Expanded Death Penalty Weighed for Drug Crimes

Senior Cabinet officials, trying to bolster the Bush Administration’s anti-drug crusade, are weighing recommendations to the President that would seek expansion of the death penalty in certain drug-related crimes, Administration officials said Tuesday.

Although the wider use of capital punishment has met with general acceptance among the Cabinet officials and their senior deputies, they have been unable to reach agreement on whether to give the U.S. Customs Service a greater role in enforcing drug laws, one official said.

Both issues were discussed Tuesday at a White House meeting of the Domestic Policy Council, made up of Cabinet members and other senior Administration officials responsible for the Administration’s handling of domestic issues.

The council is trying to prepare final recommendations to present to Bush later this week. If the proposals are accepted, they would be made public at the end of January, when national drug czar William J. Bennett announces the second phase of the Administration’s anti-drug strategy.

Under current law, a direct link between a drug trafficker and a specific death, such as the slaying of a police officer by a drug dealer, must be established before the death penalty may be invoked, officials said.

Under the recommendation being prepared for Bush, a less direct link could result in the death penalty. For example, it could be applied to someone responsible for importing a shipment of heroin that caused a significant number of deaths, even though the importer might have had no direct hand in the fatalities, they said.

“This makes the death penalty broader for those who bring in drugs that result in death,” said an Administration official familiar with the proposal.

The dispute over the appropriate drug enforcement role of Customs Service agents, who are responsible for keeping contraband items out of the United States, has been waged for more than 15 years.

Despite a late-night negotiating session Monday and more meetings Tuesday between Deputy Treasury Secretary John Robson and Deputy Atty. Gen. Donald Ayers, senior Treasury and Justice Department officials remained at odds over the issue.

The two sides disagree on whether customs agents should be given the power to make arrests under drug laws or whether they should continue to be limited to enforcing less-stringent anti-smuggling statutes.

“I still expect there will be a consensus formed on it,” said a senior Administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Another meeting was scheduled for today among lower-level officials--”the working stiffs,” another Administration official said--to resolve the conflict.

The participants are working on a tight schedule. They were expected to make their recommendations to Bush by Thursday, a deadline that White House officials said would be met.

If accepted by the President, the recommendations would be made public by Bennett on Jan. 29 as part of the presentation of the Administration’s proposed 1991 federal budget.

In the first phase of the President’s anti-drug strategy, outlined by Bush in a Sept. 5 television address, the Administration called for a 39% increase in spending for anti-drug programs.

Bush proposed spending more on prisons, jails, courts and prosecutors; expanding the use of the U.S. military in intercepting drugs before they reach the United States; increasing federal assistance for drug treatment programs, and expanding anti-drug education.

The death penalty, as applied to major drug cases, is part of a law enacted in the heat of the 1988 presidential campaign. Throughout the race, Bush had campaigned in favor of the death penalty for what he called “drug kingpins.”

If Bush accepts the recommendation, as is considered almost certain, the proposed expansion of the death penalty is likely to face some opposition in Congress.

However, proponents of wider use of capital punishment appear to have a good chance of prevailing.

Staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story.