Prosecutors study capital penalty roadblocks

Prosecutors from 23 of the 38 states with capital punishment laws wound up a three-day strategy session aimed at finding ways to remove legal roadblocks the NAACP, the Legal Defense Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, and other groups are throwing up to halt executions of prisoners on death row. They say the public is frustrated by long delays in the criminal justice system that have resulted in some convicts having execution delayed 7 to 12 years by legal maneuvers.

The prosecutors are setting up a nationwide computer data bank in Arizona early next year to provide up-to-date information to combat anti-capital punishment defenses.