8A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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NATION NEWS
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2002
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Man draws life in prison for shooting
The Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A man who gunned down seven co-workers at a software company was convicted of murder yesterday after failing to convince a jury he was so delusional he thought he was killing Adolf Hitler and his henchmen to prevent the Holocaust.
Michael McDermott, a hulking 43-year-old with long, shaggy hair and a bushy black beard, stood impassively as he listened to the verdict that automatically sends him to prison for life without parole. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty.
Prosecutors said McDermott went on his rampage because he was angry about the company's plan to withhold part of his salary to pay $5,600 in back taxes to the IRS. They said he concocted the story of being on a divinely ordered, time-travel mission to prevent the Holocaust after reading up on how to fake mental illness.
Prosecutor Thomas O'Reilly said McDermott deserved to die for his crimes.
The defense claimed McDermott suffered from depression and schizophrenia and was hallucinating during the shootings at Edgewater Technology in suburban Wakefield on Dec. 26, 2000.
The jury deliberated for nearly 16 hours over three days before rejecting the insanity defense and convicting the software engineer on seven counts of first-degree murder.
The trial featured chilling testimony from workers who hid under their desks or ran out of the building after McDermott began shooting. Some said they heard co-workers begging for their lives before McDermott blasted them with an AK-47 rifle and a pump-action shotgun.
McDermott matter-of-factly testified that he had been given the mission by St. Michael the Archangel.
Priests worry innocent men. gays may be suspended
The Associated Press
The Vatican summit of U.S. cardinals on ending the American sex abuse crisis has made many Roman Catholic priests wary that they will be sacrificed in a frenzy to restore trust in the church.
While clergymen remain committed to ousting pedophiles from their ranks, they worry innocent men will be suspended and priests who could be rehabilitated will instead be discarded.
Many also remain deeply concerned about comments from top-ranking prelates about a renewed need to bar homosexuals from the priesthood.
having been overprotected in the past, are concerned there may be a tendency to throw them overboard to save the ship," said the Rev. Philip Murnion, director of the Pastoral Life Center in New York.
Christopher Bellitto, a church historian and academic editor of The Paulist Press in New Jersey, said homosexual clergy have told him they are terrified they will be made scapegoats as the scandal draps on.
"I think that priests.
"There is a real fear among gay priests that they are going to be seen as the fall guys," Bellitto said.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said yesterday the prelates had agreed on a "one-strike-you're-out" policy on future sex abuse cases involving priests.
But McCarrick said there was still some question about whether such a policy should be applied in old cases that have recently come to light. Dozens of priests have been suspended since the scandal erupted in Boston in January.
The Rev. Robert Bullock, head of the Boston Priests Forum, a group of more than 100 priests formed in response to the crisis, called the "one-strike" approach misguided.
“It's so sweeping that it does not seem to me to leave room for the presumption of innocence. Even for priests there's a presumption of innocence," Bullock said.
Marianne Duddy, executive director of the gay Catholic advocacy group Dignity/USA, said she's been fielding calls from homosexual priests who are so frightened about the prospect of losing their jobs.
Estimates of the number of gays among seminarians and the 46,075 Catholic clergy in the United States vary dramatically, from 10 percent to 50 percent. Experts in sexual disorders warn there is no evidence that homosexuals are more likely than heterosexuals to molest children.
"The problem isn't being oriented one way or the other. The problem is whether you can live a celibate life," Silva said.
Jewel injured in fall from horse
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Pop singer Jewel was injured when she was thrown from a horse at the Texas ranch of her boyfriend, rodeo star Ty Murray, the co-president of her record label said yesterday.
Jewel, 27, broke her collarbone, her first rib and suffered bumps and bruises. Ron Shapiro, co-president of Atlantic Records, said.
"They've confirmed to me
Shapiro said the platinum-selling singer was vacationing at her boyfriend's ranch, about 90 miles southwest of Dallas, when she was thrown from the colt yesterday.
that nothing was life-threatening," Shapiro said. "But she is badly hurt."
An ambulance was not called, he said. Murray drove the star to his orthopedic surgeon for treatment. She will not be hospitalized, but will need to wear a collar and a sling for at least four weeks, said Shapiro.
Because of the accident, Jewel will have to cancel her promotional tour for her latest disc, "This Way." A European tour that was to have started May 10 in Italy is in doubt, but she should be able to go on with her U.S. tour, which is due to begin June 14 in Tampa, Fla.
said the singer, whose full name is Jewel Kilcher, was an experienced horse rider.
"I think it was a freak accident. She does ride horses very frequently," he said.
Only last month, singer Lyle Lovett was seriously hurt when he was trampled by a bull at his uncle's farm in Texas. He will require months of rehabilitation to repair his broken right leg.
"This Way" is Jewel's third disc. The singer has also written two books, including 1998's "A Night Without Armor: Poems." She made her acting debut in Ang Lee's "Ride With the Devil" in 1999.
Murray is seven-time winner of rodeo's all-around world title.
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