103d Congress

1st Session

November 17, 1993, 11:12 a.m.

Page S-15818 Temp. Record

Vote No. 379

CRIME BILL/Life Imprisonment Instead of Death Penalty

SUBJECT:

Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1993 . . . S. 1607. Levin amendment No. 1204.

 

Link to the bill

Excerpt from the bill:

"...

One case discussed is that of Kirk Bloodsworth, who was twice convicted of the brutal rape, torture, and murder of a six-year-old girl in Baltimore, Maryland. The public was outraged at the crime, and pressured the police to find and prosecute the culprit. Sixteen days and hundreds of possible suspects later, the police closed in on one 23-year-old Kirk Bloodsworth. Two boys, ages seven and ten, identified him as the man they had seen leading the girl into the woods. Before identifying him, however, they had testified that the man was 6 feet 4 inches tall and blond; Kirk Bloodsworth is 6 feet tall and has red hair. Still, without any confession or physical evidence, he was found guilty. Three days after he was sentenced to death, the police were told that a man resembling the boys' original description had shown up at a nearby mental health clinic right after the girl's murder. He had fresh scratches on his face, and told a therapist that he was in trouble with a little girl. The police found this man, David Rehill, but they decided that, although his appearance fit the police composite, he was not the man described by the boys because he was too small. They never put him in a line-up. Two years after receiving the death sentence, Mr. Bloodsworth won a new trial on a technicality, was again convicted, but was this time sentenced to life in prison. In his fifth year in prison, he heard of the development of DNA testing. After several years, he succeeded in having semen from the crime analyzed, and that analysis proved he was innocent. Nine years after being condemned to death, he was released.

Some of our colleagues may say that mistakes are a cost of doing business. We doubt they would feel that way if it were their father, their brother, or their uncle who stood wrongly accused and condemned to die. We suspect they would then question how a justice system worthy of the name could presume it had the competence to impose a penalty with the finality of death.

..."