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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 17, 1995)
Irish Continued from Page 1 totally conventional,” she said. “It’s an amazingly quiet place.” In Ireland, she said, people strive to be individuals. “We try to be as unconventional as possible,” she said. People in Ireland hang out in pubs and talk to each other on a one-on-one basis, she said, which she misses in Lincoln. Kennedy said she missed a lot of things about her home country, espe cially Ireland’s rolling green hills, ■ ... ■ shown on a poster hanging near her doorway. But that’s not all she missed. “The potatoes here are so bad,” she said. “I miss my potatoes. The food service — they crucify them!” She also discovered that Ireland’s trademark Guinness beer doesn’t taste as good outside the Emerald Isle. But on St. Patrick’s Day, these dif ferences don’t matter. In Ireland, she said, St. Patrick’s is celebrated by spending time with family and friends at home or at the local pub — drinking Guinness, of course. 111 . .. ..inmm — But Kennedy said she didn’t know why people in America wanted to say they were Irish. A lot of Irish-Ameri cans spend time tracing their roots in Ireland, she said. “You get these American tourists in Ireland searching our graveyards and churches and showing up on your doorstep saying, ‘Hey, we’re your rela tives,’” she said, laughing, “even if they are seven-times removed.” “In America, you’re diversified,” she said. “In Ireland, if you’re Irish, you’re Irish through and through.” Kennedy said her accent gave her real Irish heritage away, and people started asking questions—especially if she was in the Irish Republican Army. “That’s like asking someone in the U.S.A. ‘Are you in the mafia?”’ she said. The troubles in Northern Ireland have been raging for more than a cen tury between the mainly-Catholic re publican IRA, which wants a united Ireland under Irish rule, and the Prot estant loyal unionists, who want North ern Ireland to remain under British rule. Now, there’s talk of peace between the two sides. But Kennedy said the answer fori peace wouldn’t be found through talks.: Instead, it would be found in Ireland’s young generation—her generation. “These killings have got to stop,”.* she said. “People are moving out of) Ireland. I don’t want to be stuck in a place that’s so small-minded.” The violence has given Ireland a undeserved bad image, she said, when i it’s actually a safe, welcoming place to live. “I hope so much that it works out,” t she said, “and Ireland can be itself! again.” NONE MORE IRISH THAN I r\WUUl/j\ $3 PITCHERS/$1 POUNDS V -Ta&SZ'J 'BOULEVARD IRISH AL£~~ V-j^1 J $2 BOTTLES *AND OTHER SPECIALS 1412 O STREET '' ' " '" ’ ’ • — - -• -- - - A n*uea, n A Happy St. Patrick's Day! Stop in and check out our new look. Check out our New '95 bikes while you’re at it. 2706 Randolph 438-1477 KNICKERBOCKERS 901 O St. Friday Celebrate St. Patty's Day with No Left Stone 2 Sets WHERE DO YOU THINK HE GETS All 01 HIS GOLD? Starting Thursday, save 65% on all 14k, 10k, and sterling silver jewelry. Choose from Lincoln's largest selection of chains, bracelets, charms, and earrings at Lincoln's i lowest price... guaranteed. I <?•* * * ♦ ♦ gfc *** A Last Minute St Patrick's Day Planner ^——■ Morgan's Upstairs 1409 O Street Thursday * Huskers on TV • 7PM Red Wolf Night Specials & Prizes "Rexperience" A tribute to Jimi Hendries • 10PM Friday St Patty's Party Specials & Prizes Friday & Saturday Live Rock N Roll "Second Nature" Happy St. Patrick's Day! "Erin Go Bragh!" 27th & South Streets 435-5708 Witness Continued from Page 1 electric chair. It was the longest two minutes Boellstorff said she ever ex perienced. During that time, she said, the room had a strained silence. Mike McKnight of WOWT-TV in Omaha knows that silence. He had turned on a tape recorder in another room when the witnesses met Otey to get his last words. When Otey shrugged at the opportunity and turned back to his room, McKnight said he dropped the recorder in his pocket and forgot to turn it off. For a long time, all that can be heard on the tape is a clickingof shoes on the tile floor as witnesses paced. When that stops, there is a long pause, he said, until the silence is broken by a dull thunk—the first of three elec trical jolts sent through Otey’s body. McKnight and Howard both said they struggled to concentrate during the moments the execution was being conducted. “Your heart is racing,” McKnight said. “I’ve got to keep watching,” he remembers telling himself after the first jolt. “This is my job. Just concen trate on what you see and write it down.” Then there is the finality, said Lin coln Journal reporter Bill Kriefel. There is the end to a case that has captured headlines and lived with the community for years. Paul