Section A·Page 9
The University Daily Kansan
Friday, March 3, 2000
Nation/World
Michigan shooting to prompt charges
Clinton pushes gun safety bills
The Associated Press
MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Prosecutors will seek an involuntary manslaughter charge against a 19-year-old man who had possession of a stolen gun later used by a 6-year-old boy to shoot a classmate, authorities said yesterday.
The charge would require the state to show gross negligence by Jamelle James for allowing the youngster to obtain the .32-caliber semiautomatic gun used in the classroom shooting of Kayla Rolland, Prosecutor Arthur 'Busch said.
The complaint also will allure that James contributed to the delinquency of a minor and as a result, the manslaughter was committed, Busch said.
Conviction on the manslaughter charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
"I hope this prosecution can send a message to America that those guns that you think can make you safer can make our community more dangerous," he said.
James, who surrendered Wednesday, was cooperative during questioning by local investigators and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, authorities said.
Busch said investigators believed the gun used in the shooting had been left, apparently loaded, under James' blankets in a bedroom at the house where the boy staved.
He said James was jailed on outstanding warrants and miscellaneous charges.
Police also arrested the boy's uncle, Sir Marcus B. Winfrey, late
Tuesday on an outstanding felony warrant. Busch said.
Authorities had said earlier that the gun had been stolen. Investigators also found a stolen 12-gauge shotgun and drugs in the house, the prosecutor said.
Busch refused yesterday to discuss specifics about the investigation or any statements James may have made to investigators.
The boy told police that Tuesday's shooting was an accident and that he had only been trying to scare the girl. Busch said earlier,
The shooting, and a rampage Wednesday outside Pittsburgh, prompted a renewed call for gun safety legislation yesterday by President Clinton. Clinton said he hoped to meet with House and Senate leaders next week to push for two bills he says are stalled in Congress.
Geoffrey Flienger, Jack Kevorkian's former lawyer, Flienger said Kayla's father, Rick Rolland, contacted him about the possibility.
Kayla's family is considering a lawsuit against school officials, said
At a school board meeting Wednesday night, some parents asked the school district to install metal detectors, security cameras and teachers' aides in every classroom.
They also asked Superintendent Ira Rutherford what the district could have done to prevent the shooting.
"If there was a simple answer, we would have done it 20 years ago," Rutherford told the 150 people at the meeting. "We've agonized about this." He did not say whether the district would install metal detectors.
"No one had even conceived of metal detectors in elementary schools before now," he said. "Sometimes we have to do things to make people feel safe."
The Associated Press
LONDON — Former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet departed Britain a free man yesterday, ending a 16-month legal saga heralded for establishing that former leaders accused of human rights abuses are not immune from prosecution abroad.
Former Chilean dictator leaves Britain a free man
"This has been an unprecedented case. Both I and the courts have had to navigate in uncharted territory." Home Secretary Jack Straw told the House of Commons after ruling that the 84-year-old general was mentally unfit to be extradited to Spain for trial on torture charges.
Straw also dismissed extradition requests from three other nations that contended their citizens were victims of Pinochet's regime — Belgium, France and Sui.
Pinochet, who doctors say suffered brain damage when he experienced two small strokes last fall, left Britain yesterday afternoon and was expected to arrive in Santiago, Chile, today after an undisclosed stopover en route.
The former dictator issued no comment as his detention in Britain came to an end, but his eldest son, Augusto Marco Antonio, said in the Chilean capital that his father received the news of his freedom calmly and without emotion.
While human rights groups expressed dismay at Straw's ruling, they also applauded the British and Spanish courts for decisions that strengthened the reach of an international law against torture that had been little known despite ratification by dozens of countries.
Under the law, which Britain adopted in 1988, torture became an international crime that any nation may prosecute and from which no one enjoys immunity.
Oil production may increase in effort to reduce prices
The Associated Press
LONDON — Three major petroleum-exporting countries recommended a boost in crude oil production yesterday to ease a world shortage and trim the high prices consumers pay for home heating oil and gasoline.
"This market needs to see real barrels, not promises," said Peter Gignoux of Salomon Smith Barney in London. "That's what's going to bring prices down."
A final decision likely will come at a long-anticipated meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna on March 27.
But the oil ministers from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico wouldn't specify the amount or timing and oil industry analysts said this lack of specifics meant prices weren't likely to ease significantly any time soon.
maintain stability in the markets," Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said during a news conference yesterday. "We recognize that there is a need for additional production. The issue is when and much."
"Uppermost in our minds is to
Oil exporters inside and outside of OPEC cut production in 1988 and 1999 to boost historically low prices.
As a result, crude has soared from $10.72 a barrel on Dec. 10, 1998, to a nine-year high on Wednesday of $31.77 in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Heating oil prices have doubled in some areas of the northeastern United States this winter, and U.S. gasoline prices have neared an average of $1.50 a gallon, an all-time high.
Saudi Arabia is the world's No. 1 oil exporter, and Venezuela has the third-largest output in OPEC. Mexico is a major non-OPEC producer.
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