In June, U

In June, U.S. Attorney-General Janet Reno ordered Virginian District Attorney Helen Fahey to seek a life sentence, not a death penalty against Australian citizen Jean-Philippe Wispelaere, 28, charged with attempted espionage against the U.S., an offense which carries the maximum penalty of death by electric chair. Janet Reno has allowed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in less than 30% of eligible cases, a first-of-its-kind study of the federal death penalty shows. Justice Department figures show that Reno reviewed 397 cases from 1993 to 1998. She authorized 116 for death penalty prosecution and turned down 281. Attorneys General Richard Thornburgh and William Barr, Democrat Reno's Republican predecessors, sought death in 19 of 21 cases from 1990 through 1992. Though her percentage may be low, Reno nevertheless has authorized a record number of federal death penalty prosecutions since taking office in 1993. Laws passed in 1994 and in 1996 that expanded the number of federal offenses eligible for capital punishment have presented Reno with more opportunities to pursue death penalty cases than her predecessors. Historically, the federal government accounts for only a small fraction of the death sentences handed down. Only 24 federal executions were carried out from 1927 through 1963, when the most recent execution took place. The federal death penalty was restored in 1988, 16 years after a Supreme Court ruling temporarily ended executions. But no new executions have occurred under federal law.