Edition: U.S. / Global  State Bar Calls for a Halt To Capital
Punishment  Published: April 1, 2001  The New York State Bar
Association called today for a moratorium on capital punishment
until concerns about the conviction of innocent people and
racial disparities in the use of the death penalty are
addressed.  The group's House of Delegates, meeting here, also
endorsed giving judges wide discretion to allow cameras into
their courtrooms, a reversal of its previous position that
cameras should be allowed only when all sides in a case agree to
it.  The call for a death penalty moratorium, approved on an
overwhelming voice vote, marks the strongest statement the Bar
Association has made on the administration of the penalty. The
group has never taken a position on capital punishment.  ''Why
would we be hesitant to speak out where people's lives are at
stake?'' asked Vincent Doyle, chairman of the association's
criminal justice section.  But the debate exposed a deep rift
between the majority and a group who fear