Section A·Page 8
The University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Friday, March 5, 1999
Marine acquitted of 20 deaths in Italy
Italians decry verdict, seek proper justice
The Associated Press
ROME — Italians were outraged and bitter yesterday at the acquittal of a Marine pilot who killed 20 people when his jet ripped through a gondola cable in the Italian Alps. One official called the verdict "a punch in the stomach."
"It's a shameful verdict," said Klaus Stampfli, the son of one of the victims, Maria Steiner, a 60-year-old retired shopkeeper from northern Italy.
stampf1 attended part of the courtmortial of Capt. Richard Ashby, 31, at
the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
the Marine base at Camp Jeune, N.C. Ashby was acquitted of all charges Thursday, including 20 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the Feb. 3, 1998, tragedy.
"It was certainly not a serious trial, not as serious as it would have been in Italy," said Stampfl.
Steiner was one of three Italians who died, along with two Poles, seven Germans, five Belgians, two Austrians and one Dutch person.
"The verdict is disturbing — we expected that justice would be done." Italian Premier Massimo D'Alema told RAI state television in an interview from the United States, where he was to meet today with President Clinton.
"We are asking for justice, and we shall explore all the legal ways to ensure that those who are responsible are held liable," D'Alema told reporters.
The accident caused an uproar in
Europe and strained relations between Italy and the United States.
Italy is a NATO ally and hosts a number of military bases important to the United States and to the alliance. The accident prompted calls in some quarters to close down the bases.
The mayor of Cavalese, Mauro Gilmozzi, called the verdict "the defense of a war machine."
It took place during a training mission in the Italian Alps out of the Aviano base. Ashby's EA-6B Prowler, a fourman radar-jamming jet, severed the cables in a valley near Cavalese, Italy.
Lorenzo Dellai, the president of Trento province where Cavaleese is located, said the acquittal was "a punch in the stomach."
Fausto Bertinotti, the head of the Communist Refoundation party, renewed his demand that NATO bases in Italy be closed and called the verdict a violation
of Italy's national sovereignty.
"The victims didn't get the justice they deserved," he said. "This is not only the acquittal of a pilot, this is the acquittal of an entire system."
Attorneys for the victims are seeking damages from the U.S. government.
"We had said before that U.S. justice couldn't handle the case, and we were right," said lawyer Giuseppe Pontrelli, head of a citizens' group formed after the tragedy.
The reaction in parliament was equally bitter.
Achille Occhetto, president of the lower house's foreign affairs committee, said, "In the face of many dead, and such clear responsibility, this verdict is an act of arrogance and prevarication."
acute allegiance and pressure
The leader of the Greens, Mauro País,
san, called the verdict outrageous and
an offense to the 20 dead.
"I injustice has been done," he said
Two men admit to killing gay man, charged in death
The Associated Press
SYLACAUGA, Ala. — Two men who claimed to be angry about a sexual advance by a gay acquaintance plotted his murder for two weeks, then beat him to death with an ax handle and burned the body on a pyre of old tires, police said yesterday.
Steven Eric Mullins, 25, and Charles Monroe Butler Jr., 21, were charged with murder in the slaying of Billy Jack Gather, 39. They were lailed on $600,000 each.
The charges brought by police carry a maximum of life in prison. But a grand jury could indict the men on charges punishable by death.
The Feb. 19 slaying outraged Gaither's friends in this central Alabama town, along with civic leaders and gay rights organizations that kept the motive for the slaying quiet for days to help police catch the killers.
Butler confessed Monday after saying he couldn't sleep, and Mullins admitted his involvement two days later while in jail on an unrelated charge, sheriff's Deputy Al Bradley said.
Mullins and Butler, who apparently knew
Gaither from going to the same bars around town, claimed that Gaither made a pass at them, Bradley said. The two then decided on a murder plan, the deputy said.
Mullins and Gaither went to pick up Butler at a nightclub, where he was playing in a pool tournament, Bradley said. The three men went to a secluded boat ramp, where Gaither was beaten and thrown in the trunk of his own car, then was taken to the trash-strewn banks of Peckerwood Creek, the deputy said.
