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Opinion
University Daily Kansan, September 14, 1962
In search of a just plea
President Reagan asked Congress yesterday to tighten the law allowing criminal defendants to evade conviction by pleading innocent by reason of insanity. The president's three-point proposal also would make it tougher to appeal state court convictions and to avoid conviction because evidence is "tainted" or technically inadmissable.
Reagan called his proposed changes "common sense revisions" of laws that have most certainly been abused to protect the rights of defendants, even at the expense of their victims' rights. Nevertheless, Congress should be cautious in legislating what may be knee-jerk suggestions into law.
One idea concerning the insanity defense that has received wide support is the so-called "guilty but insane" verdict in which the defendant is acknowledged to be mentally incompetent but is sentenced as though the verdict were simply guilty.
his acts. If someone is truly insane, this cannot be the case.
This idea, however, has flaws. Its very wording suggests an incongruity: The law presumes that if someone is guilty, he can be held responsible for
The White House said it was seeking changes in the insanity law because existing law "permits the introduction at trial of massive amounts of conflicting and irrelevant testimony by psychiatric experts." This would not change with the guilty but insane verdict.
There are alternatives. One might be to change the burden of proof of insanity from the prosecution to the defense, as some states already have done. Federal law now requires prosecutors to prove a defendant is sane.
That verdict makes token reference to a defendant's state of mind, but makes no legal difference whatsoever. The jury might as well say the defendant is guilty but wearing brown shoes.
The Justice Department has studied another proposal that would eliminate the muddled insanity defense, but allow evidence of mental incompetence to be introduced as a mitigating factor in sentencing.
Absence of love, compassion breeds violent consequences
Last year, an fortunate — but fortunately unsuccessful—attempt was made to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Although the incident is rather outdated, the possibility of it being repeated is certainly high and is worthy of some reflection.
Since the ill-fated shooting of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, more than 12 other maniacs have been accused of murder.
HAL KLOPPER
marked for early deaths. At least seven of their assassins — and would-be assassins — had an eye-opening similarity in their backgrounds.
Each was victimized by a broken family line. Perhaps it is just coincidence, but the evidence is too powerful to be overlooked as such. For example:
—Charles Guitteau's mother died when he was 7 years old. His father beat him religiously. In 1881, Guitteau assassinated President James Garfield.
—John Schrank was always thought of as a loner. His mother remarried soon after his father died. He failed in his attempt to kill President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.
- Two months before Lee Harvey Oswald was born, his father died. At the age of 3, Oswald was placed in a children's home. He assassinated President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
-James Earl Ray's father helped to produce nine children and then abandoned the family. His mother turned to alcohol. In 1968, Ray assassinated the Rev Martin Luther King Jr.
Also in 1968, Siran Sirhan murdered presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. As a child, Sirhan was reportedly beat by his father, and there was a strong lack of love in the
This is not to say that every offspring of a broken family needs to be kept under surveillance for outbursts of violence. By all means, no. But in these particular incidents, this condition seems to have been a contributing factor towards those acts of aggression.
Perhaps these incidents of violence could have been prevented.
A bit of understanding and a lot of love were what these men needed the most. But during their young, most impressionable years, love impressed them and being the furthest things from their grasps.
one way of ensuring fewer future assassinations in the United States would be to amend the
Constitution to recall and outlaw all firearms available to the public. But, since we have a president who opposes gun control — even after a bullet rained into his own chest only an inch from his heart — this amendment seems unlikely.
Compassion, love and understanding, properly channeled, are more crucial than any government agency.
But what can best prevent such deaths does not need an act of Congress, but an act of love.
One can be blind to the sickness of hatred and coldness in this country. Without compassion, there can be no outlet for the strains of resentment and such hurts can have long-lasting consequences.
John W. Hinckley Jr. knows all about rejection. An article in Time magazine reported that in early March 1911, "John Sr. said that on advice from the family psychiatrist, he refused to let his son come home and suggested he stay at the YMCA. When John said he did not want to do that, his father told him, 'O.K., you're on your own. Do whatever you want to do.'"
Three weeks later, Hinkley nearly killed the president of the United States
John Sr. later said, "In looking back on it (what he told his son), I'm sure that was the greatest mistake of my life. I am the cause of John's tragedy."
John Hinkley Sr. cannot be singled out and condemned for his son's assassination attempt; no one individual can be burdened with all the blame for such a vicious act. Neither can generalizations about the son's family life excuse his crime.
But we should be able to respect John Hinkley's plea for love and understanding.
Expecting a verdict of "guilty" at his sentencing, Hinckley had prepared a speech. The last two paragraphs said, "From the start all I wanted was for someone to love me. I desperately wanted to be loved, but I never could give appropriate love in return. I seem to have a need to hurt those people I love the most. This is true in relation to my family and Jodie Foster. I love them so much that I have this compulsion to destroy them.
