STATEMENT BY BARBARA COMSTOCK, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS,
REGARDING THE SECOND CIRCUIT'S REVIEW OF JUDGE RAKOFF'S DECISION
FINDING THE FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY UNCONSTITUTIONAL:

"Congress passed the Federal Death Penalty Act to save lives, and the Supreme Court has upheld state and federal statutes providing for capital punishment for over two hundred years. The Justice Department is pleased with the Second Circuit's definitive acknowledgement that the District Court was not authorized to overturn the Supreme Court's well-settled law in this area. As the Second Circuit said, the arguments accepted by Judge Rakoff have 'repeatedly been made to the Supreme Court and rejected by the Supreme Court.'"

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02-708