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Thursday, February 14, 1385
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Vol.84 no. 102
1 '
Weaker: Mostly sunny again today, with a high
of34(1C). Clear tonight, with a lew of 7 (-14C).
Sunny and warm again Thursday, with a high In
ths mid-303 (2C).
ft
1 1
.4 V.l
i:
EUIf Ouster
or sons, Valentine's Day
provide a brkf respite durirg
tha winter months, 4 chines to
send and receive messages of lavs
End friendship. Cut in Ve'.er.iir.c, a
ncrih-ccr.tml Nebraska tsr. cf about
2,C03 residents, Vaisntine's Day
ch mere.
"We've been ceUtratir.2 for at
lecst a week," said Connie Eachclcr,
secretary of the Valentine Chcmber of
Commerce.
Ths v.cca's ceJt'brations hsve
ii:cl!ided a ccrcntion, nrric contest
ar.d drr.ee at ths Vdcrtir.s Ccnicr
Citizsas' Center; a corontka tr.d
d.mcc t Vskntis Eari Eigh School
and s cognation sX Pineview Minor '
narslsg hor.3.
With a!! those ecrcrtioris, ssversl
rssldsiita received royal Valentine's
Day titles. At Pinevir;? Mar.cr lsst
Hjursdsy, Ecwaiti LaniouKaiix, 2,
end l!aa Kc!'e2a S wer crcmsd
Vakntiue Meg and (peea. -
ft
MfMrn Giffcrd
Senior Bcporter
O An ASUN oScial will testity today
against the super board concept of
governing the UN system and state col
leges at the Legislature's Constitu
tional Revision and Recreation hearing
st the Capitol, room 1018.
Tha committee has scheduled three
resolutions for debate:
LE1S wadd plico st'ie colleges,
UNL, UNO end the UN Msdie-al Center
under a l&member board, desipated
as the B5ard of Eegents of the- Univer;
sity cf Nebraska and the Nebraska
State ..Colleges. The governor would
appoint five members to six-year terms.
The Leslature would divide ths state
into five regent districts in 1037, -and
people would elect up to eight,
members, depending on the state's
population. .
LE38 would bring technical colleges
- into the alliance to be governed by a.
riii.e-memb'sr board. Sen. John DeCasnp
of Nelih, who sponsored-the resolu
tion, fevers letting the Legslsture
'decide the method of selection, terms,
powers and lusne of the board.
LE32 would allow the governor to'
'appoint a six- to nine-member board
that would govern UNL, UNO and the
Medical Center, as does the current
Board of Regents, Of the first appointed
regents in 1883,-two would serve two
year terms, three would serve four years
and three more would receive six-year
terms to stagger future appointments.
" The governor would choose ens member
from each regent district, which would
be established by the Legislature. All
appointments would be approved by
Only three non-voting student repre-
O'
rieffs
sentatives would serve on the boards of
the three proposals. That is the major
fault of each resolution, according to
Andy Carothffs of ASUN.
Carothers, who as Government Liai
son Committee chairman takes care of
legislative lobbying for ASUN, said
ithere should be a seat for a student
representative from each campus under
the board's jurisdiction.
Carothers said ASUN opposed the
concept cf a super board altogether.
The student organization objects to the
decreased size of the board. The cur
rent Board of Regents and the State
College 'Board cf Trustees have 17
members total. -
ASUN also disputes one of the pur
poses of a super board, as outlined in a
report by the Citizens Commission for
the Study of Pestseccndsiy Education.
The Commission concluded that such a
board- could eliminate "unnecessary
duplication" in 'colleges and universi
ties. Carothers said ASUN considers
that term too ambiguous.
, if the committee decides to back
one of the proposals and send it to the
Legislature, Carothers said he would
ask for an amendment calling for one '
student regent from each campus ruled
by the board. The chances of winning
that amendment are poor, he said, but
no more so than tha chances of having
the Legislature and voters approve the
whole package m Is
Senators voted unanimously
Wednesday to send a bill to the gover
nor that would value agricultural land
in 1SS5 at 1934 rates, LB30 was passed
with an emergency clause, so it will
take effect as soon as Gov. Kerrey signs
it. Hie b-iver valuation will be used to
assess property taxes until a Revenue
Committee task force devises a new,
permanent method.
t .3
3QSt E3UGkQrp...Page15
Ur.curcaux and Kellcgg rank as the
oldest residents at Pincvictv.
Sunday at the senior citizens'
center, David Foster and Jcy Vrag.hn
vers chosen Kl?.j and Queen of
Hearts. Their coronation was 'n;ada
even more specisJ, Foster sdd, by the
fait that he and Vaughn v,411 be
married next month. Fester, 75, and
Vaughn, 63, said the wedding will take
place at ths senior center.
The celebration at the center
featured an old-time music contest.
The 250 people in attendence later
danced to the music of the Heart City
Heartwanners, a local band.
"We had a ball," Vaughn said.
"Valentine really gets up for
Valentine's Day."
At the high school Monday, seniors
Kevin Pettigrew and Melinda Harms
took King and Queen honors. Tommy
Combs, a retired cleaning store
owner, received Valentine's
outstanding citizen award at the .
ceremony. Corabs has won the award
three times for his contributions to
Writer say
crimin
By Eric Dedds
Staff Reporter
They are not monsters, said Doug
Magee of the men he has inter
viewed who are now on death row.
