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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 11, 1984)
Thursday, October 11, 1334 Pcgo 4 Dclly Ncbrcskan o H M " f! ?T1 T 1 r-J mm ill no ohn Joubcrt solemnly trud h ged to Death How Tuesday Ci and the state breathed a collective sih of relict Another convicted felon out of the state's hair. Out of the state's mind. An old question arises with Joubert's sentencing: Is the death penalty ju3t punishment for any crime, no matter how distasteful it is to the public, or how heinous the state judges it to be? There are many arguments for the death penalty. Most of them, however, are based on emotions and a misguided sense of justice. Revenge and homophobia seem to be the major bases for the Jou bert decision. The judges said they tried to see through the eyes of the vic tims as the judges made their decision. State law requires that judges balance aggravating fac tors against mitigating factors. Aggravating circumstances in this case are that the murder vic tims were ang:!ic-looking young boys, and that Joubert forced them to strip to their underwear before he stabbed them to death. Making a judgment by these factors is not fair. Our society is homophobic. The judges may have come to the same decision if the victims were grown women, but Joubert's choice of victims did not help. V . it- Basing a sentence on such evi dence as Joubert's sexual fanta sies when he was 6 years old and the age and sex of the victims is pure emotion. State law needs to be changed to take these emotional issues out of sentencing. The judges were outraged that some parents in the Delievue area restricted their. children's move ments because of Joubcrt. How could a death sentence help these people? The felon Is locked up in the State Peniten tiary. How could his execution make children any safer? I Why, to serve as a deterrent to any other child killers we have in society, that's how. No. There axe always people in our society crazy enough to kill, rape, steal and pollute. Overly string ent penalties only serve as revenge. Revenge is the only reason most want Jcutcrt dead. Joubcrt will bs under 24-ltcur watch now that he is cn B:ztl Eow. Gu&r&i will be watcl.L-j Joubert to make sure that he dci::it kill hlmcclf. The state wants Joubcrt dead, but the state has to do it. It just wouldn't bs the same if Joubert killed himself How can cur criminal justice system ever top this cycle of vio lence if it allows execution? It cant. The judges were also worried that Joubert showed no remorse for his crime. He killed once. He killed twice. He was not sorry for either murder. Therefore, if let loose upon society, he will kill again. In this light, the judges had to sentence Joubert to death. A life sentence would put Joubert up for parole in only a few years. The state needs an alternative to the death penalty and the life sentence. It needs an irreversible Ufa sentence. Such & scr.tcr.ee would be saved for felons who have no hope for rehabilitation end who show no remorse about their crime. Such felons would not be up for parole at any time. And society would not have the blood of another human being on its hands. Jeff Browne Daily Ne&fs&&&ifi &-ji!cr Editor Seooually res Will vwlentfilms sho esu bjsct to TVWW 'Sin' tos pornography problem Editor's Note: The fallowing passage contains gra phic, sexually explicit and violent language- ihst rzzy shock. It is net meant to offend. It is indexed to male & point. f If i James A, 'ussell "Trrr tt hile you're reading this, a masked, heavily armed 11 sadist has your mother bound, gagged and tied V V to her bed. She's screaming muffled screams through red cotton handkerchiefs soaked in her own blood. A steel-spike dog chain is wrapped tightly around her blood-covered neck. She is green from lack of oxygen. You cannot help her, no one can. The sadist strips your mother naked and lets out a maniacal laugh as he pulls down his pants. He takes a jagged mayonaise jar and slices the insides of her thighs. He slits her neck with a meat fork and watches her blood gurgle and spurt out of her severed arteries. She writ hes in pain, your mother, as she moans and jerks and flails her arms. And now your mother is limp, half-dead, sitting naked in a river of her own blood. But the sadist is only begin ning. He hasnt shot your mother through the brain with his nail gun yet, he hasnt stapled your mother's eyelids open with his staple gun yet, and, oh yes, he's just started up his chain saw. Disgusted? Shocked? Let's hope so. Your mother never should experience such a brutal attack. But thousands of women are attacked just like this everyday, often in front of millions of people cheering people, laughing people. They're attacked in violent, pornographic movies Lke The Texas Chain Saw If assacre, and The Tool Box Murders, and millions of Americans dont seem to give a damn. Would you give a damn if it was your mother? Would it be so funny if it happened to your gyrlTriend, to your sister, to your wife? You'd be a fool if you think you are not affected by this. " These movies subtly shape societal attitudes toward all women. The message is clear; women are no damn