Lethal injection bill faces
opposition in Legislature
By Todd Anderson
Assignment Reporter
Omaha Sen. Kermit Brashear’s
attempt to make lethal injection the
state’s method of execution was met
with criticism from Sen. Ernie
Chambers of Omaha during the
Legislature’s judiciary committee
hearing Friday.
Though the committee took no
action on LB 1308, a bill which would
change die method of public execution
in Nebraska from electrocution to
lethal injection, the bill incited lengthy
debate between the two senators.
Brashear said his motive for
proposing the bill stemmed from a
concern for humanity after hearing
Nebraskans speak at statewide public
hearings last year.
He said lethal injection would be
more humane not only for the sen
tenced prisoner, but also for those
administering and witnessing the exe
cution.
But Chambers, an opponent of the
death penalty, said the bill would make
it easier for death penalty supporters to
accept the killing, not more humane.
“Isn’t this bill’s intent to prettify
and sanitize the process?” he said dur
ing Brashear’s presentation of the bill.
“The things that make us humans
are supposed to be the things that sep
arate us from animals,” Chambers
said. “It’s not necessary for the state to
kill any of its citizens to carry out its
duties. Killing is something a civi
lized state cannot justify.”
Brashear said he was comfortable
with how the state chooses to main
tain order.
“When an individual act takes
someone’s life, it’s an irreversible, unal
terable consequence,” he said. “I’m
comfortable with die imposition of the
same circumstance on that person.”
Harold W. Clarke, director of
Nebraska Correctional Services,
endorsed the bill.
Correctional Services is the
department responsible for perform
ing executions.
Larry Myers, an Omaha attorney,
said he also favored the bill because it
would eliminate a “repugnant”
method of killing.
“We’ve all heard someone say ‘I
wouldn’t do that to a dog’,” he said
The National Humane Society
and the American Veterinarian
Society have banned electrocution of
animals as a form of euthanasia
because of the pain and suffering it
inflicts on animals, he said.
Marilyn Felian, a representative
for Nebraskans for Peace, and Christy
Hargesheimer of Amnesty
International both said LB 1308 was
an attempt to change the appearance
of state execution.
They said their organizations
oppose the death penalty no matter
what the means of execution are.
“All (LB 1308) does is conceal the
reality of cruel and unusual punish
ment,” Felian said. “Whether it looks
nice or not, a person is killed.”
Bill would ban executing
mentally retarded people
By Todd Anderson
Assignment Reporter
Though Nebraska has never know
ingly executed a mentally retarded per
son, Sen. Don Wesely of Lincoln pre
sented a bill Friday that would make exe
cution of die mentally retarded illegal.
While presenting his bill to the
Legislature’s judiciary committee,
Wesely said 30 mentally retarded peo
ple have been sentenced to death and
executed in the United States since
1975, including six in 1995.
LB 1266, die bill Wesely introduced,
would make it illegal to execute a men
tally retarded person in Nebraska. The
judgment of mentally retarded people is
so impaired that they can’t be held
accountable for crimes with a death sen
tence, Wesely said.
Most testifiers, including death
penalty opponents and religious lead
ers, agreed it would be morally wrong to
execute a mentally retarded person.
Thomas Riley, Douglas County
public defender, said mentally retarded
people have lower IQs than normal
adults and operate at the mental level of
a young teen-ager.
“A mentally retarded person never
:
would be able to form the intent equal to
that of an 18-year-old,” he said
The bill, if passed, could be used to
defend prisoners currently on death row,
Riley said, but it wouldn’t create a surge
of new appeals.
“If there are people on death row
who fit the definition (of mental retar
dation), they shouldn’t be there,” Riley
said “(The bill) would create meritori
ous appeals, and people don’t want that
to happen.”
Laurie Smith Camp, deputy attor
ney general, gave the only testimony in
opposition to LB 1266 on behalf of
Attorney General Don Stenbeig.
“The bill is unnecessary and gives
rise to lengthy litigation,” Camp said.
Camp would not say executing
mentally retarded people was morally
wrong.
“I believe it is an insult to mentally
retarded people to say they can’t be exe
cuted,” she said. “They have die ability
to tell between right and wrong.”
The committee took no action on
the bill.
All students invited to attend
student government conference
By Lindsay
Young
Assignment Reporter
Organizers of the
Big 12 Black Student
Government
Conference want to
make sure all students
are. invited to attend
the events.
And Alisa Mosley,
the conference’s pro
gramming coordina
tor, said tickets are
going fast.
The theme of the
conference is “Black
Love ... Restoring the w
Essence of the Black
Family.”
Members of Afrikan People’s
Union have been planning the
event, which is Thursday through
Sunday, for the past year.
People wishing to purchase
tickets can contact Venetria
Patton, APU adviser, at (402) 472
0249.
The Gospel Extravaganza, one
of the conference’s biggest events,
will be in the Cornhusker Hotel
Ballroom on Friday at 8 p.m. This
event is free, but the party follow
ing the event costs $15.
A step show will be held on
Saturday at 9:30 p.m. in the
Campus Recreation Center’s NU
Coliseum. It costs $15.
A step show is a rhythmic
dance performed by historically
black fraternities and sororities,
Leslie Bell, a conference logistics
coordinator, said. A party follow
ing the step show costs $15.
There will be a career and
graduate school fair at the Ramada
Plaza Hotel from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday.
Sixty-two recruiters are partic
ipating, Mosley said. A shuttle
will run from the
Nebraska Union to the
hotel.
