Wednesday, April 20, 1994
NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
7
Rodney King awarded $3.8 million
Compensatory claim is first phase of trial
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — The jury in Rodney King's civil lawsuit awarded him $3.8 million in compensatory damages from the city of Los Angeles yesterday for his 1911 beating by police.
The award was significantly below the $15 million sought by King's lawyers but well above the $800,000 the city said was a fair sum.
King was not present in the courtroom for the reading of the jury's verdict, which came on the fourth day of deliberations.
Compensatory damages are intended to pay for King's losses, including income and medical expenses. Only
the city was liable for compensatory damages.
A second phase of the trial, to begin immediately, will determine punitive damages. There will be 14 defendants in the second phase. They include the officers who beat King as well as officers who stood by at the scene.
The civil trial was the third courtroom action following the March 3, 1991, beating that focused national attention on police brutality.
In April, a federal civil-rights trial resulted in convictions of two officers now serving 30-month sentences for violating King's rights.
In 1992, four officers, including the two later convicted, were found not guilty in a state criminal trial — a verdict that sparked three days of rioting.
In the current trial, a new set of jurors was asked to decide how much money should be awarded to King to
compensate for his medical bills, pain, suffering and loss of employment potential.
At one point, King offered to settle with the city for $9.6 million; he rejected a $1.25 million counter-offer.
Though the city admitted liability when the trial began, its lawyers sought to minimize King's injuries. Much of the three-week compensatory damage trial was a battle of medical experts who disagreed on questions of permanent disability and brain damage.
King has experts who have said he has permanent brain damage causing mental confusion, blurry vision, headaches and an inability to concentrate. With publicity, they said, has come paranoia, transforming King into a fearful man who wears a bullet-proof vest and hesitates to go out in public.
Court bans gender-based jury exclusions
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, deyring "archic and overbroad stereotypes" about men and women, yesterday outlawed the practice of excluding people from furies just because of their sex.
such gender-based exclusions are as wrong as keeping people off juries based on their race, the court said in a 6-3 decision.
- The decision further erodes lawyers' traditional use of peremptory, or automatic, challenges to remove potential jurors without having to explain why.
Ironically, the decision was a victory for a paternity law-suit defendant, who says his rights were violated when a women-only jury decided that he had fathered a boy born four years ago.
Alabama authorities authored James Bowman, contending he fathered Phillip Rhett Bowman Bible. The boy was born to Teresia Bible on May 16, 1989, and a blood test showed
a high probability that Bowman is Phillip's father.
Ajury of 12 women decided against Bowman after a 1991 trial in Jackson County and ordered him to pay $415 a month in child support.
Nine of the 10 men in the jury pool were excluded with peremptory challenges made by state attorneys. Bowman's lawyer excluded the 10th.
Alabama prosecutors said the ruling left them unsure of how to pick a jury and opened the door to challenges based on other factors.
Alabama courts ruled that keeping men off the jury, even if gender-motivated, did not violate the equal-protection rights of either Bowman or any of the men excluded.
The Supreme Court said yesterday that the Alabama courts were wrong.
"Next will be age. I can see social standing. You can carry it to the extreme — hair color," said Dwight Duke, Jackson County district attorney, whose office represented Teresa Bible against Bowman.
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