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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1991)
T* I l • —| 3 JF 1 1 l/ mtfl Today, sunny with the high Ilk J fS A—^ %4LJLJL Y m 40-45 and southwest wind IBB. 1 B — • B — ^.. 10-20. Cleartonight with the iBk dfYfc ^B^BE iow in the mid- to upper 1BB 8 BLJB W Ym WT* * JB wLJ* mJT JB W m teens. Sunny and mild Fri- * I^IC L/JL d JlVdl I I tssah— Death penalty debate: Money vs. eye for eye By Lisa Donovan Senior Reporter Proponents and opponents of a bill to repeal the death penalty volleyed the idea of cost effectiveness versus the theory of an eye for an eye for nearly four hours before the Nebraska Legislature’s Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. State Sen. Ernie Chambers, the sponsor of LB327, told the audience of 75 and the eight member committee that he wanted to abolish Nebraska’s death penalty because it would save the state financial and time costs. The Omaha senator said the judicial system spends an “inordinate amount of time” dealing with the appeals of inmates on death row. Under the provisions of the bill, the death penalty would be eliminated and would pro vide for life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Alan Peterson, a Lincoln attorney and one of the bill’s proponents, said capital punish ment wasn’t worth it in terms of cost and morality. “It’s not worth its continuance in the state,” said Peterson, who helped draft the legislation. Shawn Renner, another Lincoln attorney, said Nebraska doesn’t have as many death penalty cases like in the South, but said capital punishment occupies a lot of the judicial sys tem’s time. Renner said that he researched the issue and that other states have rejected or repealed the death penalty. ■** In 1987, Kansas rejected a death penalty bill because it would have cost the state $11.5 million annually to maintain a capital punish ment system, Renner said. It’s important to^onsider whether Nebraska’s death penalty is worth the money, effort and trauma, he said. Renner said he thought the death penalty incurred not only monetary costs, but also something he called “social costs,” because the punishment is prejudiced. “The death penalty is applied in a racially discriminatory way,” he said. Examining the national and local statistics, Renner said, minorities, the poor and under See DEATH PENALTY on 3 Winter jungle cleanup ... m^i****, Stacy Adams, greenhouse manager for horticulture, hauls a Bird of Paradise while relocating plants in the tropical greenhouse on East Campus Wednesday. Adams and work study assistant John Burkholder, a sophomore in ag riculture, prune, then group the plants according to species. The plants were brought to the greenhouse eight or nine years ago, Adams said. Exchange students unhurt by terrorism By Michael J. Hannon Staff ftapcrtar UNL students studying abroad are in safe countries and have not been affected by threats of terrorism stemming from the gulf war, a coordinator at the Institute for international Studies said. The institute has no students in the Middle East, though one student left Tel Aviv, Israel, as recently as Ian. 4, said Susan Dahm, study abroad coordinator. One University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu deni has cancelled a trip to France because of fear of terrorist attacks, but there have been no other cancellations, Dahm said. Study programs will continue without inter ruption until the U.S. government or an institu tion hosting UNL students indicates there is an immediate danger, she said. If there were danger, notice would be given to the students and the choice to leave or stay would be theirs, Dahm said. Christa Joy, program coordinator for Inter national Educational Services, said groups of students returning recently from Paris and London said they encountered increased airport secu rity, but experienced no other difficulties. Joy said it’s too early to tell if the war and threats of terrorism will affect summer pro grams, but so far, everything is going as sched uled. Homer Puderbaugh, chairman of the archi tecture department, said the Department of Architecture’s London Program has continued without interruption. Fifteen graduate and undergraduate students See ABROAD on 3 r ___ ‘Hellacious’ fighting results from false Iraqi surrender Gulf War Roundup f Air supremacy Wednesday, Jan. 30 Two weeks of precision The first major ground battle of the war was fr^5oabandon fought In and around tho frontier port o! ce^tralized contral 0( lts Khal|l. Saudi Arabia. Twahra U.S. Marinas Gen. Norman _— I ill—1 .