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The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), held hearings regarding the bipartisan Innocence Protection Act of 2001 (IPA). The hearings, which focused primarily on the need for defendants to be represented by qualified and experienced counsel in capital cases, included testimony from Beth Wilkinson, a former lead prosecutor in the Oklahoma City bombing case, and Michael Graham, a wrongly convicted man who spent 14 years on Louisiana's death row before being exonerated. "One of our nation's most fundamental rights is the right to counsel," said Senator Leahy. "In the most serious cases, where we are considering the execution of a human being, the Innocence Protection Act will help ensure that defendants have a right not just to counsel, but to competent counsel." Also testifying at the hearings in support of the IPA were Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights; Texas state senator Rodney Ellis; IPA lead co-sponsors in the Senate, Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Susan Collins (R-ME); and House lead co-sponsors William Delahunt (D-MA) and Ray LaHood (R-IL). Testifying in opposition to the proposed legislation were The Honorable William H. Pryor Jr., Attorney General, Montgomery, AL; Mr. Ronald Eisenberg, Deputy District Attorney, Philadelphia, PA; and Kenneth S. Br1ackett Deputy Solicitor, 16th Circuit, South Carolina. Read the Justice Project's Press Release (http://justice.policy.net/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=23282) and the testimony from the hearings (http://www.senate.gov/%7Ejudiciary/hr062701pjl.htm).