mr. chairman , these amendments eliminate section 302 from the bill . 
section 302 is extremely problematic . 
first of all , it includes a death penalty that applies to unintentional deaths . 
that raises severe constitutional problems that you could be put to death for an unintentional act . 
we already have penalties for the death penalty for intentional acts . 
this would add unintentional acts . 
over 100 people have been totally exonerated or otherwise released from death row due to erroneous death penalties , and one study showed that 68 of death penalties were overturned as illegal . 
that does not include the ones where mistakes were made for which the error was so-called `` harmless. '' other studies have shown that death penalties have been discriminatory against minorities , either affecting the consideration , undue consideration of the race of the defendant or the race of the victim . 
we , a few years ago , passed the innocence protection act , which provides for effective counsel and case development to be well-funded , but we have not fully funded that innocence protection act , so until it is fully funded , we should not be passing more death penalties . 
in addition , section 302 includes mandatory minimums . 
let us see what these mandatory minimums are for . 
any felonious attack on someone under 18 years of age . 
that would include a schoolyard brawl which gets bad enough when they start throwing chairs at each other or something like that . 
if there is no injury in that situation , that is a 10-year mandatory minimum . 
if a dangerous weapon , whatever that means , is used , then you get 15 years , if there is no injury . 
now , if there is actually an injury , then the mandatory minimum for this brawl for teenagers fighting teenagers would be 20 years ; and if the crime of violence is a more serious offense , then 30 years mandatory minimum . 
starting with 10 years mandatory minimum for a schoolyard brawl , mr. chairman , is why these mandatory minimums make no sense . 
if the felony has been committed , maybe they should be sentenced to 10 years , maybe 20 years . 
this says no less than 10 years , even if there is no injury . 
i would hope , mr. chairman , as we consider mandatory minimums that we would look at this as being excessive . 
give the judge the discretion to apply a sentence that makes sense . 
but to have a mandatory minimum to apply in situations where no injury has occurred , no dangerous weapon was involved , 10 years mandatory minimum for teenagers having a fight , this just does not make any sense at all . 
if an injury actually occurs , it is actually 20 years mandatory minimum . 
i would hope we would eliminate the entire section 302 to eliminate those mandatory minimums . 
there are plenty of provisions throughout this bill and throughout the criminal code to deal with people who deserve this kind of time , but to have a mandatory minimum in cases where no injury occurred is clearly excessive to be applied in all cases without discretion , whether it makes any sense or not . 
we need to remove this section , and i hope that is what we do by adopting the amendment . 