"On March 30, 1981, I was asking to be loved. I was asking my family to take me back, and I was asking Jodie Foster to hold in her heart. My love asked Jodie of the love of life. I am sorry love has to be so painful."
He held no grudge against President Reagan. He was "asking to be loved," not knowing how to present the question. But nobody was willing to give him the answer anyway.
If only he had received some compassion when he requested it and needed it the most, then maybe John Hinckley's distorted view of love would not have to have been so painful.
Lecture series need support
Why was President Reagan in Manhattan Thursday instead of Lawrence?
Because the University of Kansas, in at least one aspect, is educationally backward compared with most other universities.
As unlikely as it may seem, K-State students have something that every KU student should envy. It is not a winning basketball or football team. And with the opportunity that K-Staters have had since 1966.
Their educational edge is called the Alfred M. London Lecture Series on Public Issues.
But, Jayhawkers, take heart. You too can now partake of similar lecture opportunities through the newly established James Pearson Lecture Series — a lecture series badly needed on the
And our Wildcat counterparts are more than willing to help us establish our own lecture
"I'm just very happy about the development of the Pearson Lecture Series, and if we can help in any way, we'd be happy to," William Richter, K-State professor of political science and chairman of the Landon Lecture Series, said last week. "We'll do anything we can to help."
Richter's generous offer stems from his obvious enthusiasm for the Landon Series, an enthusiasm shared by most K-Statlers and patrons of the series. This enthusiasm filled Mr. Richter with confidence that president made his visit. President Reagan could have been speaking at Allen Field House.
The initial suggestion for the Landon Lecture Series was first broached here at KU. But administration officials let the idea die through lack of action. Consequently, K-State officials, bearing word of the thing, took to take a more active role, initiated the Landon Lecture Series in Manhattan in 1966.
The series was developed to honor former Kansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Alfred Landon. K-State administrators recognized the need to bring discussions of salient political and public issues to the students in the form of outside speakers. The nation series is one of the nation's better organized and nationally recognized lecture series.
I share that opinion. Before coming to KU, I was a student at KState. During my freshman year there, I was required to attend a Landon Baker event. I attended Baker, R.Tenn. Last week, Baker became the
first speaker of the University of Kansas Pearson Lecture Series. My attendance at Baker's Landon Lecture was a mandatory requirement for a freshman speech class I was taking. I to analyze and write a report on the history of landmines, but I don't remember what grade I received on the assignment, but I do remember being one of 1,800 K-State students sitting, standing and
LISA GUTIERREZ
quatting on the balcony floor in beautiful McCain Auditorium to hear the lecture.
I learned more about national politics from that lecture than I had learned from reading a whole semester's worth of national news in the week before. I listened to listening to what little television I watched.
Perhaps other student were at that lecture simply to fulfill a class requirement. But at least they were there. And as K-State students, they would have to attend, free of charge, all the Landon Lectures.
Student response to the Manhattan lectures, according to Richter, is "generally very positive," in terms of the number of students who attended. I get a feedback are very good," he said.
"A at heat at K-State, we tend to regard what happens in national affairs and international affairs," he said.
"We tend to it as ifiction, something in a textbook and not as real at Saturday night's date on Sunday," he said.
The Landon Lectures, he said, "create an impact upon them (K-State students) that this is an important part of their lives and the outside world."
From personal experience, I can vouch that what Richter said of K-State students can also apply to KU students. We tend to isolate ourselves from the outside world, depending on how much we are exposed to lectures or the 8:30 evening to spoon feed us condensed versions of political and public issues.
Last year, when John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Reagan, I inadvertently shouted the news to a fellow journalism student who said he would have heard that he heard me stopped in their tracks for a few seconds, quickly reconciled themselves to the fact that something atrocious had happened once again in Washington, and then nonchalantly on — some of them obviously unconcerned.
Too often, we lose touch with what is happening around us and have a hard time remembering that yes, life does go on outside the city limits of Lawrence, Kan.
Through the Landon Series, K-Staters have heard such public figures as Dan Rather, Chief Justice Earl Warren, former Vice President Walter Mendale, former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, former President Gerald R. Ford and then-California governor Ron Reagan, who on Thursday delivered his second Landon Lecture, the 58th in the series.
The Pearson Lecture Series could provide a necessary link to the "outside world" for KU students. University administrators, alumni and faculty participate in series with financial, as well as vocal support.
The Student Senate already has shown its support for the series in the form of a proposal to give $30,000 to the series to help pay the cost of bringing nationally known speakers to KU. But the proposal will remain just an admirable unless student senators follow on it.
Remember, we passed up the Landon series
opportunity some 16 years ago. Let's not repeat
it.
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