President Bush’s call for a new $50 million initiative to improve the quality of legal work in death-penalty cases falls far short of a similar measure he signed last year.
Both the White House and criminal justice experts agree that more money is needed to reduce the possibility of executing innocent people.
But advocates for such funding questioned Bush’s commitment because his proposal–which includes $20 million to train defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges next fiscal year–was far less than the $75 million a year called for in the Justice For All Act that he signed Oct. 30.
“It could be a way to underfund it and put less strings on it, then come back and say, `Look what we’re doing,'” said John Terzano of the Justice Project’s Campaign for Criminal Justice Reform.
Critics’ suspicions arise from Bush’s record as governor of Texas, where he presided over more than 150 executions, often ignoring concerns that defense lawyers were inadequate.
The administration declined Thursday to say if the president is committed to funding the Justice For All Act.
Bush’s version of the legal training measure, the Capital Defense Initiative, was part of his broader proposal to improve the justice system, which also includes funding for more DNA testing to reduce backlogs at crime labs around the country.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys support the DNA initiative to address the exploding demand for such testing to exonerate the wrongly accused and catch the real perpetrators.
But reformers in the forensic science community note that the push for DNA funding ignores a broader problem in the criminal justice system: fundamental flaws in the older, more commonly used forensic tools, like fingerprint comparison, ballistics, arson investigation, and hair and fiber analysis.
Bush’s initiatives underscore a central irony: The vast majority of government funding for forensic science will continue to go to DNA testing, the only forensic discipline that is well-grounded in science.
The flawed disciplines most in need of funding will still get a relative pittance.
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“I don’t want to sound like I’m ungrateful,” because money is needed to improve and expand DNA testing, said Ronald Singer, president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
“But there’s also plenty of other areas that really need support,” he added, from funds for crime labs to research into other forensic disciplines.
Some Democrats and critics of the death penalty were skeptical of Bush’s sudden support for improved legal training and other reforms. They said his proposed three-year, $50 million spending on capital cases pales next to the more than $350 million over five years that was earmarked in the 2004 law.
“This is clearly a defensive move,” said an aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), an author of the Justice For All legislation. “They’re using language that sounds the same as ours. But when we see the budget, they might not spend a nickel.”
Taken at face value, “the State of the Union reference is a terrific boost,” said Steven Schwadron, chief of staff for Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), an original sponsor of the Justice For All provision calling for improved legal training in capital cases.
If the administration is in fact cutting funding for such initiatives, however, Schwadron said the fight wasn’t over.
Jim Marcus of the Texas Defender Service, which represents indigent Death Row inmates, welcomed Bush’s support of better handling of capital cases. But he noted that it was “a little belated for Mr. Bush to get on the bandwagon.”