ON FEBRUARY 3, 1997, at its midyear meeting in San Antonio, the American Bar Association called for an end to the execution of violent criminals ” unless and until greater fairness and due process prevail.” The association’s policy-making House of Delegates approved the measure 280-119, over the vehement objections of the ABA’s own president, Lee Cooper, and the Clinton administration, which sent deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick and other officials to San Antonio to oppose it. Cooper warned that the resolution was a covert call for abolishing the death penalty, and Gorelick’s argued that it could prejudice pending cases involving domestic terrorism — like the bombing in Oklahoma City.
Indeed, proponents of the ABA’s action described it as largely a reaction against the anti-terrorism legislation passed by large congressional majorities in response to Oklahoma City. The key reform in that legislation limited abusive and repetitive death-penalty appeals, which routinely consumed decades. It was based on the recommendations of a commission chaired by former Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell — himself a former president of the ABA — and was unanimously affirmed by the Supreme Court last year.
