American Bar Association Urges Moratorium on Federal...

American Bar Association Urges Moratorium on Federal Death Penalty; Releases Death Penalty Protocols. Martha Barnett, the outgoing President of the American Bar Association, recently sent a letter to Congress on behalf of the more than 400,000 members of the ABA urging a moratorium on the federal death penalty.In her letter to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, Barnett noted that 11 wrongly convicted death row inmates have been freed from death row in the last year and a half, and stated: "This situation is unacceptable in our country." Citing recent studies on the death penalty, Barnett asked the committees to support the National Death Penalty Moratorium Act and the Innocence Protection Act, stating, "we now have empirical data that shows, in fact, this system is broken." Although the ABA does not have a policy on the death penalty in general, it opposes the execution of juvenile offenders and those with mental retardation. In 1997, the ABA's policymaking body issued a resolution supporting a moratorium on all executions. Read the 1997 resolution at http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ABAresolution.htmlRecently, the ABA's Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities released, "Death without Justice:A Guide for Examining the Administration of the Death Penalty in the United States" which provides protocols for state commissions, legislatures and others considering the fairness of the death penalty. Read the guide at: http://www.abanet.org/irr/FINALJUNE28.pdfIn addition, the Section released a report on moratorium developments that have occurred in the past 18 months.Read the report at: http://www.abanet.org/irr/FINALJUNE28.pdf