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Thursday, March 18, 1993
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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IN OUR OPINION
Racial quotas have no place in jury selection
On Feb.18, members of the Congressional Black Caucus entered the United States attorney general's office to lobby on behalf of Rep. Harold Ford. Rep. Ford is an African-American congressman from the Memphis, Tenn., area. In 1990, he was indicted on charges of bank fraud totaling $1.5 million. The trial ended in a hung jury divided along racial lines. White jurors voted for conviction, African-American jurors voted for acquittal. Following the trial, the prosecutors were allowed to move the retrial to Jackson, Tenn., in order to find a more impartial jury.
After the selection of a jury consisting of 11 whites and one African American, Rep. Ford and the Congressional Black Caucus took action. They argued for moving the trial back to Memphis. This would put more African Americans on the jury and allow Ford to be judged by his own constituents. Stuart Gerson, the acting attorney general, was persuaded by the Black Caucus and overruled his own prosecutors. He sided with the defense by telling his prosecutors to move that the jury be dismissed and the trial be moved back to Memphis. The U.S. attorney in Memphis and two of his prosecutors working on the case were so outraged that they resigned.
This case represents a dangerous trend in reinterpreting the idea of trial by a jury of one's peers. What constitutes one's peers? Traditionally a peer has been interpreted in legal circles as an equal before the law. The action taken by the attorney general's office questions the traditional interpretation and puts forward a new interpretation based on race. Ford claims that, "The issue here is that I am not being tried by a jury of my peers." This statement assumes that race is the primary factor in determining the verdict and that whites will not give Ford a fair trial. To argue that Ford should be judged by a jury made up of only African Americans is as ludicrous as claiming that the defendants in the Rodney King trial should be judged only by whites.
Blacks have struggled for many years in pursuit of a colorblind legal system. A trend toward putting racial quotas on juries may represent a step backwards in the fight for equality. The federal judge presiding over the case, Jerome Turner, summed up the situation by saying, "It's a sad day, in my opinion, when an acting attorney general of the United States gives in to a demand that a jury must be selected by race."
CAROL PFAFF AND DAVID OLSON FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Science can help police fight threat of terrorism
The arrest of a man living in New Jersey has marked the first break in the investigation of the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Coming less than a week after the explosion, that development reveals encouraging things about modern law enforcement and teaches somber lessons about the persistence of terrorism.
(The) arrest of Mohammed Salameh was a tribute to the hard work and expertise of the local police and federal agents who have been working on the case since the bombing ...
Thanks to their exploitation of modern forensic science, the truck used in the bombing was found.
Police said they were led to Salameh through that truck and
other evidence.
Science, teaming up with oldfashioned police work, provides a measure of hope that a truly effective antidote to terrorism may be found.
Some of these same techniques were used in the successful investigation of the bombing of Pam Am Flight 103 in 1988.
But terrorism remains a threat, even though many Americans thought it had subsided with the release of journalist Terry Anderson and the end of the Middle East hostage crisis.
The bombing shatters that complicacy.
The Journal Milwaukee
All the educational TV a kid needs
MOM AND DAD CAN
LEARN FROM IT TOO!
Student senators rejected a motion for a referendum on February 24th that would have allowed students to vote on a $3 increase in the student activity fee. The referendum would have been held in conjunction with the Student Senate elections April 14-15.
