Rep. Robert Scott (D-VA) questions Barry Sabin, chief of the Counterterrorism Section of the Department of Justice, on allowing the death penalty in pending cases for terrorists at a House hearing.

Referencing the Zaid Hassan Abd Latif Safarini case – a hijacker of Pan AM flight 73 in 1986 – the district court could not seek the death penalty because Congress had not made clear, in the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, if capital punishment should be applied to cases pre-1994. Because of this, the death penalty cannot currently be sought in many cases. Through an intense line of questioning, Scott is able to get Sabin to admit that, were the act passed, it would allow the DOJ to seek the death penalty in cases it could not before. (1:33)

 

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