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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that other states have rejected or repealed the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