Ruling Upsets Foes, Pleases Law Officials

Opponents of capital punishment were distressed but law enforcement officials welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision today upholding death penalty laws even when there is evidence of racial bias.

“The court is saying there may be racial discrimination in choosing who lives and who dies but it doesn’t care,” Seth Waxman, a lawyer for the Congressional Black Caucus, said of the ruling.

“For the moment, it will be an end to the constitutional claim that race is an impermissibly significant element in death-penalty decision-making,” said Henry Schwarzchild, director of the capital punishment project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“But it is not the end of the fight,” Schwarzchild added.

‘Very, Very Good News’

Mark Rotert, head of criminal appeals for the Illinois attorney general’s office, called the decision “very, very good news.”

“It was one of (the death penalty opponents’) last, best chances to get a broad-based attack on death penalty litigation nationwide,” Rotert said.

“They have lost a significant battle in the sense that we don’t know of any broad-based attack on the death penalty still out there.”

Schwarzchild said the next significant case is likely to be whether states may sentence minors to death.

Hopes Pegged on Appeal

“It’s frightening,” said David Whitmore, legal director for the New Orleans chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “We have a lot backed up on Death Row. . . . I don’t know what we can do.”

Nearly a dozen of the 47 inmates on Louisiana’s death row had pegged their hope for survival on the case, Whitmore said.

Judy Menadue, legal counsel for the Louisiana Capital Defense Project, called the decision “a major setback for civil liberties in this country.”

“It seems the court is saying there is racial discrimination concerning capital punishment, but that’s not a constitutional violation,” she said.

May Clear Way for Execution

Assistant Utah Atty. Gen. Earl Dorius said the ruling may clear the way for the execution of the “Hi Fi Killers.” William Andrews and Dale Selby, both black, were condemned to death for the torture-murders of three white people at the Hi Fi Shop in Ogden in 1974.