good, and are made to be dominated and controlled by men. It is an abomination to all civilized men and women that these trashy movies can be seen. I'd sooner let a teen-ager watch live, responsible sex, than this fantasy of sexually tinged sadistic violence. More than anything, I want to ban them all with a sweep of my hand. Ect tcrtia lies the problem. In a free society, we are cursed to taks the bsd with the good. The good is constitutionally protected free speech, and the free exercise of thoughts and expression. And it is very good. The bad is the flood of pcrnographjcaily violent movies and other matierals. And it is getting very bad. For the longest time, constitutional scholars have grappled with a very real problem: how to write a law that ste ps all this pornographic violence against women without sliding down the slippery slope and endanger ing other free speech rights. The problem is one of defini tion, censorship, where to draw the line and who will draw it. Do we ban all nudity? I dont think so. Half the nation's museums would be closed down by the vice squad. We dont need this kind of trouble. But we do need some thing. Most columnists I have re?d stop there. I cant. No longer can we afford to sit on our constitutional butts, throw up our hands and say there is nothing we can do about it. I dont buy it. There is something we can do, if we try hard enough. Think of your mother. My old constitutional law professors may find me wildly irresponsible and naive, but 111 take that risk in order to offer seme suggestions. We're worried about constitutional problems? Pass temporary laws that define the sexually violent film as a violation of women's rights under the equal protection clause of the Four teenth Amendment. Movies in question would be subject to judicial review. The law would run out every six months, like an extended parking meter. If it causes too many problems, we dont have to plug the meter again until and unless we get the problems worked out We pass temporary, stop-gap spending resolutions when the government runs out of money why not other temporary laws? We must never stop trying. This is an embarrassment to democratic countries. Why do we do this in our movies? If we did it to blacks, the NAACP would be frothing at the mouth; if we did it to Jews, the Jewish Defense League would fee shutting down the theaters; if we did it to animals, the ASPCA would bring a civil suit. But we're only doing it to women, and somehow, that's OK. It doesn't wash to say this is part of real life and therefore should be graphically depicted on the screen. Sure, it happens. So does barfing and diarrhea, but we dont put an underwater camera in the toilet bowL And who is watching all this sadistic violence the most? Teenagers, 1G- and 17-year-olds, whose ideas and values are still forming. Studies have shown that re peated exposure to pornographic violence desensitizes viewers to the ordeal of; say, an "ordinary" rape' victim. Heck, all she did was get hit in the face two or three times, and had a little unplanned afternoon delisht. vague to be enforceable, and nobody seems to give two hoots about violence. The result? Hie definition of mas culinity, for too many people, will continue 'to' be 'the' domination of Women." We must treat discrimination against women as seriously as violence against blacks,, Jews and animals. We must, however, still tread carefully. Total censor ship is unpalatable in America. Let me oiler you one more solution, and challenge you to come up with a better one. The motivation for making such movies, obviously, is money. Violent pornography is big business. Let's hit 'ern where they live in the wallet. We levy sin taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, let's do it on these movies. Here's how. The president appoints a . censorship board, NOT to tell them what they can make, but to determine what is artsy expression and what is danger ous pornographic violence. It would work like movie ratings. We then levy sin taxes on the highest level of sexually explicit violence. Not a little tax, mind you, a whopper. Eighty-five per cent. Take the profitability away and the problem will shrink, even if it doesnt disappear. If you get nothing out of this column, get mad. Get mad enough to complain. Get mad enough to care. If for no one else, for your mother. t7 ti Daily a wnat, no m gun shot through her head 1 2 times? What, no chain saw that severed her body parts? What, no spiice- wrested pnar.tcra of the opera who slices her head off and bathes in her blood? It's subliminal, folks, but it's there. The hard reality, though, is that obscenity lawsare too EDITOR GENERAL MANAGER PRODUCTION MANAGER ADVERTISING MANAGER ASSISTANT ADVERTISING MANAGER CiRCULATICH MANAGITR Ns ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITC.Vi COPY DESK SUFTr.vrCR SPORTS ESiTCR AiTTS & ENTERTA" YTN'T EDITOR NIGHT NEWS EC! fC."3 photo cmtf assistant photo csi , f PUBLICATIONS rOA,' O PRCFESSIOMAL AC7:C."R Jam Irr C:.?v9 lis vkyrc -a Lea VriT$, Th D!!y N&rg$!;an (US.3 144-C::) Is r.VJsd fcy UNL PufcUcstiona LcsrJ V.wl r ,.;-.. f r '? 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