Press Release: Distinguished Bipartisan National Panel To Present Eighteen Recommendations for Death Penalty Reform

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 21, 2001 CONTACT:
 Tim Kolly or Kimberly Westhoff - (202) 662-4244 
 or (301) 536-7510 (cell)
Elizabeth Dahl - (202) 662-4243.

MEDIA ALERT
 
 

Distinguished Bipartisan National Panel To Present Eighteen Recommendations for Death Penalty Reform

        Following a year-long study, a national blue-ribbon committee of the Constitution Project will present eighteen recommendations for death penalty reform on June 27, 2001. The panel is composed of former judges, state attorneys general, federal prosecutors, law enforcement officials, governors, mayors and journalists, as well as current defense attorneys, religious leaders and victims rights advocates. Represented are Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, death penalty advocates and opponents.

        Among those presenting will be:
 

Beth Wilkinson, former prosecutor, Oklahoma City bombing
Gerald Kogan, former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court
Charles Baird, former judge, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
William Sessions, former FBI Director and federal judge
Paula Kurland, victims rights advocate and mother of a murder victim

        As federal and state officials struggle to form a consensus on death penalty reform, these recommendations represent the first comprehensive consensus agenda proposed by an ideologically and politically diverse group with extensive death penalty experience.

Date: Wednesday, June 27, 2001
Time: 8:45 a.m.
Place: Room 138 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Breakfast refreshments will be served.

**A full copy of the report will be available at the news conference. **

        Convenient to reporters, this news conference will immediately precede the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Insuring Competent Counsel on Death Penalty Cases at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 Dirksen Senate Office Building.
 

        The Constitution Project seeks to formulate bipartisan solutions to contemporary constitutional and legal issues by combining high-level scholarship and public education. It is housed at the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC.

        For more information, contact Tim Kolly or Kimberly Westhoff at (202) 662-4244 or (301) 536-7510 (cell), or Elizabeth Dahl at (202) 662-4243.

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