Badley said two tires were set on fire with kerosene.
"They took him out of the trunk, took an ax handle and beat him to death," he said. "Then they put the body on the fire."
Friends, most of whom knew Gaither was gay, said they did not believe he would make a sexual advance on the men.
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Alabama learned of the killing through a contact in the area and notified authorities.
Tracey Conaty of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, said Alabama was one of 19 states with hatecrime laws that don't cover offenses related to sexual orientation.
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Shawnee County commissioners want the sheriff to resign amid questions about how much he knew of a former deputy's cocaine addiction and the disappearance of drugs from an evidence locker.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Dave Meneley is digging in, alleging that a local newspaper and the mayor of Topeka are involved in a conspiracy to discredit him. He said he had no intention of resigning.
The three county commissioners called for Menley's resignation Tuesday, and were poised to approve a letter at their meeting scheduled yesterday formally asking him to step down.
Cpl. Timothy Oblander, who resigned as a deputy last Friday, admitted Monday that he had been addicted to cocaine and lied about it, including under oath. He previously had said he had sought treatment for alcoholism.
Oblander issued a news release the same day District Judge Eric Rosen made public portions of records from treatment Oblander sought for his addiction in 1995. Of the 20
excerpts, 18 mentioned cocaine addiction.
Meneley previously corroborated Olander's initial version of events, that the deputy sought treatment only for alcoholism. Meneley said Monday that Olander had lied to him and the deputy's statement was the first he knew of Olander's drug addiction.
meneley, who has been sheriff since 1983, told listeners on WIBWAM radio's "Let's Talk" program that Mayor Joan Wagonn and The Topeka Capital-Journal were conspiring against him.
The paper called for Meneley's resignation in an editorial published Tuesday. Meneley said the editorial was part of an ongoing effort by the paper and Wagon to force him from office because of his opposition to the consolidation of the sheriff's department and the Topeka Police Department.
Meneley said a friend reported overhearing Wagnon and Michael Ryan, the Capital-Journal's editorial page editor, discussing a plan to discredit him.
Wagnon said she had no such conversation with Ryan.
Roe vs. Wade author dies after surgery
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Harry A. Blackmun knew he would be remembered forever as the author of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. But he always hoped his 24-year tenure on the high court would yield a broader legacy.
"I hope I would be remembered as a person of judicial integrity who wrote acceptably well and contributed in more than one field," he once told The Associated Press. "I'd like to be known just as a good worker in the vineyard who held his own and contributed generally to the advancement of the law."
Blackmun died yesterday from complications following a hip-replacement surgery performed nine days ago. He was 90 and had retired as a Supreme Court justice in 1994.
To those who didn't know him, Blackmun might have seemed a cranky old guy. On the bench, he often displayed a judicial scowl and could be snappish with lawyers.
But when Blackmun took off the judicial robe and put on one of the ever-present cardigan sweaters he wore in his offices, warmth and humor emerged.
In a 1990 interview, Blackmun called himself one of the high court's "three old goats" whose inevitable departure, he predicted, would solidify conservative domination of the court for the next 40 or 50 years.
He was 81 at the time. Fellow Justices William J. Brennan and Thurgood Marshall were 84 and 82, respectively. Both retired shortly thereafter.
"Time will take its toll on the three old goats," Blackmun said. "We will be replaced by appointees of the current administration or the next one, which is probably going to be another Bush administration. So it seems to me that before too long the court could be nine conservatives, and that surely will last well into the next century."
He was wrong. Bill Clinton beat George Bush in the 1992 election and picked Blackmun's successor, Stephen G. Breyer. Clinton also named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the high court.
Bader Ginsburg once was called a conservative, but in later years was called a liberal. He believed he always was somewhere in between.
"One has to develop his attitude toward the (Constitution's) great phrases," he once told an interviewer. "What does equal protection mean? What is cruel and unusual punishment? I would hope that I have grown in that respect over the years. But as far as shifting from conservatism to liberalism, I don't believe I have done that."