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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1992)
1VPW<! T) 1 O' P C t LJSaled Press 1 1 V f f JL^ lCUVkJ t Edited by Roger Price Supreme Court lets California hold execution SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — Double murderer Robert Alton Harris was put to death in the gas chamber Tues day after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a dramatic last-minute stay that had blocked California’s first execu tion in 25 years. “You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the Grim Reaper,” Harris said in a final statement, released after he was executed for the 1978 murders of two San Diego 16-year-old boys. Harris, 39, died quietly at dawn after an extraordinary night of cross country judicial duels between the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Following the filing of four stays by the 9th Circuit on Monday, frus trated justices in Washington voted 7-2 to order the appeals court not to issue any more stays without permis sion. The dissenters — Justices John Paul Stevens and Harry A. Blackmum — focused on the issue of the gas chamber as cruel and unusal punish ment. The last stay came after Harris was strapped to the death seal. Witnesses spent an uncomfortable 12 minutes watching Harris as he wailed to die, smiling and nodding in the brightly lighted green chamber. A telephone rang with a reprieve about a minute before the execution was to start, said prison spokesman Lt. Vernell Crittcndon. About two hours later, Harris was back in the metal chair. At one point, he looked at San Diego Police Det. Steven Baker, father of victim Mi chael Baker. “He mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry,’” Baker said later. On the day of the killings, it was Baker who arrested Harris for bank robbery with out knowing his son was dead and Harris the killer. Outside San Quentin’s gates Tuesday, Baker said he nodded back to Harris. “He was probably sorry at the time, but that’s 14 years too late,” Baker said. The gas was released at about 6:05 a.m., and shortly afterward Harris’ head jerked from left to right before falling slowly to his chest. He ap peared to be unconscious about 6:12 a.m. and was pronounced dead at 6:21 a.m. In the witness chamber, Baker and his ex-wife, Sharron Mankins, showed little emotion as they watched their son’s killer die. Those watching on Harris’ behalf hugged each other as he went into his death throes. San Quentin’s gas chamber Where double murderer Robert Alton Harris was executed. r s | A I N lipl Lever to lower 2 K* IflST bags of cyanide iHr crystals. ^Office/ t— Holding area _____ , .... . . i_ Perot leads all others in Texas WASHINGTON — It’s a long drive lo Election Day, but in an April show of strength, not-yct-candidatc Ross Perot sits atop the latest presidential poll in his home state of Texas. It’s dangerous to pul loo much I stock in polls a full I six months before I the election. The survey re sults arc a slap at adopted Texan George Bush and - another sign that Democrat Bill Clinton is having trouble attracting the independent voters who swing presidential elections. The survey also provides fresh evidence of the potent protest vote lurking in the electorate and a sinking show of strength for Perot in the state with the third-most electoral votes. The Texas Poll, released Tuesday, showed Perot supported by 35 per cent, Bush by 30 percent, with 20 percent for Texas neighbor Clinton, the Arkansas governor and likely Democratic nominee. “He belter get ready for criticism,” said White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwatcr, who predicted Bush “will do very well in Texas... we expect to win. Clinton campaign manager David Wilhelm said of a Perot candidacy, “It’s not something we’ve given a whole lot of thought to at this point although we’re certainly going to begin to give it more as it looks more like he is going to be in the contest,” Perot, asked about the poll results on CBS-TV V’This Morning,” show, said, “I 'm honored the people of Texas feel that way. It gives me a great sense of responsibility.” GOPpollster Bill Mclnturffcalled the new Texas survey “an attention grabber.” The telephone poll of 674 registered voters wasconductcd Apri I 9-18, an unusually long sampling period that coincided with a wave or largely favorable media attention for Perot, particularly in Texas. Democratic pollster Claiboumc Darden said, “Perot is rising to his peak right now. He still has that new car smell.” Democratic pollster Natalie Davis said that unless Bush or Clinton can tap the attention of the angriest vot ers, Perot may gain a constituency that wouldn’t desert him as his record gets dissected. In recent national polls, Perot has trailed the major party candidates. In last week’s Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll he was third with 26 per cent support nationally, compared to 38 percent for Bush and 30 percent for Clinton. If Perot were to continue to draw that level of support nationally, even a losing Perot candidacy could be a pivotal factor in the fall competition for electoral votes. Polls show Perot drawing at least as much support from Clinton as from Bush. Chinese officials run peasants off farms BEIJING — Small, bloody land wars arc breaking out in the Chinese countryside as local officials looking for quick profits push peasants off their land and sell it. After the government split up Mao Tsc-tung’s communes in the early 1980s, it assigned small plots of land to each rural family for at least 20 years. But as the rural economy devel ops, businessmen are shopping for land for stores, factories and other commercial ventures. Technically, they can’t buy land — in