Mr - ---------:-—---—
Lotter execution date set
| By Michelle Starr
’i Staff writer
In a surprise decision Thursday,
the Nebraska Supreme Court set an
execution date for John Lotter.
Prosecutors and Lotter’s attorney
• were shocked by the April 26 execu
; i tion date.
“I have no idea why they set an
execution date,” Assistant Attorney
- General Kirk Brown said. “It’s not
something we asked for.”
i i Lotter and Marvin Nissen were
convicted in the 1993 murders of
Teena Brandon, 21, Lisa Lambert,
24, and Philip DeVine, 22, in a rural
farmhouse near Humbolt.
Prosecutors said the men killed
Brandon because they found out she
was dating a mutual friend of theirs
while living as a man. DeVine was
staying at Lambert’s house when
Lotter and Nissen came to shoot
Brandon.
Lotter was sentenced to death,
and Nissen received life in prison.
f* . -
ii I have no idea why they set an
execution date. It s not something we
asked for.”
The execution date came as a sur
prise because Lotter is scheduled for
a post-conviction hearing in
Richardson County District Court on
May 2, said Jerry Soucie, Lotter’s
attorney. ‘
“Certainly it’s a surprise, but it’s
not going to amount to anything,”
Soucie said.
Sometime this week, Soucie will
request that the court to lift the execu
tion date because of the pending
hearing, he said.
Brown said that the pending hear
ing should have made a difference in
the court’s decision to issue an execu
tion date.
Kirk Brown
assistant attorney general
But he could not speculate on the
court’s reasoning nor predict future
action because of Thursday’s unex
pected decision, he said.
Lotter must appear in Richardson
County court in May for motions
filed for a new trial and sentence.
The motions are based on alleged
statements filed in an affidavit in dis
trict court from Nissen’s cellmate,
Jeff Haley, that stated Nissen told
Haley he, not Lotter, committed the
murders.
Lotter previously had claimed
ineffective council during the trial
and that electrocution is cruel and
unusual punishment.
- REGENTS -
Board sets budget .estimates
REGENTS from page 1
not only say it wants to meet its peers
in faculty pay, but also actually do it,
he said.
i “We say we want to be at the mid
point of our peers, but most of the
time we are chasing the midpoint,”
he said.
Wilson advocated setting a high
er target for faculty salaries.
Smith agreed.
“Aiming for the average is not the
target we should aim at,” he said.
- . >■• Regent Drew Miller of Papillion,
said cost of living adjustments had to
be taken into consideration when
comparing NU to its peers.
-i- But Smith said even with the cost
of living factored in, the University
of Nebraska still trailed its peers.
UNL Chancellor James Moeser
said he supported a higher target for
salaries, but not if it hurt academic
programs.
“1 can only support the present
target,” he said.
“I do not believe our own faculty
Would support eroding academic
programs.”
Gail Latta, Academic Senate
president at UNL, agreed and said
Other faculty weren’t interested in
raising salaries at the cost of degrad
ing programs.
we neea 10 iook at our strategy
a$ we go forward,” she said. “We
heed to look at the impacts.”
Other items on the list included
increased benefits to accompany the
increasing salaries, increasing hinds
for library acquisitions, funds for
utilities and infrastructure upgrades,
money for deferred maintenance and
money to increase research infra
structure.
Also in the estimate was money
for increasing diversity among facul
ty, staff and students as well as funds
for scholarships and student recruit
ment.
The estimate of needs will be
pared down in the next few months
as officials determine what needs
can be taken care of through alter
nate sources of funding, said David
Lechner, vice president for business
and finance.
“This is the expense side of the
equation,” Lechner said. “Our
expenses change very independently
of funding sources.”
Smith said a formal budget
request would come out in June.
In other business, the regents .
renewed Smith’s contract of employ
ment to Feb. 26,2004.
Smith also passed out a report
that showed universitywide enroll
ment decreased by 0.2 percent since
last spring.
Stadium, Antelope
Valley ire community
By Kimberly Sweet
Staff writer
Lincoln residents’ complaints
over a proposed baseball stadium
and the university’s participation in
the Antelope Valley project filled
the public comment period of
Saturday’s Board of Regents meet
ing.
