Freed Death Row inmate before Congress
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Gary Wayne Drinkard on Wednesday watched U.S. senators debate the mechanics of finding competent lawyers for poor people accused of capital murder. Every time someone, including Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, testified that the system is fine as it is, the 46-year-old formerly condemned man silently shook his graying head with its long sideburns and newly tanned skin. "I was shocked by the double talk and evasion," Drinkard said after the hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He and his lawyers say his case is proof that inexperienced lawyers in death penalty cases can get the wrong man killed. Congress is considering legislation, titled the Innocence Protection Act, that would establish a national commission to set minimum standards for defense attorneys appointed to represent poor people accused of capital crimes. States that didn't comply with the standards would risk losing federal funds for their prison systems. But the bill also would create a $50 million grant program for the states to improve their methods of appointing attorneys in death cases. Supporters, including more than 200 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and several senators, say the bill is necessary to prevent mistakes that could lead to the execution of an innocent person. Opponents of the bill, including U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Pryor, say it would curtail state control of its criminal justice system; give anti-death penalty activists a greater role than sit ting judges in appointing lawyers; and grind the system to a halt because the standards for competency would be unattainably high. "If your concern is to protect the innocent from being executed, then you need not worry; it is not occurring and is highly unlikely to occur," Pryor told the committee. "There are good ways to do it and much better ways to do it, and in capital cases, you need the much better ways," said John Mays, a Decatur lawyer who represented Drinkard in his second trial. He called Alabama's system for appointing defense counsel the "snatch them out of the hall" method. Alabama requires that a lead defense attorney in a capital case have at least five years experience, which doesn't necessarily mean they've taken a criminal case to trial or handled a capital case, Mays said. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 96 people have been set free from Death Rows around the country. The issue of inadequate defense counsel has gained momentum since the Democrats regained control of the Senate, a shift that put one of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., back in charge of the judiciary committee. "It is a problem that calls into question the legitimacy of criminal convictions and undermines public confidence in the integrity of the criminal justice system as a whole," Leahy said. |
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