnesses before they are sentenced to death.

The ruling by Judge Sessions is the second time this year a federal judge has pronounced the federal death penalty law unconstitutional. In July, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled that the increasing number of exonerations of death row inmates through DNA and other evidence made the death penalty "tantamount to foreseeable, state-sponsored murder of innocent human beings."

But some legal experts said that Judge Sessions's decision was likely to be more significant, since it drew on specific provisions of the law, which was passed in 1994, and sought to point out inconsistencies between it and Supreme Court decisions.

"Judge Sessions is looking almost with a microscope at the details of the federal statute and comparing this with the rulings of the Supreme Court as to how the death penalty is supposed to work," said James S. Liebman, a law professor at Columbia University. "This is a more traditional approach to the legality or constitutionality of the death penalty statute."

Professor Liebman and other experts said the Supreme Court ruling in June in the case of Ring v. Arizona had opened the door for changes in the way that the death penalty is administered.

The United States attorney in Vermont, Peter W. Hall, said today, "I expect we will seek permission to file an appeal and do so in due course."

Judge Sessions, who was nominated in 1995, was named to the federal sentencing commission in 1999. Today, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Barbara Comstock, made reference in a statement to the fact that Judge Sessions was nominated by President Bill Clinton.

"Today's decision underscores the importance of confirming President Bush's nominees to the federal bench - well-qualified men and women who will apply the laws that Congress has passed in accordance with Supreme Court precedent," the statement said. "In our system of government, it is the legislature elected by the American people which determines the proper punishment for federal crimes, not lone members of the judiciary. Congress passed the Federal Death Penalty Act to save lives, and the Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly said the death penalty does not violate the Constitution."

David Bruck, a lawyer appointed by the federal government to consult with defense lawyers on federal capital cases, said "I'm sure people will think of this as a liberal decision, but it's actually a very conservative way of approaching what Congress did."

Mr. Bruck said: "Congress said that the facts that make one eligible for the death penalty do not have to be proven under the normal rules that are supposed to ensure accuracy in criminal trials. Now the Supreme Court has said that those facts are elements of the crime, just like any other. Judge Sessions has said rather logically that the facts exposing a person to the death penalty can't be the only facts in the entire criminal justice system that are immune from the normal procedure."

Judge Sessions also suggested that capital punishment could still be legal if Congress changed the federal death penalty law.

"It is inconceivable to this court that Congress could have intended instead to provide less protection in a capital proceeding than in a non-capital proceeding," the judge wrote.

He added, "If capital punishment is to be a part of our federal law, Congress must also determine the procedure by which the death penalty is to be imposed, consistent with constitutional standards."

Federal district judge declares death penalty law unconstitutional

Sep 24, 2002

MONTPELIER, Vermont - A federal judge declared the federal death penalty unconstitutional Tuesday in the second such ruling in less than three months.

U.S. District Judge William Sessions said the law does not adequately protect defendants' rights.

On July, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in New York City became the first federal judge to declare the 1994 Death Penalty Act unconstitutional. He cited evidence indicating that innocent people have been put to death.

 The rulings will not affect individual states' death penalty statutes. Thirty-eight states allow capital punishment, though some have not executed anyone for many years. The governors of Illinois and Maryland have placed moratoriums on executions in their states.

 Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh ( news - web sites) and drug killer Juan Garza have been executed under the federal death penalty law.

 Tuesday's ruling came in the case of Donald Fell, 22, who is facing the death penalty for allegedly kidnapping and killing a woman in 2000.

Judge Bars Federal Death Penalty

Sep 25, 2002

By ROSS SNEYD 

MONTPELIER, Vt.  - A federal judge in Vermont has declared the existing national capital punishment law unusable, a decision that could have implications for every defendant facing the federal death penalty.

U.S. District Judge William Sessions ruled Tuesday that the 1994 law had been rendered useless by a series of recent federal cases, including a U.S. Supreme Court ( news - web sites) ruling in June that found juries and not judges must hand out death sentences. The government is appealing that ruling.

 Sessions' decision comes two months after U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in New York became the first federal judge to declare the federal law unconstitutional. He cited evidence indicating that innocent people have been put to death.

