Editorial
f The future of The Fifth
Coercion endangers fair trial rights
It seems the fears of aging Supreme Court liberals may be
coming true — the court, through 11 years of Republican
appointments, has begun to turn back the clock on civil
1 rights.
Since 1897, the court had barred involuntary confessions
| from criminal trials because they violated the constitutional
1 guarantee against self-incrimination.
| But last Tuesday, the court went against 94 years of court
rulings and decided that using a coerced confession in a
| criminal trial does not automatically require reversal of the
conviction.
In a 5-4 vote engineered by the court’s conservative major
| ity, the justices decided in a case involving an Arizona man
that using a coerced confession could be “harmless error’’ if
there were enough other evidence to convict a defendant.
Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice William
Rchnquist wrote that some error is inevitable in the trial
| process, but it frequently is insignificant. The focus should be
| “on the underlying fairness of the trial,” he said.
In theory, the Rchnquist opinion sounds fair. If there is still
enough evidence to prove guilt without an illegally obtained
confession, the confession simply should be ignored. The
defendant is guilty under law regardless of the confession.
I But the impact of a confession — coerced or not, inadmis
sible or not — affects the whole fabric of a case.
I Justice Byron White said, “A defendant’s confession is
probably the most probative and damaging evidence that can be
admitted against him.”
The protection against the use of involuntary confessions is
among the constitutional rights that arc “so basic to a fair trial
that their infraction can never be treated as harmless error,” he
said.
White is right about the power of a confession of guilt,
regardless of later determinations of its validity. Court records
of personal confession can be erased. It’s much harder to erase
a confession of guilt from a juror’s memory. /
The narrow' margin in another vote in the Arizona case is an
equally disturbing indicator of the court’s potential agenda. In
another 5-4 decision, the court ordered a new trial for the
Arizona man who had been sentenced to death for the 1982
killing of his 11-year-old stepdaughter.
The court decided that Orestc Fulminantc’s confession to a
government informant in federal prison had been coerced, and
that other evidence used at his trial was insufficient to convict
him.
| The informant reportedly offered to protect Fulminanie from
d violence by other inmates if he related the truth about the
I child’s slaying.
I In dissent, four justices said that offering protection from
prison violence was not a form of coercion. They did not
I believe someone could change facts about a murder to avoid
getting maimed or killed by fellow prisoners.
| The court voted correctly in ordering a new case. What’s
| disturbing is the slight margin that won Fulminanie a new trial,
a Both the 5-4 vote in favor of ‘‘hannless errors” such as
3 coerced confessions and the near miss on Fulminante’s life by
I four justices may be a frightening harbinger of future Supreme
H Court decisions. With six years of Republican appointing
1 nearly guaranteed, the 21st century could sec a very different
I Fifth Amendment.
-LETTERSJSe editor
Gasoline tax should be used
I find it hypocritical of an institu
tion that places strict bans on the use
of tobacco to be so ready to call for
cigarette lax funds to support its budget
shortfall. If one wishes to attack air
pollution through taxation, why not
ask for a share of the gasoline tax to
meet the university budget? We know
the university does all it can, within
the limits of its land holdings, to ac
commodate people who drive trucks
and automobiles to campus.
Jon Nelson
curator
Center lor Great Plains Studies Art
Collection
--EDITORIAL POLICY
Initialed editorials represent offi
cial policy of the spring 1991 Daily
Nebraskan. Policy is set by the edito
rial board.
The Daily Nebraskan’s publishers
are the NU Board of Regents, who
established the University of Ne
braska Lincoln Publications Board to
supervise daily production of the
paper. According to the regents’ pol
icy, responsibility for the editorial
content lies solely in the hands of the
newspaper’s student editors.
LISA DONOVAN
Looking back over the hill
It was another biggie: 70 years
old. Only I had hit so many of
the biggies by now — 30,40,50
and 60— that my relatives were sick
of planning parties, buying me per
fume and powder sets and spending
the money to fly in for a weekend.
I didn’t blame them. I was sick of
birthdays.
