Death Penalty

Arbitrary application of the death penalty is wrong. There are too many statistical indications that it is disproportionately applied to Americans of African descent to ignore. State governments must act to provide guidance for its application or provide a state-level approval for death penalty cases. I believe the death penalty must remain as a punishment for those criminals from whom society cannot otherwise be protected. As an example, a prisoner who commits murder or attempted murder of a corrections officer should face the death penalty.

Federally, the death penalty should remain for punishment of treason, espionage, and genocide. There are a number of other offenses for which the federal death penalty is proscribed, a common theme is as punishment for using murder to influence criminal justice. While I believe the federal capital crimes structure provides effective punishment and deterrent against heinous offenses, there are too many capital crimes in the federal structure. The federal capital structure should be retained and revised.

Law Enforcement

Local governments have a duty to enforce the law and protect citizens from violent criminals by investigating crime, arresting suspects, and jailing those convicted of a crime. The federal government should aid local governments in improving these processes, but federally paying for local officers is inappropriate. In fact, in Baltimore CIty it would be ineffective; Baltimore City cannot hire enough officers to fill its currently funded slots. So if the federal government can't help with manpower, how can it help? I believe the answer is with intelligence and technology. Technology developed for national defense must be made available to local governments for law enforcement. The federal government must also make multi-jurisdictional intelligence readily available to local governments. Local governments in turn must be ready to arrest, prosecute and punish repeat offenders.

Justice

Witness intimidation has become a significant threat to successful prosecution of violent crimes. I consider it a civil right and responsibility to be a witness; as such I believe it is appropriate to do more at the federal level to prosecute all cases of witness intimidation and provide federal assistance for witness protection. I fully support the lead of Representative Elijah Cummings in witness protection and security and agree with him that: "Known murderers walk the streets everyday because we lack the evidence necessary to bring them to justice. Improving protection for state and local witnesses will move us one step closer toward alleviating the fears of and threats to prospective witnesses and help to safeguard our communities from violence."

Paid for by Paul Spause for Congress, Michelle Bennett, Treasurer.