thursday, april24,1980
page 2
daily nebraskan
Pit
Continued from Page 1
A continuing criticism of the program has echoed
Rayburn's comments. Critics say defendants are being
subjected to the expense and emotional duress of a trial
or the threat of a trial for educational purposes. Even ii
charges are dropped or the person is found not guilty, thai
person has still gone through needless emotional trauma
they say.
If this were the case, there could be a violation of the
lawyer's Professional Code of Ethics. Alison Larson, a
senior law student who objected to the clinic, said she felt
the code's section on prosecutorial ethics prohibited the
type of prosecution that some say is going on.
Larson said she felt the possible violation of the code
was, inherent in the type of clinic the law school was
running and not necessarily particular to Pokorny or the
students involved in the program.
Educational purposes
Peter Hoffman, director of the clinical programs, said
he knows of no decisions to file charges solely for
educational purposes.
"First and foremost, students must obey the code,"
he said. "Some people get caught up on ideology and lose
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o o o
sight of the fact we're trying to set up an educational
program. I think it (the program) does the job quite well.
County Judge Robert Camp said the mechanics of how
the clinic was set up were working against the clinic s
success
One problem, he said, is that one attorney supervises
all the students, which doesn't leave Pokorny much time
to help individuals.
The other, more serious, problem is what Camp called
Pokorny's lack of previous prosecution experience.
"Pokorny is not a criminal prosecution attorney and is
not cognizant to the type of evidence needed to try a
case," Camp said. 'That puts the students at a decided
disadvantage against experienced attorneys.
Camp presided at the five jury trials resulting from the
clinic last semester. The students lost all five and Camp
attributed those losses not to the students conduct or
lack of preparation, but to a simple lack of experience on
both their and their instructor's part.
Lack experience
"They were completely at a loss, not having an experi
enced person to examine and cross-examine the
witnesses," he said.
Strong said he was aware of the potential disadvantages
of having a prosecution program, including the criticisms
and observations made by the county officials yet he was
surprised when informed of the Daily Nebraskan's
findings.
We knew there might be a potential disadvantageous
feature of undue and unmanageable load increase on the
public defender, but we didn't know how much it would
be," Strong said. We talked to Keefe about our concern
with the idea that we would t y it (the clinic) for two
years.
Strong said he was "conscious of a tendency to press
for trial where an ordinary prosecutor would not." Ifc
said, though, that there was a prosecutorial check at two
points.
The first check is in the initial referral of cases to the
program by the county "attorney's office, he said. The
second was in the monitoring done by the instructor, he
said.
When informed of the comments made by judges
Camp and Cheuvront, Strong said their comments, along
with complaints from the public defender office, indicate
the school should look into the merits of the program.
Strong said that when hiring an instructor for the
clinic their hope was to find a prosecutor for the job.
"We did look for prosecutors, he said.. '"Several people
on the county attorney's staff would have been good, but
they didn't want to do it."
The person hired had to be acceptable both to the law
college and to Ron Lahners, Lancaster County attorney,
Strong said, and needed the proper credentials for a
position on the law college faculty.
Continued on Page 3
Auntie Em, Toto, it's a twister . . .
By Betsy Miller
Although spring usually is associated with the begin
ning of pleasant weather, it also heralds the beginning of
the tornado season.
Since Nebraska is tornado-prone, UNL buildings and
residence halls have specific procedures to follow in case
of a tornado warning.
"We have analyzed all the major buildings on campus,
looking at structural characteristics and also historical
data on the damage tornadoes have caused," said Duane
Burham, chief engineer for the UNL Physical Plant.
From this information physical plant engineers have
appointed a safety area in each building to go to in case
of emergency, Burham said.
Yellow and black posters displaying the shelter site
are posted in several conspicuous places throughout the
buildings, Burham said.
The procedure for tornado warnings in residence halls
is a bit less complicated.
Janet Freer, Schramm residence hall director, said the
Ilarpcr-Schramm -Smith Complex operates on a system
involving each floor's student assistants, who alert
students ol tornado warnings.
If students hear civil defense sirens they are instructed
to take the stairs to the basement. Freer said.
'The building is made of stone and concrete, so there's
no way it could blow away," Freer said.
After they get to the basement, students are to stay
there until the sirens stop, she said.
"Students hear about it (the tornado plan) at the first
floor meeting and there are diagrams posted by the
elevators," Freer said.
Freer also indicated that residents of the Abel-Sandoz
Complex follow a plan similar to the one used by Harpcr
Schramm -Smith.
Doug Oblander, Selleck Quadrangle director, said
residents of that complex also go to the basement in case
of a tornado warning.
EAST CAMPUS - JUST SOUTH OF EAST UNION pU
MUSIC STARTS AT 12:30 P.M. WITH fjh
In case of foul weather, Cornstock will be I ySA 1
moved to the Sports Center, same time.
stati staff
Lloyd G. Tanner will be
the featured speaker on
"Aegyptopithecus: An Oli
gocene Link to Man", today
at noon in W540 Nebraska
Hall.
The UPC Culture Center
will meet at 3:30 at the
Culture Center.
The UNL Ad Club will
meet at 6:30 tonight at
the Lincoln Hilton.
. ECKANKAR will be pre
senting an open discussion
on Inner Awareness and
Growth of the Spiritual
Self, at 7:30 p jn. in the Ne
braska Union.
Student Y is having a
benefit tonight at Chester
field's from 8 pm. to mid
night. $1.00 at the door.
Featured guests are Rob
Hartung, the Blue Wave and
Leroy Critcher.
IfViiciB wui yuu 9mw9
wom TiiAcrfav? Ridhl
I' i rt.:i.. UahraJ
11 1 ICI B III uib isaii
Jskan. Our Every Tuesday
D.a u;tl cava voti
i mnnv an rwer unwin
uesday in the
tally JveDra5nu".