Community members protest
ed the University of Nebraska
Lincoln’s participation in the pro
jects, saying both adversely would
affect the surrounding neighbor
hoods in which they live.
The Antelope Valley Project
seeks to redirect traffic on 16th and
17th streets to the edge of campus
and bring a portion of the campus
out of a 100-year flood plain that
exists along Auitelope Creek.
The university seeks to develop
the land currently in the flood
plain.
The intention of UNL
Chancellor James Moeser and
those promoting the Antelope
Valley project is to wipe out the
surrounding neighborhoods, said
Barb Morely, a member of the
Malone Neighborhood
Association.
The plan would allow the uni
versity to take over more land from
surrounding, thriving neighbor
hoods, she said.
“According to Chancellor
Moeser,” Morely said, “all UNL
needs to do to become a great insti
tution is to stop through traffic on
16th and 17th, get a six-lane road
and take out old, dilapidated build
ings with federal funds by routing a
ditch through them.”
This plan, which would make
vast physical changes to the uni
versity’s landscape, is unnecessary,
she said.
“The criteria for awarding
research funds and judging first
class education do not and never
will include cul-de-sac campuses
and six-lane highways,” Morely
said.
Residents who reside in the
North Bottoms neighborhood,
which sits next to the place where a
proposed baseball complex could
be built, alsb expressed their oppo
sition to the project during the
meeting.
They said the neighborhood
would have an increase in traffic,
litter and vandalism if a new base
ball complex were built.
When the complex wasn’t used
for baseball games, it mightl be
used for events such as rock con
certs that would cause noise in the
neighborhood, residents said.
Sheryl Burbach, a representa
tive of the neighborhood, said resi
dents also were opposed to using
the complex for extra parking for
students when baseball games and
other events were not taking place.
The neighborhood wants some
demands met, including no daily
UNL student parking at the com
plex and no concerts at the com
plex, Burbach said.
The Board of Regents
approved the first step in the
Antelope Valley project despite
residents’ concerns.
The step allows the regents to
become part of a cooperation
agreement between NU, the city of
Lincoln and the Lower Platte South
Natural Resources District in the
project.
The Antelope Valley project
has progressed with a community
development component so that
the project will help, not hurt, sur
rounding neighborhoods, Moeser
said.
In the issue of the proposed
baseball stadium, Moeser said he
could agree to one of the conces
sions brought forward by the North
Bottoms neighborhood associa
tion.
He said it wasn’t in the plans to
use the parking lot as a permanent
source for daytime student park
ing.
But Smith said enrollment num
bers are on the rebound since drop
ping after the university adopted
more stringent admission standards
in 1997.
UNL’s spring enrollment dropped
1.2 percent from last spring.
Moeser said he expects the num
bers to be up in the fall. *
“I know we are going up in new
student enrollments significantly,”
he said.
RHA passes attendance bylaw
Jackie Blair
Staff writer
The Residence Hall Association
decided Sunday that it needs to
enforce attendance more strongly at
committee meetings.
RHA has several committees that
work outside the usual Sunday night
meetings. The majority of RHA rep
resentatives think that attendance at
these committee meetings is poor.
Part of RHA members’ duty is to
attend the committee meetings, and
there should be a bylaw to enforce
this, said Mike Butterfield, a junior
English major and Neihardt
Residence Center president.
Matt Knobbe, a senior computer
science major and Abel senator, said
there are lots of loopholes in the pro
posed bylaw and that each committee
individually should set its own rules
for attendance.
RHA ended up passing the pro
posed bylaw to be reviewed.
In other business, Jadd Stevens,
RHA president, said that RHA is
looking for a technology coordinator.
Anyone who lives in the resi
dence halls and has had experience
with computers and building Web
pages is qualified for the postion.
People interested in this position
should contact their local residence
hall representative for more informa
tion.
All the RHA senators received an
information packet on the fetal tissue
controversy. They will be giving this
information to students who want to
learn more about the debate.
RHA elections for the next school
year will be held March 29.
Applications are due March 19.
Anyone who lives in the residence
halls can run.
Did yen knew...
...Daniel Hale Williams, an African
American, was one of the first doctors to
successfully perform an open-heart
operation in 1893? w
The University Health Center celebrates
February as Black History Month.
University Call 472-5000 for
i Health Center an appointment.