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Senate Adds Death Penalty Amendment to Kill Hate Crimes Legislation

By Steve Hall

That's the title of a Monday afternoon post at CivilRights.org, the home of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, written by Tyler Lewis.  LINKOn Friday, the Senate passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as an amendment to the fiscal year 2010 Department of Defense authorization bill.  But today, the Senate passed an amendment to the Act, offered by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R. Ala., that would allow the death penalty to be applied in hate crimes cases under some circumstances.  LCCR and other civil and human rights groups that are supporting the Act do not support the Sessions amendment.  In a letter to the Senate, the groups said: "We strongly oppose this amendment...The death penalty is irreversible and highly controversial ? with significant doubts about its deterrent effect and clear evidence of disproportionate application against poor people...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on July 21, 2009 (boomark / email).