State wants court to give
priority to Reeves’ appeals
66
All we re really asking the court
to do is give
priority to this case ”
Kirk Brown
assistant attorney general
By Josh Funk
Senior staff writer
Condemned murderer Randy
Reeves’ case could be decided as early
a's April if the Nebraska Supreme
Court accepts the state’s request to
expedite his appeals.
Attorney. General Don
Stenbeig asked the court Thursday to
act quickly so Reeves’ sentence could
be enforced. The request came one
week after Reeves was scheduled to
die in Nebraska’s electric chair.
Two days prior to the execution,
the court issued a stay to consider two
matters related to the case.
Assistant Attorney General Kirk
Brown, who is handling the appeals,
said that after 18 years of litigation all
of the questions in the case have been
answered. i
“All we’re really asking the court
to do is give priority to this case,”
Brown said.
But Reeves’ attorney, Paula
Hutchinson, said that these questions
have never been answered by the
courts, and executing Reeves would
violate his rights.
“Time-after-time, the courts have
agreed that this is wrong, but it is a
state question,” Hutchinson said. “The
state court has not answered it.
“We were always told we are in the
t "*
wrong court.”Reeves was sentenced
to death in 1981 for the murders of
Vicki Lamm and Janet Mesner, who
were killed in a Quaker meeting house
in Lincoln.
Since his trial, Reeves’ case has
been appealed to the U.S. Supreme
Court three times, the last in 1998
when the court determined that all the
issues had been addressed, Brown
said.
In Reeves’ current appeal for post
conviction relief, Hutchinson argued
that the execution would violate
Nebraska’s new equal protection
clause, adopted in November.
Hutchinson also argued that death
by electrocution is cruel and unusual
punishment.
The motion was rejected by a
Lancaster County District Court
judge Jan. 5, and then appealed to the
Nebraska Supreme Court on Jan. 11.
Brown said that if the appeal was
expedited, the court could hear the
case in early April.
“The post-conviction relief
process is the wrong vehicle to
address the issue,” Brown said. “All
the previous courts found that Reeves’
sentence was valid, and his rights were
not violated.”
The other matter related to the
Reeves case before the state supreme
court was filed by two family mem
bers of one of Reeves’ murder victims.
In their complaint, the family mem
bers alleged that the Pardons Board
violated their rights by refusing to
hear them.
Gus and Audrey Lamm, Vicki
Lamm’s widower and daughter,
respectively, have been lobbying state
officials since December to commute
Reeves’ sentence to life imprison
ment
A Lancaster County District
Court judge rejected that claim on
Wednesday, but Hutchinson said she
planned to appeal that decision.
HHS promises communication
Directors plan to improve relations with agencies
By Brian Carlson
Staff writer
The new directors of Nebraska’s
Health and Human Services System
pledged improved communication
with the Legislature and showed
breaks from policies of the previous
governor’s administration Friday.
In a briefing before the
Legislature’s Health and Human
Services Committee, the system’s
three directors discussed its ongoing
transition from five agencies to three
under a single system. The transition
began during the administration of
Ben Nelson, whose second term as
governor of Nebraska expired earlier
this month.
Nelson’s successor, Gov. Mike
Johanns, retained Jeff Elliott as
director of finance and supply. He
hired Dick Nelson as director of reg
ulation and licensure and Ron Ross
as director of services.
The three men spoke to the com
mittee Friday, vowing to work close
ly with both the committee and HHS
system employees still adjusting to
the system’s transition.
Elliott discussed the state’s part
nerships with managed care organi
zations to provide health care at rea
sonable costs. After a rough start, the
cooperation has improved, he said.
“I think vendors have continually
and steadily improved over time,” he
said. “At this point, we’ve gotten a lot
smarter and better at working with
vendors.”
Sen. Deb Suttle of Omaha, a for
mer nurse and member of the com
mittee, said managed care is “the
only program I’ve ever heard of that
everybody hates - doctors, hospitals
patients.” She encouraged the HHS
system to ensure that quality of care
was not sacrificed.
Elliot said the state must prove to
the federal government that it saves
money by awarding contracts to
managed care organizations. When
taking bids from managed-care orga
nizations, the state considers quality
of care as well as cost, he said.
Ross told the committee that the
HHS administration had abandoned
a Nelson administration policy that
would have used six districts
statewide to manage health care ser
vices at the local level.
“The plan to go out and create six
little Nebraskas is dead,” he said.
Ross also said he had terminated
a state contract with Liberty Health
Care, a physician recruiting service
that had been hired to recruit psychi
atrists. He said the contract was
invalid.
M-;
The plan
to go out
and create six
little Nebraskas
is dead.’’
Ron Ross
HHS director of services
Ross told the committee that he
would try to juggle the interests of
health-care recipients, system
employees, vendors, other agencies
and taxpayers in his new job.
Dick Nelson said one of his prior
ities was to speak to HHS system
employees who were unsure of then
roles in the new system and assure
them their contributions were impor
tant.
“We need to share our vision with
them,” he said.
Several senators said they with
held tough questions from the HHS
directors Friday because they were
new to the job. But Sen. Dennis
Byars of Beatrice said that wouldn’t
last.
“This is a honeymoon period, and
you all have long white veils, but for
long?” he quipped.
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Ask for the appropriate section editor at (402) 472-2588
or e-mail dn@unl.edu.
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I 4
WASHINGTON (AP) - House
prosecutors brushed off Democratic
fury and interviewed Monica Lewinsky
on Sunday, a move that triggered flesh
partisan convulsions in President
Clinton’s impeachment trial.
