At a congressional hearing in which FBI
director Louis Freeh was grilled over the agency's bungling of the
Timothy McVeigh case, Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D, RI) demanded
to know Freeh's position on capital punishment. Kennedy then asked,
"What is your answer to the fact that... minorities and poor people
have a greater likelihood of being put to death than they have of
getting cancer from smoking?"
When asked for a specific reference for this claim, Kennedy's office
directed reporters to Richard Dieter, author of
The Death Penalty in Black & White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides.
Dieter's actual claim is that "Race is more likely to affect death
sentencing than smoking affects the likelihood of dying from heart
disease."
"He kind of paraphrased it," explained Kennedy spokesman Larry
Berman.
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