They committed murder an act
Magee said he has realized everyone
. is capable of committing, '
Magee, a New York journalist,
said he had little interest in the
death, penalty until he met John
Spenkelink, a convicted murderer
who was on death row in Florida,
who claimed all the way to' the
electric chair that he was innocent.
Ifeges said he had setv precon
ceived notions about, prisoners on
desth row until he met Spenkelink.
Magee, then on assignment for
'US magazine, said he was 'outside
the Florida prison when Spenkelink
was executed. There wss a surreal
ility in knowing the man he had
ispsnded with for eight months
was strapped to a chair with 22,000
volts cf electricity running through
his body, Magee said.
Through a series of slides., Magee
showed an audience at the Nebraska
Union a behind-the-scenes view cf
the world cf death row.
The life cf inmates on death row
is terrible, Magee said. They live .
alone for as long as 12 years in a
small cell, he said, with no reading
material and little humc 1 contact.
There.is great pressure on derth row
inmates who never know whether
tomorrow will be the end, he said.
Magee, who has written a book on
death row and another on the fami
lies of murder victims, said new evi
dence exists that shows the death
penalty is being applied arbitrarily
and is racially discriminatory,
In Georgia, he said, a person is 33
9
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MM
1
local ccr..nur;ily service prejeets.
It's been a busy week in Va!ntine,
but nobody's been busier than the
employees at the U.S. Post OSce.
People from all over the world send
their Valentines to Valentine each
yerjf, to be postmarked and remaiied
from the "IJerrt City."
"It's just like the Christmas rush
for us," Ekk Eordeaax, a supervisor
at the peat clce, said. "We work .
together with the Chamber cf Com
merce to stamp all these. I'd
estimate we've dor.3 between 20,000'
and 30,000 this year."
Bordeaux said the post cSce has
received Valentines from Japan,
England, Ireland and Australia in the
last few weeks, as well 23 the usual
requests &om people in the United
States. Each Valentine is remailed
and stamped with a special heart
cachet like the one here that reads:
"Nebraska's Valentine, Crossroads of
the Sandhills."
Since the Chamber of Commerce
helps with' the envelopes, Bachelor
has done- a let cf stamping lately.
times more likely to receive the
death penalty for the murder of a
white man than for the murder cf a
black man. Of thousands of people
convicted cf frrst-degree murder each
year, he said, only a handful will be
executed. Magee said most prison
ers on death row cannot afford law
yers and must rely on public de
fenders. -
In some cases, an executed pri
soner later was found innocent.
Florida's Jerry Banks spent eight .
years on death row before evidence
was found that proved he was inno
cent, Magee said.
Magee said it is more expensive
to execute a person than it is to
keep the person in prison for life. He.
cited a New York study that estimat
ed it would cost $1.7 million to go
through two years of death sentence '
appeals alone. To keep a person in
s death p
ates again;
" l
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L..Page 12
"I get help from my kids, and from
people in the neighborhood, she
said. 'The pest office does the
biggest share, really.
Several Valentine business owners
do their share, too, decorating their
windows and offering Valentine's Day
specials. One store Owner offered 20
percent off on red or white items,
another advertised two pairs of shoes
for $14, another sold merchandise for
14 percent off.
The week of celebrating will end
todaj, but not without one more
ceremony. Jimmy Valentine, an iron
rigger frcn Landsdowne'Pa., will
marry his Philadelphia bride, Lori
Davidson, at the Cherry County
Courthouse. Valentine is getting
married in Valentine on Valentine's
day.
"We were going to get married in
Valentine, Texas, but we found out
nobody lived there," Valentine said.
What made Mm decide to get
married in Valentine? "I'm famous for
unususl things," Valentine said. 'I'm
-: usually the star of the party." : -
eiiaity
lion, he said.
Magee said the death penalty is
used now because cf the heightened
crime rate of the 1970s. This fright
ened people, he said, and they
began to see the death penalty as &
remedy to crime. Yet, no evidence
exists to prove that the death penalty
deters murderers, Magee said.
While society is concerned about
the murderer, Magee said, a murder
victims's family often is forgotten. A
community may ostracize a victim's
family, he said, forgetting its psy
. chclcgical and emotional problems.
A victim's family needs to talk
about the murder, he said, yet
friends and neighbors don't ask
questions for fear of hurting the
family.
Hie structure of the criminal jus
tice system does not allow for the
victim's family to have much Input
in a murder case, he said. One such
person who wants to add input but
can't is Camilh Bell, Magee said.
From the start of the Atlanta child
murder investigation, he said, Bell
disagreed with the way it was con
ducted. Magee said Bell does not
think prisoner Wayne Williams is
. guilty of killing her son. But, because
.of media and political pressures, all
cases were closed after Williams
was found guilty cf two murders.
Thirteen men currently wJt on
Nebraska's death row. Magee talked
with some of them and found that
their living conditions are much
better than at many of the other
prisons he has visited nationwide.
The Legislature soon will con
sider a bill which would eliminate
the death penalty in Nebraska and
substitute a 30-year sentence. Magee
said putting a man behind bars for
SO years is an extreme sentence.
st Mac ics