Patriot Act bill would expand death penalty

[jjw1965]

WASHINGTON – The House bill that would reauthorize the USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law includes several little-noticed provisions that would dramatically transform the federal death penalty system, allowing smaller juries to decide on executions and giving prosecutors the ability to try again if a jury deadlocks on sentencing.

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[GL Schmitt]

. . . spokesman for House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., said Tuesday that the proposals were viewed as relatively uncontroversial because they were approved overwhelmingly on the House floor. . . .

It is more like:

. . . the proposals were viewed as relatively uncontroversial because, in July, the House was accustomed to rubber stamping anything the Bush Administration handed them without giving it adequate reading or thought. . . .