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CAMPUS: Journalism professionals discuss racial tensions and multiculturalism in the media. Page 5.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL.103,NO.100
KANSAS STATE
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1994
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
（USPS 650-640）
Death penalty passes in the House 70-55
NEWS:864-4810
Bill faces close battle in Senate
John Hanna
John Hanna The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Opponents of capital punishment lost their chance to prevent a death penalty bill from passing the House when the Democrats lost their majority in the chamber in the 1992 elections.
Had Democrats retained the 63-62 advantage they had during the 1991 and 1992 legislative sessions, it is likely that the House would have approved a bill mandating life in prison without parole, instead of death by lethal injection, for certain murders.
The biggest loss for Democrats was the seat of Marvin Barkis of Louisburg, the speaker in 1991-92 and the party's House leader for eight years. The Republican who replaced him, Jene Vickrey of Louisburg, voted for the death penalty.
In addition, another five Republicans who voted for the death penalty had defeated Democrats who opposed capital punishment in the 1992 elections.
"Because we didn't take care of the business of re-election, the death penalty passed," Rep. Ed McKechnie, D-Pittsburg, the House Democrats' whip said.
Legislators like to say that the death
penalty is not a partisan issue. However, relatively few Republicans in the House oppose it, and only about one in five Democrats are willing to vote for it.
*Republicans now have, 66 House seats, and the democrats have 59.
"The numbers just show that one difference between having the Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and the Democrats in control of the House of Representatives is that the players themselves are more likely to be proponents," House Speaker Bob Miller, R-Wellington, said.
The Judiciary Committee in the Senate has scheduled hearings for Thursday and Friday, and Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Hays, hopes to take a vote
the following week. The vote is expected to be close.
Even supporters' most optimistic predictions have a narrow version passing in a close vote. Both sides concede it might not get out of committee.
"I would say the votes in this committee are very close," Moran said.
"My guess is it's narrow in committee and narrow on the floor."
To bolster their case, anti-capital punishment lobbyists brought with them Michael Radelet, a University of Florida sociology professor who has researched death penalty issues for nearly 15 years.
Radelet has visited more than 100 death row inmates and attended their executions. He also has studied their
families, as well as the families of murder victims. He is the co-author of four books on the subject as well as 40 studies for various journals.
Radelet said he was trying to convince supporters of capital punishment that their picture of the criminal justice system is too idealistic.
"They envision a system that contains no racial bias, where only the worst of the worst are sentenced to death, where no mentally retarded or mentally ill people are condemned and where no families of death row inmates are punished more than the inmates themselves," he said.
The House approved the death penalty bill Friday 70-55. The really crucial vote came during the debate Thursday, when opponents backed an
amendment to delete all references to the death penalty from the bill.
That amendment failed in a 61-83 vote. In 1992, the last time the House voted on the death penalty, the proposal was defeated 68-65.
Vickrey voted against the amendment offered during Thursday's debate. Barkis probably would have voted for it given his past actions on capital punishment bills.
Five other Republicans who voted against the amendment — and for capital punishment — defeated Democrats who were opponents of the death penalty. The new legislators were: Joann Freeborn of Ames, Joe Kejr of Salina, Robert Tomlinson of Roeland Park, John Toplikar of Olathe and Kenny Wilk of Leavenworth.
Bernard Shaw accepts award
Free press vital to public's rights CNN anchor says
Tom Leininger/KANSAN
Bernard Shaw, primary Washington anchor for Cable News Network, signs Terry Anderson's book, "Den of Lions," for Eduardo Molina, El Salvador senior. Shaw gave the book to Molina because Molina said he wanted to be a journalist. Shaw spoke to a packed room Friday afternoon at Woodruff Auditorium, when he received the William Allen White Award.
By Stephen Martino Kansan staff writer
Bernard Shaw began his acceptance speech for the William Allen White Award by pointing out that he had a reputation for bringing disaster to locations he visits.
"You do not realize your risk of being in the same room with me," he said.