All speakers will
be at the Cornhusker
Hotel. Anyone can buy
tickets to see the fol
lowing speakers:
■ Internationally
known author and poet
Nikki Giovanni will
speak Thursday at 7
p.m. Her poetry has
explored issues within
the African American
community and has
touched on socio
political issues. Cost is
$10.
'^^F ■ ur. juuanne
Malveaux, economist
and syndicated columnist, will
speak Friday at an 8 a.m. break
fast. Her research focuses on pub
lic policy, poverty in America, and
the labor market and its effect on
women and minorities. Cost is
$15.
■ George Fraser, founder and
chairman of SuccessSource,
focuses on excellence, economics
and perceptions of African
Americans.He will give a lecture
and workshop Friday at an 11 a.m.
lunch. The cost is $20.
■ Dr. Cornel West, Harvard
professor of religion and Afro
American studies, has conducted
extensive research on leadership
challenges, urban issues and the
effects on African Americans and
Jews. He will speak Saturday at
5:30 p.m. during a dinner. The cost
is $25.
■ Historians and authors Esra
and Meira Kwesi will speak on
Friday at 6:30 p.m. They are
experts in African and African
American history, fashion and art.
The cost is $25.
The conference hotline for
information is (402) 472-5397.
Corrections
A story in Friday’s Daily Nebraskan incorrectly identified Kelly
Hoffschneider. He is chairman of die Campus Life Committee of the Association
of Students of the University of Nebraska.
' '
A story in Thursday’s Daily Nebraskan stated that one of COMMITS party
platforms is to create a Welcoming Environment for International Students com
mittee. The party’s platform is to create a more welcoming environment for inter
national students.
Kelley serves as adviser; leader
KELLEY from page 1
to.”
Kelley said implementing the
forums were her greatest accomplish
ment while on the commission,
because they were a way to “give
voice to those who are not usually
heard.”
Goodwin said the chancellor’s
forums were just one example of
Kelley’s dedication.
Kelley was coordinator for a pro
gram that taught adolescent girls
about the changes they will face in
becoming women, and she also led
many university multiculturalism
workshops.
Her strength is her open ear,
Goodwin said, and her ability to syn
thesize everyone’s opinions into a
solution.
Leslie Bell, a senior biochemistry
major, said she could attest to the
effectiveness of Kelley’s communica
tion approach.
Bell said when she took Kelley’s
African-American Women’s
Communication class, Kelley let the
class lead discussions and was able
think on a student’s level.
“One thing about Dr. Kelley is
that it seems like whenever you need
to know something or have a question
she always seems to have the right
thing to say all the time,” said Bell,
who also is an APU member.
Scholars as innovators
Kelley, who has been teaching
intercultural communications for
nine years, said the field asks how
people are constructed by their
beliefs and value system and then
makes a “bridge to other people.”
Professors who presume to be
“intellectual” but fail to understand
student concerns are not effective,
f
she said.
“My belief is that scholars need to
be innovators,” Kelley said. “I don’t
believe in scholars that sit up in the
ivory tower.”
And what makes a good teacher
also makes a good leader, Bell said.
Bell said if she were to rate Kelley
as a leader, on a scale of one to 10, she
would get a 42.
You have to think
So what makes Kelley tip the
leadership scale?
Kelley said because of her family
and culture, she has never been satis
fied with the notion that blacks don’t
belong in certain areas, such as edu
cation.
My iamuy was always one mat
believed in your thinking and
activism,” Kelley said. “Do some
thing ... always be involved.”
Kelley said when she was in
school in the 1960s, she had no
choice but to be an activist.
“As an undergrad I was always
doing stuff out in the streets and
learned about a lot of people,” Kelley
said. “You have to be involved in all
kinds of things. You have to think and
you have to do.”
She learned the importance of
this from her mother who always
stressed education and hard work to
her eight children.
Kelley received a bachelor of arts
degree from the University of
Califbmia-Berkeley and a master of
arts degree from Howard University.
Her mother started college when
Kelley was 5. When Kelley was in
college, her mother got two master’s
degrees while working two jobs.
But when mat way of life gets to
be too much, Kelley said, she had to
lean on people who have experienced
what she has.
Sometimes she calls her friend
Brenda, another university professor,
for advice and a listening ear.
‘“They are treating me like a
black woman again,”’ Kelley said she
tells her friend. “And she’ll say, ‘I
know, I know.’ ”
Another person who keeps Kelley
going is her 10-year-old son, Elias,
who inspires her to work for a better
racial climate wherever she is.
“I have to explain racism in a way
he can understand it and how he can
combat that,” Kelley said. “I explain
to him how glorious he is as a person
and prepare him for when someone
will try to take away his self.”
Breaking shackles of the mind
Kelley said her biggest obstacle is
the many people who think black
people, especially black women, do
not belong in certain areas like educa
tion or in high financial brackets.
Kelley said sometimes when she
walks into a room of new students,
some automatically do not perceive
her as legitimate because of her skin
color and gender. It is a challenge to
be perceived as a part of the “human
family,” to which everyone belongs,
Kelley said.
Although slavery and the unjust
practices of the early 1900s are not as
obvious today, Kelley said, racism is
still alive.
“We have had body freedom for a
long time, but the worst shackles have
been on our minds,” Kelley said.
Realizing those shackles exist at
UNL, addressing them and seeing
racism affects all UNL students is a
goal Kelley has been - and will be -
working toward in the future.
“A leader is supposed to help peo
ple see that and what is happening to
them,” Kelley said. “That is the ,
biggest legacy I have.”
I
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THE DALY NEBRASKAN
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