«>! kuj. uMiiailaiS Schwarzkopf says the allies have supremacy over Iraqi skies. --SC2SS?-s. -V. ■x IRAN Persian J IRAQ GUV l SAUDI. f ARABIA ORtyadh SAUDI Iraqi attacks i j!^ Arabia Allied troops engaged Media Iraqi soldiers along a front Most Americans believe the military extending from Kuwait’s should increase its control over reporting Al Wafra oil field to the of the war, according to a poll from the abandoned Saudi border Times Mirror Center for The People and town of Khafjl. The Press. As of 7 p.m. EST ** DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Iraqi tanks and troops, some faking surrender, smashed into Saudi Arabia’s northeast comer and seized an empty border town early Wednesday in “hellacious” fighting with American and allied forces. Twelve U.S. _ Marines were re ported killed in -: the heaviest combat of the 2 week-old war. Saudi and other j allied losses were described I as light, Iraqi casualties as heavy. The U.S. military said much of the Iraqi advance had been beaten back by U.S. airpower, Marines and allied troops. But as the bloody day wore on toward midnight, Iraqi forces still held the town of Khafji, on the Persian Gulf, and Marines and Saudi troops mounted a counterattack to retake it. Saudi light armored forces reached the center of Khafji, but the Marines pulled back under heavy Iraqi rocket fire. Iraqi fire continued on into this morning, indicating the allied attack had not yet succeeded. Twenty-four hours earlier, when the Iraqi columns first struck from Kuwait, some advancing T-55 tanks had their guns facing rearward, a sign of surrender, but the Iraqis then opened fire, the Marines reported. The Iraqi thrust may have been designed to punish Marine units that have repeatedly shelled Iraqi posi tions just inside Kuwait, and possibly to provoke a wider, longer-term battle, a ground conflict for which U.S. commanders still arc preparing. Baghdad radio told the Iraqi people their army’s first push into Saudi ter ritory was “wiping out the renegade invaders.” . The Iraqi attack on the Khafji comer was mounted in four separate ad vances along a front stretching from the gulf shore 25 miles west into the desert, and began late Tuesday south of Kuwait’s al-Wafra oilfield, the U.S. military said. An estimated 1,500 Iraqi troops and at least 50 tanks took part. Each thrust was repelled by Ma rine and allied light armor and infan try, and by U.S. warplanes and heli copters, the U.S. military said. But the nighttime fighting in freez - ing temperatures was “hellacious,” said Marine Lu Col. Cliff Myers. As flares bathed the desert in the white light of battle, men of the 2nd Marine Division opened up on the attackers with TOW anti-tank rock ets. Cobra helicopter gunships and the Air Force’s “tank killers” swooped down in repeated strikes at the Iraqi armor, according to a news pool re port from the front. Some of the toughest fighting took place in Khafji itself, an oil-and-re sort town of 20,000 people abandoned since the onset of war. The seaside town, eight miles south of the Ku waiti border, was the focus of two Iraqi assaults just before and just after midnight. Diversions examines exotic and erotic foods. Page 5 “ CORRECTION An article in Wednesday's pa per reported the incorrect figure for the Daily Nebraskan student fees request. For 1991 -92, the Daily Ne braskan is requesting $39,193. A one-time allocation of $20,000 was requested for next year, but not to balance this year’s budget. The Daily Nebraskan regrets the error. Debate on paying football players passes committee By Tabitha Miner Senior Reporter The Nebraska Legislature’s Gov ernment, Military and Veteran Affairs Committee decided Wednesday that senators will make the call on the pay-for-play football dilemma. LB68, which would pay a stipend to football players at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was passed out of committee for the Legislature’s first-round consideration. Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha said the bill is a way to get around NCAA rules that don’tallow students who play football at NCAA-affiliated schools *o work during the nine months See PAY on 3