Shaw, who became the 44th recipient of the citation, delivered his remarks Friday before a packed Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union.
He told the audience that catastrophes often happened around him, particularly on the date of Jan. 17.
Shaw was in Baghdad, Iraq, on that day in 1991 when the Allied coalition began bombing the city, starting Operation Desert Storm.
The same day this year, Shaw was in Los Angeles when, at 4:31 a.m., he was awakened by last month's earthquake. From his hotel room at the Regent Beverly Wilshire, Shaw talked on the air with a Cable News Network anchor on what had just occurred.
"That proved that news can wake you up, and one element can be covered from a hotel window," he said.
Shaw delivered a 14-minute defense of journalism and its place in American society, but he said that journalists did not explain their role in society well.
"We do an utterly poor job of explaining to the American people what it is we do," he said. "Americans take for granted the free press we have. This country wouldn't function without a news media."
Shaw said that the public's negative impressions of the media were formed in part because people did not like the deliverers of bad news.
"But sometimes we deserve the criticism for sensationalizing things like crime and being slow to admit our mistakes," he said. "When we stray, we jeopardize what is precious — and that's the people's right to know."
However, Shaw said, newspapers — not television—were integral to the public's knowledge of issues.
"Americans take for granted the free press we have. This country wouldn't function without a news media."
"Newspapers will always be important to an informed American population," he said. "Seventy-five percent of the public get their information from TV. That means 75 percent of Americans are under-informed.
Bernard Shaw CNN anchor and William Allen White Award winner
"You must read newspapers, you must read magazines, you must read books," he said. "The essence of journalism is in the printed word."
Following his speech, Shaw took questions from the crowd of University students, members of the state media and others who attended the presentation.
Asked whether he was afraid during the bombing of Baghdad, Shaw said that he never tried to conceal his fear.
"In war it's pretty simple: One moment you're alive, and the next you're dead," he said. "The paranoia of fear is what gets you. You don't know what will happen next."
But he said that his job in Baghdad was to present the information as he saw it and allow others to make their own decisions.
Shaw said that he applied his four years of Marine Corps training, which he said was "superb." to the situation.
"Impressions and opinions are formed by the news receivers," he said. "Integrity
is a journalist's only currency."
Chancellor Gene Budig said before Shaw's speech that Shaw deserved the award.
"Bernard Shaw is a first-class individual in every way," he said. "He characterizes the high ideals of William Allen White."
In addition to Shaw's award presentation, the White Foundation presented two awards to Kansas journalists for exceptional work done during 1993.
The large-newspaper organization winner was the Wichita Eagle for a piece by Tom Koetting called "A Life Worth Living." It was a three-part series that chronicled the paralyzing injury suffered by Daniel Caliendo, a Wichita emergency room physician, and his road to recovery.
The small newspaper award was given to the Harris News Service of Topeka for a four-part series about a government water project that state Sen. Gus Bogina, R-Shawnee, profited from. Mike Shields of Harris wrote the story, and John Marshall, editor of Harris, accepted it.
Valentine's Day has come to the Kansas Union.
Valentine's Day has come to the Kansas Union. From 10:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., the Union will hold its annual open house for Valentine's Day. Last-minute gift-givers can buy flowers, create their own valentines or make their own valentine puzzles. Adventurous gift-givers also can decorate their own pair of boxer shorts.
Discounts also will be offered at the Kansas Book store, Food Services and Student Union Activities.
Dave Campbell / KANSAN
Homicides investigated
Kansanstaffreport
Police are investigating Lawrence's first two homicides of 1994.
Officer Todd Polson of the Lawrence police said yesterday that a homicide occurred at 1:13 a.m. Thursday.
"We are inviguraging the nomicide or an infant," he said. Polson said no other information was available about the homicide, but more would be released at a press conference at 4 p.m. today.
Police also are investigating the death of Curtis J. Thomas, 28.of Pierce City, Mo.
