RESTRAINTS PUT ON DEATH-ROW APPEALS

In 1996, Congress finally moved to establish new limits on appeals by death-row inmates. Those appeals have long been nearly endless, and often frivolous, delaying the inevitable for 12 to 15 years and even longer. The Federal Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act enacted by Congress was designed to limit these repeated appeals to federal courts.

All this came to light in Missouri this month in the days leading up to the execution of convicted murderer Milton Griffin-El, who died last week for the 1986 murder of Jerome Redden in 1986. Along with his 19-year-old girlfriend, the 22-year-old Redden was beaten, bound and stabbed in the apartment above his family's dry-cleaning establishment. Griffin-El was convicted of first-degree murder in July 1987 in a trial in St. Louis Circuit Court. The jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of the death penalty, after which the judge exercised his discretion to impose the sentence.

Griffin-El's parents were in the state capitol week before last seeking to gain the approval of Gov. Mel Carnahan for a commutation of their son's sentence. To his credit, Carnahan allowed the sentence to be carried out.

This is a tough and unpleasant business, but certain realities must be faced. The American people overwhelmingly favor the death penalty. Its existence is explicitly acknowledged and approved in the U.S. Constitution and, for that matter, in the Bible. The endless federal appeals process that prevailed before the recent congressional reforms served effectively to thwart this aspect of American justice. Now that more brutal criminals are being executed in more and more states, and more prison cells are being built and filled, one notices that rates of violent crime are finally beginning to fall. Just a coincidence? We don't think so.