Criminal defense lawyers lobbied long and hard against Gingrich's bill, with success. We used to think of it as the "Korematsu, McCarthy, and Star Chamber Renewal Act."
The details of the bill, which I reported on continuously at the time and described as "A Republican Nightmare" in an effort to defeat it, are here. Once the Second Amendment groups joined the fight against the bill, opposed to its proposal to add a good faith exception for warrantless searches, it was pretty much dead in the water. By the end of 1995, here's how the scorecard turned out:
[T]hings could have been much worse. The House managed to pass five new crime bills: providing for mandatory restitution to crime victims; further limiting the exclusionary rule to allow a "good-faith" exception for warrantless search and seizures; limiting death penalty appeals; increasing penalties for child pornography; and providing "block grants" for community police officers. The Senate has passed only three of the bills: one increasing penalties for child pornography; one regarding the block grants for police officers; and, on December 22, a version of the House bill requiring mandatory victim restitution (but, under the Senate's amendment, a federal judge may forego issuing a victim restitution order in "extraordinary circumstances").
.....This brings the total number of 1995 fully enacted criminal justice bills contained in the Taking Back Our Streets Act (House) and S. 3 (Senate) to a grand total of one (increasing child pornography penalties). Furthermore, the House failed to even raise two of its TBOSA proposals: the repeal of the Assault Weapons Ban that was contained in the 1994 Crime Act; and the mass federalization of, and creation of new mandatory minimum sentences for, state street crimes involving guns.
Newt also advocated for a mandatory death penalty for drug offenders who brought drugs into the U.S. He thought mass executions would be a good deterrent. The New York Times reported in 1995:
Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Friday that he would ask Congress to enact legislation imposing the death penalty on drug smugglers, and he suggested that mass executions of people convicted under such a law might prove an effective deterrent.
..."The first time we execute 27 or 30 or 35 people at one time, and they go around Colombia and France and Thailand and Mexico, and they say, 'Hi, would you like to carry some drugs into the U.S.?' the price of carrying drugs will have gone up dramatically."
...Mr. Gingrich said his proposal, which he said he would make in a bill to be filed next month, would impose a mandatory death penalty on people convicted of bringing illegal drugs into the United States.
He's as bad as Joko Widodo of Indonesia, who has been green-lighting the mass executions of foreign drug traffickers caught in Bali and elsehwhere in the country.
What was his excuse for such a position: "I have made the decision that I love our children enough that we will kill you if you do this."
And, it wasn't just talk. He followed through:
He went on to introduce H.R. 4170 (Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996) to the House of Representatives, which sought to “provide a sentence of death for certain importations of significant quantities of controlled substances”.
Section 2: Increased Penalties For International Drug Trafficking
As I wrote at the time:
What a stupid idea. No country in Central or South America, with the possible exception of Guatemala or Belize, including Mexico, would honor our request for extradition if we didn't take the death penalty off the table. The U.S. was the only country in either North or South America to carry out an execution in 2010. He was really offering the biggest importers, who never personally set foot in the U.S. unless they get extradited, a free pass.
He also changes his mind on issues with the wind. In the early 80's he was a very strong proponent of medical marijuana. Then, in 1996, he did an about-face.
See, when I smoked pot it was illegal, but not immoral. Now, it is illegal AND immoral. The law didn't change, only the morality… That's why you get to go to jail and I don't.” August 8, 1996, Wall Street Journal
Newt Gingrich offered to run for President for 16 years. No one in his party took him up on it. Leopards don't change their spots. Whoever is advising Donald Trump needs to work harder and find a better choice. And I haven't even gotten to the skeletons in Newt's closet.