Three House prosecutors,
Republicans Asa Hutchinson, Ed
Bryant and Bill McCollum, arrived
mid-afternoon at Washington’s stately
Mayflower Hotel to interview the for
mer White House intern whose affair
with the president led to the Senate
impeachment trial. Lewinsky’s lawyer,
Plato Cacheris, arrived earlier.
Independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s
office also sent representatives.
The prosecutors indicated they also
wanted to talk to presidential friend
Vernon Jordan, who helped Lewinsky
in her job search.
The House managers said they
would ask substantive questions of
Lewinsky about her relationship with
Clinton. McCollum said he wanted to
question her about “her current state of
mind on the grand jury testimony that
she gave.” In that testimony last sum
mer, Lewinsky said Clinton never asked
her to lie about their affair
At the Mayflower Hotel where
Lewinsky was housed, concierge John
Dignan said the former White House
intern has received about a dozen mes
sages by phone and fax- some with off
color comments but most offering sup
port
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott,
meanwhile, said he would go ahead
with a plan to submit written questions
to Clinton, even though White House
lawyers - who first suggested the ques
tions - now say the attorneys would
respond rather than the president
In a move that shattered the Senate’s
bipartisan approach to the impeach
ment trial and caught senators from
both parties off guard, Starr’s office
obtained a court order to help the House
schedule the interview with Lewinsky.
Starr on Saturday obtained a court
order for Lewinsky to submit to the
interview, arguing that she had an oblig
ation to cooperate under an agreement
giving her limited immunity from pros
ecution.
U.S. attacks Iraqi sites
WASHINGTON (AP) - American
warplanes, threatened by Iraqi artillery
systems while patrolling the “no-fly”
zone in northern Iraq, attacked two sur
face-to-air missile sites in separate inci
dents Sunday.
It was the second day in a row that
U.S. jets enforcing the flight-interdic
tion zone met resistance and fired back.
A U.S. F-15E Eagle fired a preci
sion-guided missile and “suppressed”
an Iraqi SA-3 surface-to-air missile site
that threatened forces in the area, mili
tary officials said.
The missile scored a direct hit,
Operation Northern Watch officials
said in a statement. Northern Watch
operates out of the NATO base in
Incirlik, Turkey, to enforce the truce that
ended the 1991 Persian Gulf War and
bans Iraqi aircraft in the northern sector
of the country.
The American aircraft in the area
reported they were illuminated by the
Iraqi surface-to-air missile Systran, said
Air Force Lt. Col. Dennis Linn, a
spokesman at the European Command
headquarters in Germany.
A pilot whose plane is illuminated,
or locked on by radar, assumes he is
about to be fired upon.
Less than an hour after the first
attack, a US. Marine EA-6B Prowler
and two U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting
Falcons fired high speed anti-radiation
missiles after their aircraft woe illumi
nated by Iraqi systems.
The damage to Iraqi forces in the
second incident was being assessed—
On Saturday, American warplanes
were threatened by Iraqi MiGs and anti
aircraft ground fire, and responded with
laser-guided bombs on two surface-to
air missile sites in southern Iraq.
Planes from the Navy aircraft carri
er USS Carl Vinson, on station in the
Persian Gulf, are patrolling that zone
south of Baghdad.
Iraq has demanded that die United
States and Britain end what Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein calls “ille
gal” patrols in the restricted zones set up
ova* northern and southern Iraq to pro
tect Iraqi Kurds and Shiite Muslims.
President Clinton has said the bans
will be fully enforced because they are
central to the U.S. strategy for contain
ing Iraqis military.
Housing director calls for
honors without elitism
By BernardVogelsang t
Staff writer
Doug Zatechka, director of hous
ing, said he wants to get the best stu
dents to the University of Nebraska
Lincoln without becoming an elitist
institution.
Zatechka said making Neihardt
Residence Center an honors-only hall
and building a new honors hall may
raise concerns of the university becom
ing an elitist institution. But, he said,
UNL also has a big interest in getting
the best students.
“Better students bring in more non
state and non-student money,” Zatechka
said Sunday at the Residence Hall
Association meeting.
Zatechka said becoming an elitist
institution would be against the ethic of
the state of Nebraska.
“History proves that the University
of Nebraska always has offered good
education at a reasonable price,”
Zatechka said.
Beginning in the fall of2000, non
honors students now living in Neihardt
will be denied further residency
because of a lack of rooms for new hon
ors students.
Alter the senate meeting, Zatechka
said he wouldn’t let non-honors stu
dents who already live in Neihardt stay.
“New honors freshman students
have a top priority” Zatechka said.
Zatechka also spoke at the senate
meeting about the construction of the
$30 million Kaufman residential center.
The new honors hall will be built on the
parking lots north of the Nebraska
Union. The construction is planned to
start this summer.
Acting Speaker Dave Bums asked
Zatechka whether taking away the park
ing lots without the housing department
reimbursing Parking Services could -
lead to an increase of parking permit
prices. Zatechka said he couldn’t
answer that question.
He also announced that next year
the planning for another new honors
hall will begin.
“The new hall will be built some
where near the Cather-Pound and
Neihardt residence halls,” he said.
In addition, Zatechka announced
that housing costs for freshman students
will increase 5.3 percent for 1999-2000.
In other business, RHA elected
Dave Bums as the new speaker. Bums
was the acting speaker after Larry
Willis resigned in December.