By Maria Glod
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 28, 2001; Page B01
Michael Graham said he paced in his prison cell for 14 years yearning for the
opportunity that came yesterday. Graham, a Roanoke roofer who spent those years on death row before he was
released last year, testified in favor of sweeping reforms intended to safeguard
against the execution of innocent people. The hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee focused on a provision of
the Innocence Protection Act that would impose mandatory standards for lawyers
appointed to capital cases and withhold federal prison funds from states that
fail to meet those guidelines. "During my 14 wasted years on death row, I always hoped that my nightmare
would count for something," Graham said. "That's why I'm here today." Graham, who was convicted and later exonerated in the 1986 slayings of an
elderly Louisiana couple, told lawmakers that his attorneys had little criminal
trial experience and that one was only months out of law school. Last December, after attorneys working for free took up his cause and proved
that key witnesses lied and prosecutors withheld evidence, the case was
dismissed. Graham walked out of prison without enough money to buy a bus ticket
back to Virginia. "Someone on trial for his life deserves a fair trial and a competent defense
attorney," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), committee chairman and the bill's
chief sponsor. "We're talking about the ultimate penalty that can be
imposed." The hearing comes at a time when debates are raging nationwide about the
fairness of the capital punishment system. More than 90 people in 22 states have
been released from death row since 1973 because of concerns they may have been
wrongly convicted. Four of those men came to Capitol Hill yesterday, including Earl Washington,
the only prisoner on Virginia's death row ever to be exonerated. Also present
was Kirk Bloodsworth, a Maryland waterman who in 1993 became the first person
nationwide freed from prison because of DNA testing. Bloodsworth spent nine
years in prison after being convicted of the 1984 rape and murder of a
9-year-old girl in Baltimore County. Illinois has halted executions, and several states, including Virginia and
Maryland, are studying the fairness of their processes. Virginia is among
several states that enacted limited reforms this year. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) pushed lawmakers to act quickly on a portion of
the act with broad bipartisan support that would give convicted felons greater
access to DNA testing. Then, he said, politicians and legal experts can debate
the issue of legal counsel on capital cases. "Let's remedy some of the injustices, and let's do it right away," Hatch
said. "We cannot waste another day in providing that kind of resource." But yesterday's hearing focused on attorney competence. Inmates facing the
death penalty have been represented by lawyers who were drunk or asleep during
trial or simply lacked the experience or resources to handle the complex and
time-consuming cases, according to the testimony. "People are getting the death penalty, not because they commit the worst
crimes, but because they are represented by lawyers who have no more business
trying a death penalty case than I would have trying an antitrust case," said
Stephen B. Bright, a criminal lawyer who is director of the Southern Center for
Human Rights. But Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr. testified that the current
system of appeals is designed to protect innocent defendants and that it works.
He said the changes would further delay justice for families who lose loved ones
to violent crimes. "It would lengthen and complicate an already Byzantine system . . . and harm
the real innocents in this process," Pryor said. "If your concern is to protect
the innocent from being executed, then you need not worry; it is not
occurring." The bill calls for a national commission of prosecutors, lawyers and judges
that would devise standards to ensure good legal services. It would shift the
authority to appoint defense lawyers in capital cases from state judges to an
independent authority. Proponents of the act said Graham and the other former death row inmates who
attended the hearing are proof that changes need to be made.