socialist China, it belongs “to the whole people.” But they are buy ing ‘‘land use rights” and evicting peasants who know no other life but farming and have no way to obtain new land or jobs. Peasants from across China arc traveling to Beijing to appeal to cen tral authorities. Several peasants in terviewed by The Associated Press reported being beaten or arrested by rural police. They told of mass brawls between peasants and police result ing in senous injuries. Occasional articles in the official media confirm their stories and hint that ihc problem is becoming a major one. The stories illustrate the absolute power local officials wield over peas ants and the lack of a legal process. They also undermine the common assumption that social instability is limited to China’s cities and that the government need not worry about rural discontent. “Deng Xiaoping doesn’t care about us,” one dispossessed peasant said after appealing in vain to authorities in Beijing. Like all those interviewed, he spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of punishment. FBI averts lawsuit on racial bias claims WASHINGTON — The FBI and lawyers for more than 3(X) black agents said Tuesday they have reached a tentative agreement to settle the agents’ claims of racial bias. Six black agents will be pro moted to supervisory positions and will receive back pay under the agreement, and another 67 black agenLs will be given new positions or special training. The settlement would head off a potential class-action lawsuit by the black agents. The FBI agreed that “disparities” in treatment be tween black and while agents ex isted in some areas of its personnel system, but it did not admit to racial discrimination. “We certainly wouldn’t acknowl edge either intentional discrimina tion or discrimination as a result of adverse impact,” Joe Davis, the FBI’s general counsel, told a news conference. “... We do sec dispari ties.” The agreement caps a year of negotiations between the lawyers and the FBI. Blacks and Hispanics have complained for several years of job discrimination at the agency. “This is a far-reaching settle ment that w ill result in changes” in the FBI’s personnel practices, David Shaffer, an attorney for the black agents, said at a separate news conference earlier in the day. “It should be a major step in giving (black Americans) more confidence in the FBI, or at least in its direc tor.” FBI Director William S. Ses sions became personally involved in the issue a year ago, when he held unprecedented face-to-face meetings with unhappy black agents and agreed to open agency records in an effort to avert a lawsuit. Judge allows dump payment By the Associated Press A five-stale commission can de cide whether to spend an additional $16.9 million on a nuclear waste dump it wants to build in Boyd County, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Warren Ur bom rejected efforts by the Boyd County Local Monitoring Commit tee to slop the commission’s sched uled Wednesday telephone confer ence meeting on the payment. The citizens committee monitor ing plans for the five-state dump said it needs more information about what the money is for and why it’s needed. Urbom earlier this month had temporarily prevented the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission from taking action but indicated during a hearing Monday he would allow the commission to act. Monitoring committee attorney Pal Knapp had argued that the commis sion had not provided all the informa tion the local group needed to ask intelligent questions about the licens ing process for the proposed ware house near Butte. The additional $16.9 million would go to U.S. Ecology, the site devel oper. The judge “made it clear that he feels the compact has complied with his earlier order,” monitoring com mittee chairman Jim Selle said. NelSraSkan Editor Jana Pedersen Publications Hoard 472-1766 Chairman Bill Vobsjda Managing Editor Kara Wells 472-2588 Photo Chief Michelle Paulman Professional Adviser Don Watton, 473-7301 FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Ne braska Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln, NE, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Dally Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between 9 a m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Bill vobejda, 472-2588 Subscription price is $50 lor one year. Postmaster Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St.,Lincoln, NE 68588-0448 Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1992 DAILY NEBRASKAN Manson’s bid for parole rejected — again v-ain. — Hilaries Manson, mastermind of one of the nation’s most infamous mass mur ders, was denied parole for the eighth lime on Tuesday, the day of Califor nia’s first execution in a quarter cen tury. During a two-hour hearing. Man son was both cooperative and con frontational, stating his case with clear statements and with rantings. Manson argued before the three member state Board of Prison Terms mat nc naa been in prison longer than the law allows because he wasn’t present at the killings. “I am right with God and I am right with myself,” he said. ”1 didn’t break God’s law and I didn’t break man’s law.” The board unanimously denied parole. Manson originally was sentenced to die in the state’s gas chamber for the grisly 1969 slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and eight others in Los Angeles. The state Supreme Court threw out the death penalty law in effect then, leaving Manson with the only alternative, life in prison with pos sible parole. The execution Tuesday of Robert Alton Harris, convicted under a sub sequent death-penalty law of murder ing two teen-agers in San Diego, was the first in California since 1967.