ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 19, 1996 TAG: 9604190045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Congress passed long-awaited legislation Thursday that would give federal law officers new powers to use against terrorism, sending the bill to President Clinton on the eve of the first anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.
The bill - which also would limit federal appeals by prisoners, including death-row inmates - was passed by the House 293-133. It had been approved by the Senate a day earlier, 91-8.
All of Virginia's congressmen voted for the bill except Democrat Robert Scott of Newport News.
Clinton was expected to sign the measure next week, after he returns from overseas, even though it lacks numerous other law enforcement powers he had sought.
Attorney General Janet Reno said the legislation - a compromise between separate Senate and House bills - contains ``some very effective tools that we can use in our efforts to combat terrorism.''
She cited provisions that would allow deportation of alien terrorists without disclosing classified evidence against them, prevent fund raising in the United States for terrorists, and require taggants, or chemical labels, in plastic explosives so they can be traced.
To Republican supporters, the bill's key provision is its limit on so-called habeas corpus appeals by prisoners, primarily because it is expected to end delays in executions.
``There is no clearer link, no stronger link, between effective anti-terrorism legislation and deterring criminal acts of violence in this country than habeas and death-penalty reform,'' said Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga.
The change would tell those considering a terrorist act that they can no longer ``come into our country and kill our citizens, and destroy our government institutions and know that they will be able to spend the next 25 years laughing at us, thumbing their nose at the families of victims,'' he said.
But Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., noted that the only people eligible for such appeals are already incarcerated and ``a danger, presumably, only to other prisoners.''
Reno said the provision would improperly make it more difficult for federal judges to overturn state court rulings and more important for states and bar associations to ensure that penniless defendants are given lawyers ``who understand the law so that mistakes will not be made along the way that cause reversals.''
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB