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.
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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
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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.