1 remember when my dad turned
70 in late March a long time ago. He
didn’t much like for us to make a big
deal out of birthdays.
“Now, don’t go out and get pres
ents. Just come home and have some
cake,” he told us before the big day.
There was something sad about
that, but I couldn’t quite figure out
what.
So this year I decided to celebrate
my birthday a bit differently. I flew
into Lincoln, with my daughter and
granddaughter, for a sorority reunion.
My daughter pledged the same
sorority I did, as did her daughter. It
was a nice tradition.
The first night of the reunion we
went to the house and had dinner. 1
looked around and noticed that many
of the “sisters” who were my age
were not in attendance.
I should have been happy that I
lived such a long and relatively healthy
life, but instead was sad. And for
once, I thought that maybe they were
the lucky ones.
“Mother?”
“Yes, dear?” I stretched out my
hand and put it on hers.
“You’ve got a piece of olive stuck
between your teeth.”
“Yeah, well, a cold belt at the bar
will wash that right out.”
My granddaughter and a couple of
her friends laughed.
“I can’t believe she said that. I
mean, how old is she anyway?” one
of the girls at the table whispered to
my granddaughter.
“I’m older than water, just leave it
at that. Older than water.”
Everyone gave a courtesy laugh
and I thought, God, that’s exactly
what my father used to say.
So 1 asked the five women sitting
at the dinner table, including my
daughter and granddaughter, what they
thought of growing old.
So I sat and gn -
joyed mv pint of
dark beer as / had
so magy times, be
fore. An old man
approached mv
table.. excused him
self and sat down,
as had happened so
many times before*
“I considered about working in an
old people’s home once but it would
be so depressing,” one of the women
said.
I asked her why. *
“Well, it seems to me that all these
people are stuck in these homes just
waiting to die. And some of the people
are so lonely, I would just end up
taking it home with me.”
My granddaughter said she thought
that maybe more Americans should
take the problems of the elderly home
with them.
“In Asia and many European coun
tries, the elderly live with their chil
dren and are held in high esteem.”
After dinner, we headed down
town and eventually happened on the
bar.
In nearly 50 years, not much had
changed.
My daughter was off talking to her
friends, as was her daughter.
So I sat and enjoyed my pint of
dark beer as I had so many times
before. An old man approached my
table, excused himself and sat down,
as had happened so many times be
fore.
“Happy birthday,” he muttered.
“How in the world would you know
that?”
“Your wrinkles convey a certain
glow.”
He sort of smiled.
“No, I’m kidding. Listen, arc you
just sitting here thinking about your
Dad? Don’t just hang out alone and
fret. It’s your birthday, show them
your ID. Get a free drink.”
“Sure, sure.”
“Let’s see. Your father turned 70
during your last year of college, right
in the middle of your Spring Break.
The one you spent in Lincoln.”
“Oh yeah. Wail a minute ....”
“You made dinner, bought a cake
and you, your mom and dad spent a
quiet evening at home.”
“Yes.”
“He joked about you taking care of
him and your mother. About all the
money you would make once you
were a famous writer and how you
would come by in your chauffeur
driven Cadillac and drive them all
around town, just to look at the sights
and cat soft-serve ice cream.”
“Uh huh.”
And then you were all watcning
‘The Simpsons.’ Remember that?'
“Barely.”
“Yeah, well it was that real gooly
show. And on that episode, the family
was learning about how to deal with
Homer’s father. Bart, Maggie and
Lisa didn’t like to go visit their grand
father. They didn’t like the way he
smelled and took up their time. They
thought he was a burden on society,
and more importantly, a burden on
them.”
“It’s pretty sad.”
“Hmm. So tell me, where do you
live?”
“I live ma—”
My daughter interrupted.
“She lives in a lovely retirement I
home in Santa Clara, California. I
Excuse me, sir, I didn ’ t mean to break I
in on the conversation. Have we met?” I
Donovan is a senior news-editorial m^jor I
and a Daily Nebraskan senior reporter and I
columnist.