Wice, news director for KGFW radio in Kearney, said he had flashbacks of that night every time he drove into Lincoln. He remembers the hours leading up to the execution in detail. The anticipation was more dif ficult than the actual witnessing, he said. “As a reporter, you tend to distance yourself from the case at hand,” W ice said. “But it’s the thoughts that go through your mind ahead of time.” For Boellstorff, it also was the thoughts that went through her mind afterward. She requested more interviews with Otey than she said she could remem ber—all were denied or ignored. She felt snubbed because of that, she said, and somewhat resentful toward Otey. Boellstorffhad covered the death pen alty and Otey case since 1987. She needed questions answered. But the night she witnessed Otey’s execution, Boellstorff said she left with the feeling that she had betrayed him. For several nights afterward, Boellstorff dreamed she was sitting in a prison room talking with Otey. In the dream, she explained to him why she had witnessed his execution. Boellstorff said she sorted things out that way. “Sometimes 1 still can’t believe Wili is gone,” Boellstorff said. “He was never a real strong presence in my life. But I watched him die.” *** Unlike Otey, Williams has shied from public attention and expressed remorse and guilt for his crimes. His execution date has been stayed by a court order only once. Thursday, Wil liams received his second rejection in three days from the federal courts whose favor he must gain to stay alive. Vince Powers, a lawyer for Will iams, said the requests had been made to allow time for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. One of the issues Powers might raise is based on an earlier decision of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That court ruled the state erred in Williams’ sentencing by applyingmea sures that were unconstitutional. But the ruling then allowed the federal appeals court to act as a state sentencing court, Powers said. The court reviewed the case and concluded e the error was harmless. Powers said it was the first time the; 8th Circuit had made such a ruling,; joining only one other appeals court in i the country. The Supreme Court has never decided the issue. Williams also can request a clem ency hearing before the Board of Par dons. He only recently gave his law yers permission to request such a hear ing if it was warranted. While Williams’ lawyers battled in the courts, prison officials began preparation for a second execution. Final witnesses for the Williams ex ecution were named last fall. John Cox, news director at KELN/ KOOQ radio in North Platte, said he remembered being numb with disbe lief when he first got a call in October asking the station to participate. “I have no idea what will happen,” Cox said. “Starting when March 1 finally arrived, you start very seri ously thinking about it — a lot. But 1 don’t think a day has gone by since October that I haven’t thought about it some. 7 have been a reporter < for 28 years. I have seem a lot of death and a lot of dying. But it goes without saying that one does not forget the sights, of watching another person die. ” ■ ED HOWARD Associated Press reporter “Whether or not it actually hap pens, it has been a very profound experience already.” Witnesses were asked to arrive at the prison by 9:30 p.m. on March 21. They will present a letter to prison security, certifying that they are ofifi-1 cial witnesses. Penitentiary officials j run through procedures to familiarize the witnesses with what to expect. Then they wait. Terri Teuber, a reporter for KOLN/1 KGIN television in Lincoln, said she l remembered waiting for the Otey ex-: ecution. She reported witness reac tion that night, and she remembers, their faces and their unease. “I don’t know if there is any way to prepare,” Teuber said. “If there is, I haven’t found it.” Paul Hammel, an Omaha World Herald reporter, said he was one of thd few betting the execution would be stayed. If not, Hammel said he had a re sponsibility to watch Williams die. “This is really a horrible, horrible: irony of our business,” Hammel said “This is one of the rarest opportunities for a journalist, yet it is likely to be one of the most horrible experiences. “I didn’t think twice about saying yes, but I’ve had a lot of second thoughts later about what I’m going to see.” The problems with executions lie in what the executions represent, what comes before them and the setting in which they take place, witnesses said. “It is a horrific thing,” Howard said. “But is my soul touched more by the sadness of that situation than it is by the sadness of an infant being slipped into a body bag? I would not make a comparison. They are not to be compared. “Each sadness that we are witness: to is self- contained.”
