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Fog in the early morning
then becoming cloudy.
Cl Possible evening
sprinkles. Partly sunny
id Tuesday.
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Chambers’ attempt to kill death penalty fails
By Michelle Leary
Senior Reporter
After a public hearing Friday,
the Judiciary Committee
failed to advance to the full
Legislature a bill that would repeal
Nebraska’s death penalty.
Under LB651, sponsored by Sen.
Ernie Chambers of Omaha, the death
sentence would have been replaced
by a sentence of life without possibil
ity of parole.
The bill also contained provisions
stating that restitution be made by the
Bill to widen
the definition
of stalking
Subtle offenses
would be illegal
By Michelle Leary
Senior Reporter_
A legislative bill that would
broaden the meaning of threat
ening conduct in a 1992 stalk
ing law moved to general file after
discussion in a judiciary committee
hearing Friday.
LB299, which was sponsored by
Jennie Robak of Columbus and other
state senators, re
vised last year’s
definition of the
course of conduct
committed by a
stalker, incorpo
rating more subtle
actions as unlaw
ful.
The credible threat section of
1992’s stalking bill, which stated that
a threat had to be made against the life
of a person, or had to cause great
bodily injury to a person, was re
moved from this year’s revised stalk
ing bill.
Tom Casady, sheriff of Lancaster
County, said he was pleased when the
stalking bill was passed last year, but
his department had “experienced dif
ficulties with it.”
Casady said his officers had prob
lems making arrests and enforcing a
law where there had been no specific
threats of death or bodily injury to a
victim by a stalker.
LB299 would amend the credible
threat statute, slating that any person
who willfully and maliciously ha
rasses another person with the intent
to terrify, threaten or intimidate com
mits the offense of stalking.
See STALKING on 3
Committee advances bill for lethal injection
murderer to the victim’s family.
Sam R. Sheppard, son of Ohio
Army doctor Sam
H. Sheppard who
was wrongly con
victed in 1954 of
murdering his
wife, told the com
mittee that fami
lies of murdci^ic
tims want an alternative to the death
penalty.
“We know haired, vengeance and
i
retribution to be cancerous emotions
that should not be prolonged,”
Sheppard of Cambridge, Mass., said.
“We want tough but humane .. .
action taken in the field of justice,” he
said. Sheppard is the vice co-chair
man of Murder Victims’ Families for
Reconciliation.
The bill was supported by Catho
* lie, Lutheran and Methodist church
officials, the Nebraska Civil Liberties
Union and Nebraskans Against the
Death Penalty.
Lincoln attorney Alan Peterson said
nearly half of the 20 death sentences
handed down since 1973 had been
overturned by courts because of prob
lems with Nebraska’s law. There are
currently 11 inmates on Nebraska’s
death row.
Supporters of LB651 said Nebras
kans favor the alternative sentence of
life without possibility of parole.
They were referring to a 1991 tele
phone survey of 504 Nebraskans con
ducted by Northeastern (Mass.) Uni
versity. The survey indicated that 64
percent of those polled supported re
placing the death penalty with life
sentences without parole if the sen
tence included requiring convicted
.murderers to pay restitution, through
prison salaries, to the family of the
victim.
But opponents of the bill said there
was no guarantee that a murderer
would not be pardoned by the State
Board of Pardons and later paroled.
Becky Mchring of Grand Island,
whose father, Eugene Zimmerman,
See DEATH on 3
A
Husker hysteria Travis Heying/DN
Husker fans swarm around Nebraska Coach Danny Nee during his postgame
interview with ABC commentator Dick Vitale. The Huskers upset 3rd-ranked
Kansas 68-64 Sunday.
China needs
democracy,
speaker says
United States could help
by pressuring government
By Steve Smith
Senior Editor
Displaying the charisma that thrust her
to the forefront of China’s 1989 stu
dent democratic movement,Chai Ling
brought a Centennial Ballroom crowd of 400
into a thundering round of applause after her
^speech Friday evening.
