Russell Feingold in Alito Confirmation Hearings

On Crime: Death penalty defendants often don't get adequate counsel

ALITO: We had to apply the standard of review that is set out in the habeas corpus statute as revised by Congress.

FEINGOLD: Would your approach have been any different as a Supreme Court justice?

ALITO: One of the attorneys was the head of a public defender's office. My evaluation of the facts of the case would be the same. But the Supreme Court's decision in that case is a precedent that I would have to deal with.

On Crime: Alito votes more pro-death penalty than most GOP judges

ALITO: I've only sat on a handful of capital cases, and in some of them I voted to uphold the death penalty and in a number of them I voted to strike down the death penalty.

FEINGOLD: What are your views on the potential of these three issues?the jury selection, the inadequate representation and an elected judiciary?to skew a capital prosecution against the defendant?

ALITO: I think the elected judges in Pennsylvania do a conscientious effort to carry out their responsibilities. Congress reformulated the standards in AEDPA, in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, limiting our review, and it is our obligation to conduct the kind of review that Congress has indicated we should be conducting.