Sweeping Anti-Crime Bill Approved by Senate, 71-26 : Congress: Package would broaden federal death penalty and curb Death Row appeals. It would also impose new controls on handguns.

With a show of muscle on a hot political issue, the Senate voted 71 to 26 Thursday night for a sweeping anti-crime bill that would significantly broaden the federal death penalty and drastically curb Death Row appeals in line with proposals by President Bush.

The omnibus measure also contains Democratic initiatives that would impose new gun controls, boost spending for police, prosecutors and prisons by $3.3 billion and create a “police corps” of college students committed to serve as police officers in exchange for free schooling.

In addition, the bill would sharply increase penalties for many federal offenses--in part the result of a raucous contest between Republicans and Democrats to be identified as the tougher party on crime in next year’s elections.

The only major Bush proposal rejected by the Senate would have loosened the rule against use of illegally obtained evidence in criminal trials.

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, noting that the President got most of what he wanted out of the bill, commended the Senate for its “strong commitment to the war against crime” and said “we look forward to the same support in the House.”

Bush, who scored points on the crime issue in his 1988 campaign for President, suggested at a news conference July 1 that he was favorably disposed toward the Senate measure, saying “there are many good things in it.” But he noted that the House has yet to weigh in with its version.

With a recent Los Angeles Times poll showing crime and drugs near the top of voter concerns, the Senate bill stresses crackdowns against violence and drug use far more than rehabilitation of offenders.

“This measure will take significant steps to ensure that our criminal justice system is tougher on criminals than on the law-abiding,” Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) said approvingly.

On the other hand, Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.) complained after the Senate refused to require literacy programs in state and local lockups: “Everybody is afraid to be classified as a bleeding heart if they try to deal with the root cause of crime instead of dealing with the branches of it.”

In three weeks of debate, senators constantly referred to people being gunned down on the streets and incidents of random violence, including one that occurred near the Capitol shortly before final action on the bill. A mother driving with her three children was caught in a cross-fire between rival drug gangs and killed by a stray bullet from an “assault weapon.”

But the lawmakers disagreed over how effectively Bush’s key proposals--broadening the federal death penalty and limiting federal appeals by Death Row inmates--would reduce crime, most of which is fought at the state and local level.

Proponents such as Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) argued that the proposals “would do an awful lot to put a big dent into criminal activity in our society.” Thurmond said that curbing “frivolous appeals” would “speed up the imposition of executions so that potential murderers will actually be deterred.”

Critics contended that the President’s proposals would have little impact. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said the federal death penalty would have produced only six executions amid 23,000 murders last year.

Biden claimed that Democratic provisions authorizing billions for 13,000 new federal, state and local law enforcement officials, 10 regional prisons and 10 military-style boot camps for drug offenders would be more effective remedies. But Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) predicted that little of the money would ever be appropriated in the current budget crunch.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) voted for the Senate bill. But Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), who supported a similar measure that died last year, joined eight other liberals in voting against this year’s version.

“We cannot build our way out of crime with more prisons, nor can we kill our way to a more peaceful society,” Cranston said.

Seventeen conservatives also opposed the bill, protesting that it would impose a five-day waiting period on handgun purchases, subject all firearms buyers to an eventual system of instant background checks and ban nine types of semiautomatic assault weapons.

“This is not a crime bill, it is a gun control bill,” the National Rifle Assn. said in promoting a short-lived filibuster of the measure.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that the death penalty was unconstitutional unless accompanied by procedural safeguards, including a separate sentencing trial.

Currently, only one federal offense--murder by a drug “kingpin”--qualifies for the death penalty, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Senate bill would reinstate capital punishment for 23 federal offenses--including assassination of the President, treason and espionage--and extend it to 28 new ones, including any murder with a firearm that cross state lines.

The Senate also adopted Bush’s proposal to limit condemned prisoners’ habeas-corpus appeals, after scuttling a Democratic alternative with lesser restrictions.

The bill calls for a slew of increased penalties, including a minimum 10 years imprisonment for using a gun in a felony and 20 years if the gun is discharged.