 Unlike Rakoff, though, Sessions said capital punishment itself isn't necessarily unconstitutional. He said the sentence still might be carried out constitutionally if Congress fixed the law. Other federal judges, in Virginia and Pennsylvania, have upheld the Federal Death Penalty Act.

 Sessions' ruling came in the case of Donald Fell, 22, who is charged with kidnapping and killing a woman in a November 2000 carjacking. Prosecutors said they would appeal.

 Fell's lawyer, Alexander Bunin, called the ruling a landmark decision that could jeopardize cases against every defendant facing the death penalty, including that of Sept. 11 conspiracy suspect Zacarias Moussaoui.

 "It's huge," Bunin said. "Every district judge who has a federal death penalty case is going to read this decision. ... This could affect every case that has been charged, at least until Congress fixes it."

 Federal prosecutors in Vermont and elsewhere have responded to the recent Supreme Court ruling by taking cases back to grand juries to consider whether the defendants should get the death penalty if convicted.

 Sessions ruled that the death penalty law makes no provision for such action. He also found that giving grand juries a hand in death-penalty decisions is unconstitutional because such panels do not hold to the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard, and because they do not offer defendants the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses.

 "If the death penalty is to be part of our system of justice, due process of law and the fair trial guarantees of the Sixth Amendment require that standards and safeguards governing the kinds of evidence juries may consider must be rigorous, and constitutional rights and liberties scrupulously protected," Sessions said.

 "To relax those standards invites abuse, and significantly undermines the reliability of decisions to impose the death penalty."

 The rulings by Rakoff and Sessions will not affect individual states' death penalty statutes. Thirty-eight states allow capital punishment, though some have not executed anyone for many years. The governors of Illinois and Maryland have placed moratoriums on executions in their states.

 Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh ( news - web sites) and drug killer Juan Garza have been executed under the federal death penalty law.

Juez federal declara inconstitucional la pena de muerte

Montpellier (EEUU), 24 sep .- Un juez federal declaro hoy inconstitucional la pena de muerte federal, con lo que se sumo a otro magistrado que emitio un dictamen similar hace tres meses.

El juez William Sessions dijo en el estado de Vermont que la ley federal sobre la Pena de Muerte, promulgada en 1994, es inconstitucional porque algunas de sus disposiciones privan a los acusados de al menos dos de sus derechos constitucionales.

Esas dos garantias son que las pruebas presentadas ante los jurados sean rigurosas y que se protejan todos los derechos y libertades constitucionales de los acusados, y estan contenidas en la Quinta y Sexta Enmiendas de la Constitucion.

Sessions formulo su decision en el caso de Donald Fell, un hombre declarado culpable, junto a su complice, Joseph Lee, de secuestrar y asesinar a una mujer a fines del ano 2000 en Nueva York. Lee se suicido en su celda el ano pasado.

El dictamen de Sessions, que puede ser apelable, no tendra efecto en las cortes estatales de los 38 estados de EEUU donde se aplica la pena de muerte.

En general el castigo se aplica mediante una inyeccion de sustancias letales, pero en algunos estados tambien se puede llevar a cabo mediante la electrocucion.

En julio de este ano, otro juez federal, Jed Rakoff, de Nueva York, declaro que la pena de muerte federal es inconstitucional por cuanto equivale a "un asesinato patrocinado por el estado de seres humanos inocentes".

"La pena de muerte esta bajo asedio", manifesto Sessions al justificar su dictamen en un documento de 44 paginas.

El ano pasado, los estados de Illinois y Maryland, decidieron aplicar una moratoria a la aplicacion del castigo despues de determinar que muchas de las sentencias contenian errores.

En Estados Unidos, la pena de muerte federal se aplica por los delitos de secuestro, espionaje, terrorismo, narcotrafico, asesinato de empleados y policias federales y asalto de bancos, entre otros.

Por delitos federales fueron ejecutados en 2001 el terrorista estadounidense Timothy McVeigh y el mexicano Juan Garza, declarado culpable de asesinar a un policia durante una operacion contra el trafico de drogas.

Tambien existe la pena de muerte por delitos comunes, en su mayoria asesinatos, la cual fue restablecida por el Tribunal Supremo de EEUU en 1976 para su aplicacion en los estados.

Desde entonces han sido ejecutadas en este pais cerca 800 personas, casi mitad de ellas en el estado de Texas.