Rehnquist Speaks Out on Death Row Appeals : Executions: The chief justice lobbies for a tough GOP bill. He also launches an attack on Biden’s measure.

In an unusual public lobbying effort, the chief justice of the United States called on Congress Tuesday to back Republican-sponsored limits on death penalty appeals, while denouncing a Democratic alternative as likely to lengthen delays in state executions.

The Senate is set to begin debate next week on a package of anti-crime proposals, including changes in how death penalty appeals are handled in the federal courts.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, in a speech to a prominent lawyers group here, said the current system for handling death penalty appeals “verges on the chaotic” and “cries out for reform.”

But the Democratic measure, sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), “would actually exacerbate the delays and repetitiousness of the present system,” Rehnquist said.

The chief justice’s comments are unusual because members of the Supreme Court typically avoid speaking out on highly political or emotional issues, generally preferring to limit their public remarks to more mundane matters of court administration.

Rehnquist urged support for a bill sponsored by Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) that would give Death Row inmates a one-time, six-month chance to appeal their cases in the federal courts. Thurmond’s bill is based in turn on a proposal that originated with Rehnquist and former Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.

For years, Rehnquist has railed against the frequent delays and protracted litigation in death penalty cases. On average, it takes eight years from the time a prisoner is sentenced to death until an execution takes place.

The case of San Diego murderer Robert Alton Harris illustrates the issue. In 1981, the California Supreme Court upheld Harris’ death sentence for the murders of two teen-agers in July, 1978. Since then, his case has been under appeal in various federal courts. On five occasions, the Supreme Court has rejected Harris’ appeals, but each time he has won new hearings in lower federal courts.

While Rehnquist sees the problem as one of excessive litigation, some Democrats say they fear that speeding up the system could result in wrongful executions.

Biden’s proposal, introduced to counter the Rehnquist-Thurmond bill, sets a new time limit on the right to appeal but would give Death Row inmates a second chance to have their cases reviewed. Three avenues would be available. An inmate could get a new hearing before a federal judge if he could show a possible “miscarriage of justice” in his case, if his lawyer erred at the trial or if a new Supreme Court ruling could aid his defense.

Biden has said the second-appeal provision would help to assure fairness.

Rehnquist disagreed. “All of the pending Senate bills on this matter are clothed in the garb of ‘reform’ but, unfortunately, not all of them are designed to achieve the sort of reform which the system badly needs,” he told the American Law Institute.

The Thurmond proposal would bring order, efficiency and fairness to the handling of death penalty appeals, he said.

“By contrast, the (Biden proposal) would make it easier for a prisoner to raise claims for the first time years after trial, thus exacerbating the problem of piecemeal litigation and delay that characterize the present system,” the chief justice said.

Warren E. Burger, Rehnquist’s predecessor, spoke often on legal and administrative matters, but generally avoided comment on controversial public issues.

In his first years as chief justice, Rehnquist confined his public comments to such issues as support for higher pay for federal judges. But in 1988, he undertook an effort to rewrite federal law on capital punishment appeals.

Rehnquist appointed Powell and several other judges to draw up a proposal for reforming the appeal system. When the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making body of the court system, refused last year to give initial approval to Powell’s report, Rehnquist sent it to Congress on his own initiative.