John Kerry on Crime Jr Senator (MA), Democratic nominee for President

Opposes death penalty except for post 9-11 terrorists

ANALYSIS: A Club for Growth ad accurately cites that Kerry once opposed the death penalty for terrorists and now supports it. During a 1996 Senate campaign debate, Kerry said anti-death penalty countries wouldn’t allow the US to extradite suspected terrorists: “the death penalty would amount to a terrorist protection policy. My policy would put them in jail.” In 2002 he said, “I support killing people who declare war on our country, just as I was prepared to kill people personally & collectively in Vietnam.” Kerry still opposes the death penalty in other cases. His explanation is that he responded to changed facts [of 9-11]

States should not engage in killing-too many mistakes

KERRY: Correct.

Q: So a person who kills a 5-year-old should live?

KERRY: My instinct is to want to strangle that person with my own hands. I understand the instincts, I really do. I prosecuted people. I know what the feeling of the families is and everybody else. But we have 111 people who have been now released from death row -- death row, let alone the rest of the prison system -- because of DNA evidence that showed they didn’t commit the crime of which they were convicted. Our system has made mistakes, and it’s been applied in a way that I think is wrong. Secondly, most of the other nations in the world, have adopted that idea, that the state should not engage in killing, because they have very bad memories of what happens when the state engages in killing.

Moratorium on federal executions-only exception is terrorism

A: I oppose the death penalty other than in cases of real international and domestic terrorism. We know we have put innocent people to death; 111 innocent people have already been released from death row. As president, I’ll enforce the law but I’ll also have a national moratorium on federal executions until we use DNA evidence to make sure those on death row are guilty.

Death penalty for Osama bin Laden

Bush wants to eliminate federal assistance to local police

Transnational crime is a national security threat

Over time, we noted the declining importance of ideology and the growing importance of mafias. We realized that cross-border international drug traffickers and money launderers, terrorists, and smugglers had become a security threat for the United States--and indeed, for the world.

Crime has changed. In strategy, sophistication, and reach, the criminal organizations of the late 20th century function like transnational corporations and make the gangs of the past look like mom-and-pop operations.

Organized transnational crime threatens America

Or ours. America's complicity as consumers does nothing for the moral health of our republic. It weakens our immunity to corruption, as innumerable police bribery cases have painfully demonstrated. And having pointed out that Colombia is on the State Department's list of top 20 money-laundering countries, I would be unfair not to mention that the US also belongs to that elite club.

Organized transnational crime threatens America's interests, well-being, and national security both from within and without. It can be an agent of disturbance on the international scene--by thwarting Russia's democracy or upsetting China's stability.

A state doesn’t honor life by sanctioning killing

Voted YES on reinstating $1.15 billion funding for the COPS Program.

Proponents recommend voting YES because:

This amendment reinstates the COPS Program. I remind everyone, when the COPS Program was functioning, violent crime in America reduced 8.5% a year for 7 years in a row. Throughout the 1990s, we funded the COPS Program at roughly $1.2 billion, and it drove down crime. Now crime is rising again. The COPS Program in the crime bill worked, and the Government Accounting Office found a statistical link between the COPS grants and a reduction in crime. The Brookings Institution reported the COPS Program is one of the most cost-effective programs we have ever had in this country. Local officials urgently need this support.

Opponents recommend voting NO because:

The COPS Program has some history. It was started by President Clinton. He asked for 100,000 police officers. He said that when we got to 100,000, the program would stop. We got to 110,000 police officers and the program continues on and on and on.

This program should have ended 5 years ago or 6 years ago, but it continues. It is similar to so many Federal programs that get constituencies that go on well past what their original purpose was. It may be well intentioned, but we cannot afford it and we shouldn't continue it. It was never thought it would be continued this long.

Voted YES on $1.15 billion per year to continue the COPS program.

Voted NO on limiting death penalty appeals.

Voted NO on limiting product liability punitive damage awards.

Voted YES on restricting class-action lawsuits.

Voted YES on repealing federal speed limits.

Voted NO on mandatory prison terms for crimes involving firearms.

Voted NO on rejecting racial statistics in death penalty appeals.

Rated 63% by CURE, indicating mixed votes on rehabilitation.

CURE (Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants) is a membership organization of families of prisoners, prisoners, former prisoners and other concerned citizens. CURE's two goals are

1. to use prisons only for those who have to be in them; and
2. for those who have to be in them, to provide them all the rehabilitative opportunities they need to turn their lives around.

More funding and stricter sentencing for hate crimes.

