
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990                   TAG: 9005160391
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

EXECUTION LEGISLATION PROMOTED

In an unusual public lobbying effort, the chief justice of the United States called on Congress Tuesday to back Republican-sponsored limits on death penalty appeals, while denouncing a Democratic alternative as likely to lengthen delays in state executions.

The Senate is set to begin debate next week on a package of anti-crime proposals, including changes in how death penalty appeals are handled in the federal courts.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist said the current system for handling death penalty appeals "verges on the chaotic" and "cries out for reform."

But the Democratic measure, sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., "would actually exacerbate the delays and repetitiousness of the present system," Rehnquist said.

Rehnquist urged support for a bill sponsored by Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., that would give death row inmates a one-time, six-month chance to appeal their cases in the federal courts.

- Los Angeles Times

by CNB