NATION

National Catholic Reporter, Feb 25, 2000 by Toby Becker

Vermont legislation calls for gay benefits

A Vermont House committee has decided that gay couples should be given the same rights and benefits as heterosexual couples through a broad civil rights statute rather than marriage.

The Judiciary Committee voted Feb. 9 to draft legislation to extend legal rights to homosexual domestic partnerships. If such a bill were: enacted, Vermont would become the state providing the most rights and benefits to gay couples,

Three of the 11 committee members wanted a bill that would have made gay marriage legal.

The full House must approve any legislation, and various changes could be introduced at that level.

Members of the Vermont committee emphasized that their decision to bypass marriage was a tough one and was not intended to discriminate or offend.

The state's Legislature has been struggling to respond to a state Supreme Court ruling in December that declared that gay couples are unconstitutionally denied benefits and rights that accompany legal marriage.

Bishops, Congress address death penalty

The president of the U.S. bishops' conference joined those calling for the suspension of federal executions, as legislation meant to address wrongful convictions was introduced in Congress.

Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, in a Feb. 9 letter to President Clinton, urged a moratorium on the federal death penalty and referred to action recently taken by Illinois Gov. George Ryan. On Jan. 31, Ryan called a moratorium on executions, pending a review of how capital punishment is administered in Illinois.

Practical reasons to oppose the death penalty, according to Fiorenza, include its arbitrary application, its cost, inadequate counsel for the accused, the possibility of executing wrongly convicted persons and racial disparities.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Feb. 10 the Justice Department is reviewing whether racial minorities have been unfairly given federal death sentences more often than white defendants. The first execution under federal law since 1963 could occur within weeks in the case of Juan Raul Garza.

Meanwhile, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced a bill called the "Innocence Protection Act," which would require that inmates be allowed to have DNA testing if it might be relevant to their convictions or death sentences.

The bill would require states to ensure that indigent defendants receive competent legal counsel and would limit the ability of federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for federal-level crimes in states that don't authorize capital punishment.

The Catholic bishops of Texas also issued a plea to Gov. George W. Bush to suspend the death penalty and review its use in the state, which leads the nation in executions.

A spokesperson for Bush said he has no plans to implement a moratorium. Bush has presided over 119 executions since taking office as governor in 1995.

Report links arms sales to human rights abuses

The Council for a Livable World Education Fund has released a report detailing weapons sold by the United States to abusive governments around the world.

The report, "Human Rights and Weapons: Records of Selected U.S. Arms Clients," was released Feb. 8. It describes the type, number and dollar value of some of the weapons sold, as well as what kinds of abuses are carried out by the countries' security forces.

Among the countries named in the report are Colombia, Turkey, Indonesia, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

"Combining human rights and arms trade data into one document will ... demonstrate the connection between human rights abuses perpetrated by these countries and the U.S. military equipment they receive," the council said in a statement. "It is also meant to show that the State Department, which supposedly takes human rights into account when licensing arms exports, fails to do so or at least not in any meaningful manner."

Pennsylvania Senate eyes death penalty moratorium

The Judiciary Committee of Pennsylvania's Senate was to hold hearings Feb. 22 on a bill calling for a two-year moratorium On executions in Pennsylvania.

Among those scheduled to testify before the state government was Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, speaking for the Catholic bishops of Pennsylvania.

Evidence will be introduced in the hearings attesting that the application of the death penalty is racially skewed in Pennsylvania, most conspicuously in Philadelphia. A study by law professor David Baldus and colleagues revealed that the odds of receiving a death sentence in Philadelphia are four times higher if the defendant is a person of color. Of the 226 death row inmates in Pennsylvania, 82 percent are people of color.

More than 90 percent of Pennsylvania's death row prisoners were too poor to afford a lawyer for their initial trial and were left with whatever representation the state selected for them. After sending an individual to death row, Pennsylvania provides no funds for post-conviction legal defense, and instead has appropriated $500,000 to the attorney general's office to oppose capital appeals.