President Bush said Wednesday night that he would ask Congress to devote money to a special training program for defense lawyers in capital punishment cases, declaring: “People on trial for their lives must have competent lawyers by their side.”
“We need to make sure Americans of all races and backgrounds have confidence in the system that provides justice,” Bush said. “In America, we must make doubly sure no person is held to account for a crime he or she did not commit.”
In his State of the Union address, Bush said the U.S. government would expand the use of DNA evidence to prevent wrongful convictions. Last fall, in the final days of the congressional session, Bush signed a bipartisan bill into law that would give prisoners greater access to post-conviction DNA tests.
Across the country, there have been numerous examples of wrongful convictions exposed by DNA testing. More than 150 defendants–many of them found guilty because of erroneous eyewitness identifications, coerced confessions or faulty crime lab analysis–have been exonerated, including more than two dozen in Illinois.
In the budget the White House will present to Congress next week, Bush will propose $50 million over the next three years to increase the training of private defense lawyers and public defenders, prosecutors and judges, hoping to improve the competence of those involved with state capital cases. The death penalty is permitted in 38 states and in federal cases.
Last October, Bush signed into law the Justice For All Act, a $1 billion program to increase funding at crime labs and to eliminate backlogs of DNA test requests. The Bush administration, led by Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, initially opposed the legislation but ultimately changed course and approved the bill under pressure from several Republican senators.
Before being elected president in 2000, Bush while Texas governor presided over more death penalty cases than any other state executive, with 153 executions taking place during his tenure.
Democrats had expressed frustration at Bush’s reluctance to provide greater funding for the Justice for All program.
“Throughout this process the White House stood on the sidelines, or worse,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who pushed the legislation. “But it’s never too late to find another ally.”
As the president called for a “belief in equal justice,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was the first lawmaker to rise in applause. Several Democrats soon joined, but only a handful of Republicans stood on the floor of the House chamber as Bush made his brief remarks about expanding DNA testing and improving the competence of death penalty lawyers.
“The importance in all of these pronouncements in the State of the Union is follow-through,” Obama said in an interview after the speech. “It’s not sufficient to make a promise and not to deliver. My hope will be not only [that] the president supports the initiatives, but spends some political capital with his Republicans in Congress to follow through.”