Thomas crashed his truck into a residence at 502 Lincoln St. at about 2 a.m. Saturday. He was transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital where he died shortly after arrival. No one at the residence was injured.
Police discovered that Thomas had suffered critical wounds before the accident took place. Thomas' father, Stephen Thomas, said he believed his son may have been stabbed as he left the Riverside Bar, 520 N. Third St., and was looking for help when the accident occurred
Polson said the death was being investigated as a homicide.
He said more information about the homicide would be available at today's press conference.
Kansan staff report
Services to be held today
Funeral services for KU student Jenna Robinson will be held at 2 p.m. today at the Peace Lutheran Church, 2500 Kimbale Ave. in Manhattan.
Robinson, a Manhattan sophomore, died in a car accident Thursday in Arkansas.
Jackie Vogel, a research assistant who worked with Robinson, said an annual grant for outstanding work in undergraduate research would be established in her memory.
Vogel said Robinson was working with her on cutting-edge research in cell division.
The Jenna Robinson Award will be presented every year at a symposium to display student work.
Memorial donations can be made to the Jenna Robinson Fund through the department of physiology and cell biology, Vogel said.
Amazing Aycock
Kansas junior forward Angela Aycock scored 27 points as the Jayhawks defeated the Cornhuskers 64-56 yesterday at Allen Field House.
Page 11.
KU professors assist in Evers murder trial
Jury selection questions help to detect juror bias
By Cheryl Cadue
Kansan staff writer
The conviction last week of Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader who was gunned down outside his home in Jackson, Miss., left Pete Rowland, professor of political science, satisfied.
"I literally jumped up in the air and yelled something stupid like 'Yes!' " said Rowland, a member of the American Litigation Analysts. "This was important to me personally and professionally. It was a a case of social significance and historical significance. I wanted to be part of it, but not part of losing it."
Rowland said he, along with Larry Wrightsman, professor of psychology.
developed questions for the prosecuting attorney to ask during juror selection in the Beckwith case. Beckwith was charged with the murder of Evers in 1964, but two trials — both with all-white, all-male juries — ended in mistrials.
The questions were designed asses the racial attitude of the prospective juror and whether the juror had sympathy for Beckwith because of his age, Rowland said.
"We had to figure out how to develop case themes to let, jurors go back 30 years, when Beckwith was 42, instead of the 73-year-old man sitting in front of them," Rowland said. "We had to show how a coward shot a man in the back in front of his own family and that it was not right in 1963 or in 1994. It was murder."
The jury that eventually was selected consisted of eight African Americans and four whites, and seven of the 12 were women.
Rowland said indirect questions — such
Rowland said the two trials in 1964 were mockeries of justice.
"Mississippi had to change a lot for this to happen," Rowland said. "Mississippi still has remnants or vestiges of the plantation history, which was built on slavery and racism. No question about it."
Sympathy questions — such as what the first reactions of prospective jurors were when they heard Beckwith would be retried for the third time — also were used.
as what the prospective jurors thought about Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday as a federal holiday — were used to discover racial blases.
"When I had a chance to reflect, I was struck by the wonderful irony that Medgar Evers had convicted his own killer," Rowland said of the trial, which ended on Feb. 5. "The work that Evers was killed for doing in 1963 reached fruition many years later. His work made it possible to pick a jury that was free of racial hatred and willing to convict Byron De La Beckwith based on the evidence."
"Nineteen sixty-four was the year when three civil right activists were killed by sheriffs and there were a couple dozen bombings in Mississippi, "Tuttle said. "A lot was happening in Mississippi. Any jury, especially an all-white jury, wouldn't convict Beckworth in that hostile environment."
Tuttle said he was even somewhat surprised the recent verdict was for conviction because the murder happened 30 years ago.
A
"If Beckwith had been convicted in 1963, I would have been floored," he said. "I'm even surprised now because it was so long ago and some witnesses have since died. I think it's quite wonderful he's 'been convicted.'"