OKLAHOMA/HABEUS CORPUS
[Page: S3369]
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I have listened to the debate not just today but the debate on this for the past year. I remember so well the incident, when my fellow Senator from Oklahoma, Senator Nickles, and I were in Oklahoma City right after it happened for the days following that, talking to families and the ones who actually had their own loved ones that were still in the building, not knowing whether they were alive or dead.
It is very difficult to get the full emotional impact watching TV of some remote place like Oklahoma from outside. When you are there, you feel differently about it. This is why Senator Nickles and I have such strong feelings about this bill.
There is some opposition in this bill even in the State of Oklahoma by many people who felt that perhaps the wiretapping provisions went a little bit too far, the invasion of civil rights and privacy, perhaps was a little too strong. Many of my conservative friends did not want me to support it.
I was very pleased when the conference came out with its report. I believe the bill we have today is better than the House bill was. It is better than the Senate bill that we sent to them. I feel much stronger about it now and much more supportive than I did before. I think Senator Nickles has covered most of the things that people in Oklahoma are concerned with. I can just tell you it is not a laughing matter that these people do want an opportunity. These are not wealthy people. They feel they should participate, at least be able to view the trial taking place. That is something that is in this bill. It will allow them to do it. Many of them could not sustain the hardship of making a trip to Denver.
There are a lot of things in here that I think are better than they were when we sent it over. The one area I want to concentrate on and just emphasize again is the habeas reform. My concern, and in fact, I can tell you, if that had been taken out I probably would have opposed the bill. Two months after the tragedy, the bombing tragedy in Oklahoma City, we had the families of the victims up here, in Washington, DC. I personally took them to many Senators' offices. They expressed to them that of all the provisions that would come out in an antiterrorism bill, the one that was the most significant to them was the habeas reform.
It happened to coincide with something that Senator Nickles and I are very familiar with, a murder that had taken place 20 years ago, by a man named Roger Dale Stafford. Roger Dale Stafford murdered nine Oklahomans in cold blood. He sat on death row for 20 years. We just finally carried out that execution. These families are looking and saying, `Here is a guy that sat on death row. He gained over 100 pounds, so the food was not too bad. He was in an air-conditioned cell and watched color TV.' They are thinking about what happened to their own members of their family. I look at it behind that. If you get someone with a terrorist mentality, and particularly, someone, perhaps, from the Middle East who has a different value on life than we do, if he is looking at the down side and saying, should I do this act, should I perform this act, and the worst thing that can happen to me is that I will sit in an air-conditioned cell and watch color TV for 15 years, punishment ceases to be a deterrent to crime.
So I think that is a very significant provision that has to be saved. I think any chance on sending this back might jeopardize the chances of having that type of reform. Again, that was the one thing that was in this bill that the families of the victims in Oklahoma said we really have to have; that is the one thing that has to be in there that is going to give us any relief at all. Once the person is apprehended and the trials and sentence are over, and if it is an execution, they want to go ahead and go through with it and not have the perpetrator of the crime that murdered their families sitting on death row for most of their lifetimes.
So I think this is a very good bill. I will just repeat an emotional appeal from the victims and families of the victims in Oklahoma. Let us get this passed and let us get it passed before April 19, on Friday. It is very, very important for us, and I hope we move along on this. We have been considering this for quite a period of time. We started right after the bombing. So we have had adequate time to be deliberative--as deliberative as this body is famous for being. I think it is time to go ahead and pass it.
I yield the floor.
[Page: S3369]
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I have listened to the debate not just today but the debate on this for the past year. I remember so well the incident, when my fellow Senator from Oklahoma, Senator Nickles, and I were in Oklahoma City right after it happened for the days following that, talking to families and the ones who actually had their own loved ones that were still in the building, not knowing whether they were alive or dead.
It is very difficult to get the full emotional impact watching TV of some remote place like Oklahoma from outside. When you are there, you feel differently about it. This is why Senator Nickles and I have such strong feelings about this bill.
There is some opposition in this bill even in the State of Oklahoma by many people who felt that perhaps the wiretapping provisions went a little bit too far, the invasion of civil rights and privacy, perhaps was a little too strong. Many of my conservative friends did not want me to support it.
I was very pleased when the conference came out with its report. I believe the bill we have today is better than the House bill was. It is better than the Senate bill that we sent to them. I feel much stronger about it now and much more supportive than I did before. I think Senator Nickles has covered most of the things that people in Oklahoma are concerned with. I can just tell you it is not a laughing matter that these people do want an opportunity. These are not wealthy people. They feel they should participate, at least be able to view the trial taking place. That is something that is in this bill. It will allow them to do it. Many of them could not sustain the hardship of making a trip to Denver.
There are a lot of things in here that I think are better than they were when we sent it over. The one area I want to concentrate on and just emphasize again is the habeas reform. My concern, and in fact, I can tell you, if that had been taken out I probably would have opposed the bill. Two months after the tragedy, the bombing tragedy in Oklahoma City, we had the families of the victims up here, in Washington, DC. I personally took them to many Senators' offices. They expressed to them that of all the provisions that would come out in an antiterrorism bill, the one that was the most significant to them was the habeas reform.
It happened to coincide with something that Senator Nickles and I are very familiar with, a murder that had taken place 20 years ago, by a man named Roger Dale Stafford. Roger Dale Stafford murdered nine Oklahomans in cold blood. He sat on death row for 20 years. We just finally carried out that execution. These families are looking and saying, `Here is a guy that sat on death row. He gained over 100 pounds, so the food was not too bad. He was in an air-conditioned cell and watched color TV.' They are thinking about what happened to their own members of their family. I look at it behind that. If you get someone with a terrorist mentality, and particularly, someone, perhaps, from the Middle East who has a different value on life than we do, if he is looking at the down side and saying, should I do this act, should I perform this act, and the worst thing that can happen to me is that I will sit in an air-conditioned cell and watch color TV for 15 years, punishment ceases to be a deterrent to crime.
So I think that is a very significant provision that has to be saved. I think any chance on sending this back might jeopardize the chances of having that type of reform. Again, that was the one thing that was in this bill that the families of the victims in Oklahoma said we really have to have; that is the one thing that has to be in there that is going to give us any relief at all. Once the person is apprehended and the trials and sentence are over, and if it is an execution, they want to go ahead and go through with it and not have the perpetrator of the crime that murdered their families sitting on death row for most of their lifetimes.
So I think this is a very good bill. I will just repeat an emotional appeal from the victims and families of the victims in Oklahoma. Let us get this passed and let us get it passed before April 19, on Friday. It is very, very important for us, and I hope we move along on this. We have been considering this for quite a period of time. We started right after the bombing. So we have had adequate time to be deliberative--as deliberative as this body is famous for being. I think it is time to go ahead and pass it.
I yield the floor.