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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 15, 1994                   TAG: 9404150078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press Note: below
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

DEATH PENALTY EXPANDED TO ADD 70 MORE CRIMES

The House responded to demands for tough anti-crime legislation by authorizing the death penalty Thursday for nearly 70 additional crimes.

Working on a $15 billion crime bill, the House rejected by a 314-111 vote an amendment that would have substituted life without parole for the death penalty. Among new crimes that could result in execution: drive-by shootings, a killing committed while stealing a car and activities of big-time drug dealers, even if they do not result in death.

At the White House, President Clinton focused on other parts of the bill as he addressed a ceremony honoring police officers. The bill, he told the officers, would give them ``the tools you need to do your jobs.''

``This is not a partisan issue or a sectional issue or a racial issue or an income issue,'' Clinton said. ``If anything should truly make us a United States of America, it should be the passionate desire to restore real freedom to our streets.''

Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus oppose capital punishment, but several urged passage of the crime bill.

by CNB