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Article: Statement on the Decision To Stay the Execution of Juan Raul Garza.(Brief Article)(Transcript)
- Article from:
- Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents
- Article date:
- December 11, 2000
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 U.S. Government Printing Office. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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December 7,2000
Today I have decided to stay the execution of Juan Raul Garza, an inmate on Federal death row, for 6 months, until June, 2001, to allow the Justice Department time to gather and properly analyze more information about racial and geographic disparities in the Federal death penalty system.
I believe that the death penalty is appropriate for the most heinous crimes. As President, I have signed Federal legislation that authorizes it under certain circumstances. It is clearly, however, an issue of the most serious weight. The penalty of death, as Justice Potter Stewart and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor have reminded us, is "qualitatively ...