NATION : Rehnquist Raps Appeal System
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WASHINGTON — Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, seeking reform in capital punishment law, today criticized the system for handling the appeals of condemned prisoners as verging “on the chaotic.”
Rehnquist, in a speech to the American Law Institute, called on Congress to pass reforms to streamline the process of executions that now take about seven or eight years.
“The system at present verges on the chaotic,” Rehnquist said. “The eight years between conviction in the state court and the final decision in the federal courts is consumed not by structured review of the arguments of the parties, but in fits of frantic action followed by periods of inaction.”
He called on Congress to approve the recommendations of a commission led by retired Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. The recommendations would reduce the use of habeas corpus writs, limiting the number of times a Death Row inmate could send a case through the court system.
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