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The short explanation of this alert was:
Less than 18 months after the Senate passed rational and balanced federal juvenile justice legislation, two Senators have introduced a harsh, punitive new bill that would expand the use of the death penalty and create new, ill-defined crimes.

Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have introduced the Gang Prevention and Effective Deterrence Act of 2003 (S. 1735), a measure that includes dangerous provisions that would expand the use of the death penalty to additional crimes and create additional federal "gang" crimes that lack clear definition. 

Under this proposed legislation, people could be convicted and sentenced to death for ill-defined illegal "participation" in a "gang," which could be as few as three people.  The law’s loose definitions and expansion of the death penalty would increase the probability that people are wrongly convicted and possibly even executed. In addition, prosecutors, not judges, would have discretion to send juveniles into the adult correctional system, and experiment that's been tried with disastrous effects in California and Florida.

Stand up for sane juvenile justice measures; oppose the political pandering and fear-mongering of S. 1735.

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