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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 1999)
EDITOR Erin Gibson OPINION EDITOR Cliff Hicks EDITORIAL BOARD Nancy Christensen Brad Davis Sam McKewon Jeff Randall Bret Schulte I Our VIEW A matter of life Students reveal faults with death penalty Chalk up a win for college journalism. Last Friday in Chicago, a man who had spent 16 years on death row was released. A professor and a handful of students from Northwestern University did some solid reporting legwork, put two and two togeth er and saved an innocent man’s life. The man in question, named Anthony Porter, has an IQ of only 51. He was sched uled to die on Sept. 23, 1998. The State Supreme Court halted the execution two days proceeding it, however, because of doubts about Porter’s mental state. It also isn’t the first time that Northwestern students have saved someone from the death penalty. In 1996, four men who had spent 18 years behind bars were let go after Northwestern students found new evidence. While it’s a great moral victory for col lege journalism, what does it say about our legal system? About our police? About the death penalty? During the students’ investigation into Porter’s case, a prosecution witness allegedly recanted, claimed that police has pressured him. Does this sound like a fine system at ' work to you? Within the period of three years, a small group of journalists have snatched innocent people from the jaws of death not once, but twice. Death is irreversible. Once killed, peo ple have (on the whole anyway) not been well-known for coming back. Guilty or innocent. Staunch supporters of the death penal ties say that mistakes happen, things get overlooked. But do we as a society really want to make killing innocents a habit? If police were pressuring a witness, then those police were, in turn, being pressured by someone else. Politicians, citizens - someone somewhere along the line decided the truth just wasn’t as important as results. ivcsuu. /\u mnucem man wno uiun i have the mental capabilities to argue was sentenced to death. How many cases like this will it take? How many near misses are needed before someone looks at their hands and sees the blood on them? How many innocent people have to die before someone cries “Hold! Enough!” How many more before someone listens? Northwestern’s students have averted five disasters so far. Five times has the state been ready to kill someone not because they committed murder, but because they were the most convenient solution. The truth isn’t easy, and it’s not always the first thing we see. But truth doesn’t mean as much to a dead person as it does a living, breathing free one. Editorial Policy Unsigned editorials are the opinions of the Spring 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, its employees, its student body or the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. A column is solely the opinion of its author. The Board of Regents serves as publisher of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The UNL Publications Board, established by the regents, supervises the production of the paper. According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its student employees. Latter Policy The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor and guest columns, but does not guarantee their publication. The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit of reject any material submitted. Submitted material becomes property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published. Those who submit letters must identify themselves by name, year in school, major and/or group affiliation, if any. Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln, NE. 68588-0448. E-mail: letters@unlinfo.unl.edu. Telnaes’ VIEW — DN LETTERS Greek on! Thank you to all the people who responded to my letter in Monday’s DN. I obviously did not write it clearly enough to get my point across, as all the criticism I received was way off base. First of all, I am not saying only a resi dence hall student could fall out of a window. The scary fact is that the inci dent could have happened anywhere - greek house or residence hall. The fact of the matter is she was a residence hall student, and the unfortunate matter happened in a greek house after a night out (incidentally, they were off-campus that night). It seems by that scenario all demo graphics were covered the night of the incident Secondly, I have been accused of not controlling the greek system. It seems to me like whenever a member of the greek system screws up, it is the whole house that is blamed, and the whole system is tarnished, whereas if a student in the residence halls makes a mistake, it is that person singular, not the residence hall complex or die indi vidual’s floor, but one person to blame. One of IFC’s goals for the year is to improve relations with RHA, do some activities together, or do a philanthropy together to benefit a mutual interest. We are striving to be an inclusive system ramer man me accusea eiiusi society. It is much easier to hate a sys tem you are not part of. I know from personal experience. I have not been greek my entire time here on campus. In fact I was once part of RHA, yeah, you read that right My freshman year I lived in Neihardt, and was the represen tative from Piper 2 to the Neihardt council. My perceptions of the greek system were bad until I took the emerg ing leaders class, which was predomi nately greek. I wondered if my percep tion was wrong, so I rushed. I know the perceptions of the residence hall stu dents regarding the greek system, and I know perceptions of die greek students regarding the residence hall students. I can say that because the two systems do not understand each other, it is much easier to dislike each other. Mr. Scharfbillig, you say the inci dent last weekend hits close to home because you live close to Chi Phi. Well, I know Kara, as did people in my house, and I am responsible indirectly to help rectify the situation, so I know first hand that this situation can hit close to home. As far as your demand to apolo gize to students in the residence halls, like I said before, I too was once a resi dence hall student, and even back then I called the shots as I saw them. Michael L. Consbruck IFC president senior agronomy Think first... I am sorry to see that Jessica Flanagain, a senior philosophy major, does not employ better logic when writ ing her columns. According to Ms. Flanagain (“Out of Control,” Feb. 4), “it’s plain to see that women are using abortion as a means to absolve themselves from reproductive responsibility.” This kind of .statement strikes me as a sopho moric and simplistic analysis of the desperate situation many pregnant women find themselves facing. I find it hard to believe that most women who choose to have an abortion are as flip pant as Ms. Flanagain callously describes them. Abortion is a difficult decision; one that most women would not want to repeat simply for an “excuse to live recklessly.” In other words, this “whole run-to-the-abor tion-clinic trend” does not exist as Ms. Flanagain has presented it However, even if we were to (false ly) assume her premises to be correct, how many solutions does she offer for such an irresponsible trend? Answer: none. Like many “pro-lifers,” Ms. Flanagain only offers holier-than-thou criticism without any insight into her great plan for change. She is just more hot air taking up space. The issue of abortion is very com plicated, and Ms. Flanagain’s conde scending rhetoric fails to help anyone. I guess I just don’t understand this type of journalism. What’s the point of passive criticism? Come on, Jessica. Develop into a socially responsible journalist. Exercise your right to partic ipate in useful activism. Jennifer Edbauer graduate student English Who’s to blame? Let’s just take a minute to look at your point of view, Jessica. You have placed full responsibility of conception on women; it takes two to tango. You have placed no responsibility on the male counterpart in this sihiation. You have also not considered the mindset of young women, as they must decide whether to continue their pregnancy. Let’s just take off those blinders and expand your narrow mindset. Yes, let’s take a preventative instead of a reactive look at abortion. Let us start at the beginning. Let’s create a per fect world in which girls are bom with the same opportunities as boys. Girls would be valued in society, they would grow up to achieve the same education and earn the same income. Men would be responsible for child support and affording the child a fair and equitable life. Then maybe abortion would occur much less. But this isn’t a perfect world - many women find that they cannot achieve the same income as men, and many men don’t pay their child sup port. It might be a simple decision with financial support. You should help to create programs that are beneficial to women instead of bashing their diffi cult decisions. They should enable women to say, “OK, I can keep my baby and continue with my education and attain a middle-class life.” Yes, empow er women, give them the ability to live a fair life, not lower them to the poverty level. No, I’m sorry, Jessica. It is not a win-win situation. Once again, you have failed to see the whole picture. Take off your blinders and see the whole picture - pregnancy is not simple and abortion is not a simple decision. Theresa Gray junior sociology *Matt Haney/DN -
