Clinton Backs Pre-Execution DNA Testing

President Clinton said Wednesday that he is “quite favorably disposed” toward a new proposal to grant all death row inmates a chance to prove their innocence by using DNA testing.

At his first formal press conference of the year, Clinton, a death penalty supporter, praised as “courageous” the recent decision by Republican Gov. George Ryan to suspend executions in Illinois after several high-profile cases in which convicted murderers awaiting execution were exonerated.

Clinton said that no such moratorium is needed in the federal prison system, where 27 prisoners, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh, are on death row.

The president also said that he likes legislation introduced Friday by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), that would provide access to DNA testing for federal and state convicts. It also would establish stricter standards of quality for court-appointed lawyers representing defendants in capital cases and encourage states to allow juries to be presented with the alternative of recommending a life sentence without parole.

“I’m quite favorably disposed toward it,” he said. “But I just learned about it in the last couple of days and I’ve asked our people to review it.”

Clinton said that the Justice Department is also conducting a study to determine whether the death penalty is disproportionately applied to blacks, and is developing guidelines for clemency petitions.

“The people who support the death penalty, it seems to me, have an especially heavy obligation to see that, in cases where it is applied, there is no question of whether the guilt was there,” Clinton said.

The president’s comments come amid growing calls for a reevaluation of how the justice system’s ultimate punishment is administered. According to Leahy, for every seven convicted murderers executed, one inmate is released from death row.

In California, where Gov. Gray Davis is a death penalty backer, John Burton (D-San Francisco), president pro tem of the state Senate, has introduced a bill to provide DNA tests for death row prisoners.

In a wide-ranging session that lasted an hour, Clinton also talked about gun control, heating-oil prices, character attacks against him on the presidential campaign trail, the crises in Kashmir and Northern Ireland and China’s trade status:

* On gun control, Clinton indicated that he is willing to compromise to move legislation through Congress this year.

The Senate favors a 72-hour waiting period for purchases at largely unregulated gun shows, while the House is on record for a 24-hour waiting period. Gun control supporters say that 24 hours is not enough time for background checks.

“This is not theology,” said Clinton. “There’s got to be some way to deal with this that allows us to have a practical law that works.”

* On the subject of heating oil, Clinton announced additional federal aid for Northeast states hit hard by a spike in prices.

The president said that $125 million would be released from a program that helps low income people pay for home heating oil. Most of the aid goes to Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. The administration will seek an additional $600 million in emergency funding for the program.

On a related subject, the president said that he is leaving open the option of selling oil from the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to counteract the increase in energy prices brought on by a reduction in production mandated by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“I have not ruled out any action which I think is in the interest of the American people,” he said.

* Clinton said he is not surprised that his sexual misconduct in the Monica S. Lewinsky affair remains an issue in the 2000 campaign.

“For the Republicans, it’s probably good politics . . . because they spent years trying to tell people how bad I am,” Clinton said.

“If I were running, I’d do that,” he added jokingly.

He said that he does not think voters would cast ballots against candidates such as Vice President Al Gore or First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is running for the Senate in New York, because of his conduct.

“The implications that anybody would be held responsible for somebody else’s mistake or misconduct is just . . . a real insult to the American people. . . . It’s not in their interest and it’s not in their nature.”

The president refused to say whether he would surrender his license to practice law or contest legal sanctions that might be imposed against him by the Arkansas Supreme Court.

In the wake of a finding by U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright that Clinton was in contempt for giving false and misleading testimony in the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against him, an ethics panel of the state court has given Clinton until next month to respond if he wants to avoid sanctions.

* On Kashmir, the president asserted that the United States would be willing to broker a peace deal between India and Pakistan, if asked.

He called the danger of potential armed conflict over Kashmir between India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers, “one of the most significant security threats to the interests of the United States in this new century.”

“Absolutely, I would” help broker peace, he said with enthusiasm. “If the tensions between India and Pakistan could be resolved, it is my opinion . . . that the Indian subcontinent might very well be the great success story of the next 50 years.”

Clinton plans to visit India next month--the first president in more than 20 years to do so--and damping political tensions between the nuclear neighbors is certain to rank high on his agenda.

Any mediating role for him over Kashmir, however, would appear highly unlikely. Although Pakistan has said that it is open to international mediation, India has long contended that the fate of Kashmir is strictly a bilateral issue. Its current government has made it clear that it considers outside offers of mediation unhelpful.

The two nations have held parts of Kashmir since their independence from Britain in 1947 and both claim all of it.

Clinton said that he still is undecided whether to make a brief stop during his South Asia trip in Pakistan, a country whose civilian leadership was toppled in a military coup in October.

* On Northern Ireland, the president remained upbeat about prospects for a lasting peace, despite recent setbacks.

After the IRA balked at disarming, the British government last weekend suspended an elaborately erected local government framework for the province in which rival Protestant and Roman Catholic groups shared power.

“They’re in a rough spot . . . [but] I still think there’s a good chance we’ll get there,” he said of chances for completing a permanent peace agreement. He cited as signs of hope strong public support for the peace process and the absence of Irish Republican Army threats to resume its campaign of violence.

Possibly more than any other single international issue, Clinton has been intensely involved in the search for peace in Northern Ireland. Until the recent setback, the success of that highly personal but often behind-the-scenes diplomacy had been viewed as one of his principal foreign policy successes.

* Clinton pleaded for an early congressional vote to grant China permanent normal trade relations, arguing that exposure to the forces of free trade inherent in such a vote and entry into the World Trade Organization would do more to change China from within than all previous economic openings over the last 20 years.

A coalition that includes many Democrats opposes China’s WTO entry, in part fearing loss of American jobs.

Times staff writer Robert L. Jackson contributed to this story.