DEATH PENALTY PROCESS SLAMMED

In a move aimed at affecting 3,000 prisoners presently awaiting execution, The House of Delegates of The American Bar Association--representing 370,000 members-- voted overwhelmingly to seek a moratorium on capital punishment. The proposal, denounced by the president of the Association, passed 280 to 119.

President N. Lee Cooper of Birmingham, Alabama, begged delegates to reject the proposal, claiming Association lawyers would be voting on the wisdom of the death penalty itself. Because the proposal critiques unfair practices associated with executions rather than attacking capital punishment head-on, Cooper accused the nearly two-thirds of the ABA membership of stirring up opposition to the death penalty indirectly.

"What you really have here is an up-or-down vote on the death penalty," Cooper chided, adding, "Folks, bring it in the front door. Don't come in the back door." Though Cooper is the current ABA president, 20 of the 24 former ABA presidents sided with those who believe current executions to be unfair. Opposition, except from Cooper, did not surface within the organization.

Outside the organization, however, opposition rose from such high places as the Clinton Administration and from certain officials in the Justice Department who stated that the proposal was "unwarranted." Deputy Attorney General, Jamie S. Gorelick, who addressed the ABA delegates made no mention of the controversial move, however.

The American Bar Association has previously taken no position favoring or opposing capital punishment. The ABA vote indicates, however, that many lawyers have grown tired of remaining silent on the issue and are poised for a more activist role. Following the vote, ABA lobbyists will fan out, pressing for awareness of what the Association lawyers see as the need for fair practices.

A legal scholar, James Coleman of Duke University stated the lawyers' case: "As lawyers, we think the system ought to be changed, done right and done fairly. Hopefully, this will get lawyers off the sidelines."

The ABA decision shows that observers of capital punishment, as now administered, denounce it. "It is significant that lawyers, those closest, say it's in shambles," said one lawyer. The proposal calls the death penalty "a haphazard maze of unfair practices."

According to those who favor the ABA proposal, Federal and state governments neglect to implement ABA policies assuring fair treatments to those awaiting execution. In most cases, they say, execution administrators go contrary to such fair treatments. The ABA demands competent counsel in capital cases, availability of Federal court reviews of state prosecutions, an end to racial discrimination in death sentencing, and no executions of the mentally incompetent or of teens under age 18.