Her message was simple: Don’t forget
Tiananmen Square—show support of Western
pressure on the Chinese government to make
democratic reforms.
“We want to push the central government to
reform very quickly,”Chai said. “If they don’t
soon, they’re asking for chaos.”
Chai, the keynote speaker for the University
Program Council’s Nebraska Model United
Nations conference, first came into American
consciousness in a videotaped interview se
cretly made after tanks rolled through Beijing’s
Tiananmen Square on June 4,1989 to break up
a student democracy demonstration.
Chai, a leader of the Tiananmen Square
student movement, escaped from China and
came to the United Stales shortly alter the
incident. When she escaped, she was No. 4 on
China’s "most wanted” list.
Communism in China has continued to col
lapse since the Tiananmen Square bloodshed,
Chai said. Currently there is a small, yet “very
strong" underground democratic movement in
the country.
“The leader of China's communist party is
88 and has terrible health," she said, referring
to Deng Xiaoping. “When he dies, there will be
little to hold the system together. Everyone will
look back to June 4.”
When that happens, she said, the floodgates
to democracy will open and the chances of
governmental reform will be at their greatest.
See CHINA on 3
Phone lines to replace long lines for UNK registration
UNL to install
same software
by fall of 1994
By Mindy Letter
Staff Reporter
CNL students will have reason
to be envious of their Univer
sity of Nebraska at Kearney
counterparts when registration for fall
classes rolls around, a UNK official
said.
While many students at the Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln endure
long lines at general registration, UNK
students will be registering by phone.
Barbara Snyder, UNK vice chan
cellor of academic affairs, said the
university planned to have an 1A Plus
computer software system installed,
wnicn would allow students to regis
ter for fall classes over the phone.
James Gricscn, UNL’s vice chan
cellor for student affairs, said he hoped
UNL students wouldn’t have to be
envious for long.
Gricscn said UNL had acquired
the same software as UNK, and UNL
students should be able to phone in
their registrations by fall 1994.
The software will cost the univer
sity an estimated S3.67 million over
the next five years, Gricscn said.
James Van Horn, interim vice presi
dent and associate vice president for
business and finance, called the price
a bargain.
“We got price breaks because of a
universitywide contract,” he said.
UNL, UNK and the University of
Nebraska at Omaha purchased the
same software system through the
same company. The package deal
drew a better price for all universities,
oricsen said.
The software addition was funded
through money from UNL’s 2 percent
tuition increase and other funds, he
said.
Gricscn said the university would
hire seven employees to implement
the new system. /
UNK and UNO already have IA
software, he said. The two campuses
will now convert to the more sophis
ticated IA Plus.
Updating software is a larger chal
lenge at UNL than at the other two
campuses, Van Horn said, because
UNL uses “an antiquated and home
grown system.”
“Most of the systems arc devel
oped in-house,” he said. “It is not an
internal package — it is mini-pro
grams wired together.”
Under the new system the com
puter functions of each department
will be integrated into a mainframe,
- it
That is a tangible thing that students want to see,
and that is what we have decided to do.
—Griesen
vice chancellor for student affairs
---99 -
he said, creating greater efficiency.
For instance, he said, it will cen
tralize the billing procedure and lower
the number of bills students receive
per month to one.
“Now at UNL, you can get 5 to 6
bills in a month: a bill for tuition and
fccs.and housing separately, the book
store, the telephone, health center,
library fines and parking fees,” he
said.
Another benefit of an integrated
system, Gricscn said, is that students
and advisers would have greater sue
cess with graduation audits.
The tool could also be used by
students who want to change their
majors, he said.
Students would simply match their
transcripts with the graduation re
quirements of their new major.
However, Gricscn said, the uni
versity would concentrate on the
voice-operated registration system
first.
“That is a tangible thing that stu
dents want to see," he said, “and that
is what we have decided to do.”