The senators voting "no" on the motion for a referendum voted to let Senate determine the fate of the fee increase. Senators whose names are marked in BOLD type and are undergoing re-election
Yes
Julie Chadwell
Patrick Eagleman
Jeff Fale
Jonathan Folland
Travis Harrod
Chander Jayaraman
Jason McIntosh
No
Marisol Romero
Marcie Rosenbaum
Liz Shanker
Daron Sinkler
Jeff Bottenberg
Tara Calhoun
Ken Martin
Ed Austin Jill Bechtel Peter Braithwaite
Tim Dawson
Doug Deady
Patrick Dilley
Scott Espinosa
Kristen Evilsizer
Jason Frahm
Natalie Greenstreet
Amy Hizer
Kevin Jennings
Leslie Lancaster
Kristin Lange
Kristin Lange
Kara Laricks
Courtlandt McQuire
Eric Medill
Nikki Millard Shannon Newton
Ben Schwartz
John Schwartz
John Shoemaker
Marian Taylor
Robert Thompson
Not Voting:
Alan Tikwart
Shanda Vangas
Mohammed Wahab
Chairman
Shelly Witt
Source: Student Senate
Steve Yates
Ajay Kumar
Colin Fernandes
Pat Thelen
Kristy Abel
Brad Bermthal
Phil Freker
Wendy Hills
Mary Male
Munish Malik
Jennifer McFarlane
Brent Reder
Chad Seymour
Jean Winter
Jennifer Zuco
National pastime nothing more than simple economics
The Kansan editorial board left behind its knowledge of rudimentary economic principles when they condemned the "greedy owners and players" of baseball. Baseball players, like everyone else, have to make a living too. It would therefore seem natural that they take the highest
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The market takes care of such things on its own. If a team is paying its players too much money, that team will soon be bankrupt. If a player has a skill that others are willing to pay him for, why should his compensation be artificially kept lower than his worth to the team.
salary offer, even if that salary seems ridiculously high.
The Kansan also condemns the teams for charging inflated ticket prices. Do they not know how supply and demand works? If the ticket
prices were too high, people would stop going. Then the team's profits would fall and they would have to lower their prices in order to entice more fans.
My advice for the editorial board:
Take an introductory class in economics. Until then, stop commenting on subjects where your knowledge is so obvious limited.
Scot Hill Andover junior
Senate fails the students by rejecting referendum
Student Senate campaigns are already under way, and there should not be any coalitions or candidates giving the same song and dance about working for the student's best interest. — especially if they were part of the disgraceful vote against student empowerment a few weeks ago.
Like the federal government, Senate is partial to spending more money than it has. But Senate cannot run a deficit. Thus the two alternatives are either cutting spending or raising student fees. Student senators abhor the former and find the latter too easy.
The budget process worked its way through the Senate bureaucracy. Finance Committee leveled its recommendations to Senate which included few notable cost cuts with the exception of Legal Services. Its budget was wrought with spending increases, some of them justified, such as Saferade, an extremely successful Senate operation.
But the Senate budget is also full of pork. Groups like KU Forensics were unable to quantify how much of their money goes to support programs which the entire student body can participate in. Instead, most of the forensics budget is spent paying travel expenses for 20 to 25 students. If KU Forensics is so important to the academic mission of this University then let the administration, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences or the communications department pay for it, not students.
Senate does have an obligation to provide certain services for the fees that it collects. The Kansan has editorialized in the past about the effectiveness of organizations such as Legal Services, Saferide and campus transportation. However, Senate doesn't always seem to be getting the bang for the buck. Instead, money is spent on special interest groups which fail to serve or even offer service to the majority of students.
It soon became obvious to many people involved in Senate that if they were going to keep their spending ways up, they were going to have to raise fees. A nameless bill — apparently no one had the courage to take responsibility for their idea — was generated by the Finance Committee. The bill was presented in Senate and immediately a motion was made for a student referendum.
This referendum would have been held at the same time as the Senate general elections in April. The referendum would be a fitting idea for senators who base so much of their credibility on "reaching out to students."
The referendum idea was easily shot down by Senate, which later that same evening passed the bill to increase the student activity fee. Senators offered arguments like "students don't know what they will be voting on" and "it's our job, not the students."
It is this ignorant mentality that Senate thrives on. As long as students are left in the dark, Senate will be able to keep increasing student fees and justifying them as wise judgments.
KANSAN STAFF
It is time for a corporate effort to improve Senate/student communication. Students need to become more informed about the events that affect them and Senate needs to give students a forum for their voice.
Editorial Editor Stephen Martino is an Olathe senior majoring in political science.
GREG FARMER
Editor
STEVE PERRY
Business manage
GAYLE OSTERBERG
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Mystery Strip
By David Rosenfield
THE BEST ADVICE
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