PATRIOT ACT

DEATH PENALTY

Another far reaching aspect of the Patriot Act. Before now, if one juror, during the penalty phase of a trial, voted against the death sentence, the sentence was automatically commuted to Life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now, in the bill before Congress to renew the Patriot Act, there is a provision inserted that would allow prosecutors, in the event that at least one juror voted for the death penalty to go back and empanel another jury for the sentencing phase and argue again that the death penalty is warranted.

They use as an example the 2001 trial of two agents of the al-Qaida terrorist group for their bombing of two American embassies in East Africa. After their trial in New York it was revealed that the jury had voted 9-3 for the death penalty.

If this bill passes, then it will mean that every trial, where the death penalty is on the table, all the DA needs is one juror to vote for the death penalty and he can try again with a new jury to achieve his goal.