Title: To provide Federal assistance to States and local jurisdictions to prosecute hate crimes.

Summary: Provide technical, forensic, prosecutorial, or other assistance in the criminal investigation or prosecution of any violent crime that is motivated by prejudice based on the race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability of the victim or is a violation of hate crime laws.

1. Award grants to assist State and local law enforcement officials with extraordinary expenses for interstate hate crimes.

2. Award grants to State and local programs designed to combat hate crimes committed by juveniles.

3. Prohibit specified offenses involving actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.

4. Increase criminal sentencing for adult recruitment of juveniles to commit hate crimes.

5. Collect and publish data about crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on gender.

Require DNA testing for all federal executions.

Title: To reduce the risk that innocent persons may be executed.

Summary: Authorizes a person convicted of a Federal crime to apply for DNA testing to support a claim that the person did not commit:
1. the Federal crime of which the person was convicted; or

2. any other offense that a sentencing authority may have relied upon when it sentenced the person with respect to such crime.

3. Prohibits a State from denying an application for DNA testing made by a prisoner in State custody who is under sentence of death if specified conditions apply.

4. Provides grants to prosecutors for DNA testing programs.

5. Establishes the National Commission on Capital Representation.

6. Withholds funds from States not complying with standards for capital representation.

7. Provides for capital defense incentive grants and resource grants.

8. Increases compensation in Federal cases, and sets forth provisions regarding compensation in State cases, where an individual is unjustly sentenced to death.

9. Adds a certification requirement in Federal death penalty prosecutions.

10. Expresses the sense of Congress regarding the execution of juvenile offenders and the mentally retarded.

Increase funding for "COPS ON THE BEAT" program.

COPS Improvements Act of 2007 - Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to make grants for public safety and community policing programs (COPS ON THE BEAT or COPS program). Revises grant purposes to provide for:

1. the hiring or training of law enforcement officers for intelligence, antiterror, and homeland security duties;
2. the hiring of school resource officers;
3. school-based partnerships between local law enforcement agencies and local school systems to combat crime, gangs, drug activities, and other problems facing elementary and secondary schools;
4. innovative programs to reduce and prevent illegal drug (including methamphetamine) manufacturing, distribution, and use; and
5. enhanced community policing and crime prevention grants that meet emerging law enforcement needs.

Authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to:
1. assign community prosecutors to handle cases from specific geographic areas and address counterterrorism problems, specific violent crime problems, and localized violent and other crime problems; and
2. develop new technologies to assist state and local law enforcement agencies in crime prevention.

Reduce recidivism by giving offenders a Second Chance.

Recidivism Reduction and Second Chance Act of 2007
• Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to expand provisions for adult and juvenile offender state and local reentry demonstration projects to provide expanded services to offenders and their families for reentry into society.
• Directs the Attorney General to award grants for:
  1. state and local reentry courts;
  2. Comprehensive and Continuous Offender Reentry Task Forces;
  3. pharmacological drug treatment services to incarcerated offenders;
  4. technology career training for offenders;
  5. mentoring services for reintegrating offenders into the community;
  6. pharmacological drug treatment services to incarcerated offenders;
  7. prison-based family treatment programs for incarcerated parents of minor children; and
  8. a study of parole or post-incarceration supervision violations and revocations.

Facilitate recovering crime victim restitution fees.

Congressional Summary:

• Requires the chief justice of the highest court of any state that wishes to collect past-due, legally enforceable state judicial debts to designate a single state entity to communicate judicial debt information to the Secretary of the Treasury.
• Directs the Secretary, upon receiving notice from such an entity that a named person owes a past-due, legally enforceable state judicial debt, to pay such debt from any tax refund due to such person.
• Defines "state judicial debt" to include court costs, fees, fines, assessments, restitution to victims of crime, and other monies resulting from a judgment or sentence rendered by any court or tribunal of competent jurisdiction handling criminal or traffic cases in the state.

Establish an FBI registry of sexual offendors.

• Establish a national database at the FBI to track each person who has been convicted of a criminal offense against a minor or a sexually violent offense; or is a sexually violent predator.
• Requires each such person who resides in a State that has not established a minimally sufficient sexual offender registration program to register a current address, fingerprints, and a current photograph with the FBI for inclusion in such database, except during ensuing periods of incarceration
• This requirement extends until ten years after the date on which the person was released from prison or placed on parole or probation; or for the life of the person if that person has two or more convictions for any such offense, has been convicted of aggravated sexual abuse, or has been determined to be a sexually violent predator.