Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) was enacted in response to the increasing domestic threat of terrorism following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. This legislation aimed to enhance national security by empowering the federal government to deny visas to individuals linked to terrorist organizations and to expedite the deportation of legal residents identified as such. The AEDPA introduced measures to designate foreign terrorist organizations, enabling the seizure of their assets and restricting fundraising efforts within the U.S. Additionally, it prohibited support to nations that assist terrorist groups and allowed U.S. citizens to pursue legal action against foreign nations for terrorism-related incidents.
In terms of capital punishment, the AEDPA sought to streamline the appeal process for state inmates on death row, thereby addressing concerns about the prolonged duration of legal proceedings. It mandated that inmates exhaust all state-level appeals before turning to federal courts and limited the timeframe for filing federal petitions. Furthermore, to prevent repetitive lawsuits, the law required any subsequent federal petitions to undergo merit review by a panel of judges. Overall, the AEDPA represents a significant shift in both counterterrorism policy and the legal landscape surrounding capital punishment in the United States.
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act
The Law: Federal law expanding federal law-enforcement powers to counter terrorism and restrict appeals for those convicted of capital crimes
Date: Signed into law on April 24, 1996
Significance: The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act granted the federal government new powers in fighting terrorism and significantly restricted post-conviction appeals brought by death-row inmates in federal court.
Following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the federal government was under increasing pressure to respond to terrorism taking place on American soil. At the same time, condemned inmates who filed habeas corpus petitions to have their convictions reviewed were extending their time on death row by years, at cost to taxpayers. The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) was a response to these two situations.
The new law empowered the federal government to deny visas to people identified as belonging to terrorist groups and to deport legal resident aliens by expanding the definition of crimes that result in deportation and by eliminating judicial review of deportation orders. An important provision of the law is the authority of the federal government to designate a group as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), allowing the group’s assets to be seized and limiting their fund-raising ability in the United States. Also, the law banned the provision of support to countries that aid terrorist groups, granted Americans the ability to sue foreign countries in federal court for terrorism aimed at Americans abroad, and declared acts of participation in terrorism in the United States to be federal crimes.
The AEDPA was also designed to limit federal habeas corpus petitions filed by state inmates convicted of capital crimes, in an effort to prevent frivolous lawsuits. It accomplished this by requiring all inmates to exhaust their state-level appeals before filing a petition in federal court and limited the time inmates had to file a federal petition to one year after exhausting their state appeals. Also, federal petitions were effectively limited to one by requiring any successive petitions be reviewed for merit by a panel of three federal judges before being considered.
Bibliography
Chang, Nancy. Silencing Political Dissent. New York: Seven Stories, 2002. Print.
Dempsey, James X., and David Cole. Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security. 3rd ed. New York: New Press, 2006. Print.
Gerken, Christina. Model Immigrants and Undesirable Aliens: The Cost of Immigration Reform in the 1990s. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2013. Print.
Latzer, Barry. Death Penalty Cases. 3rd ed. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2012. Print.