Soldiers' release proposed
(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first of two articles concerning the Presidio question and responses to the problem. Tomorrow the University Daily Kansan will carry an exclusive interview with Mrs Leon Bunch, mother of Richard Bunch, the prisoner who was shot at the Presidio.)
By RICHARD LOUV Kansan Staff Writer
LEAVENWORTH - Robert MacAffee Brown, nationally-known theologian, proposed Saturday at a Conference on Political Prisoners in America, that amnesty be granted for many of the political prisoners now held in military stockades.
"Pressure should be begun on the White House to release the men who have, once gotten into the Army, ended up as prisoners because of their political beliefs," Brown said.
He said other presidents have granted amnesty for political prisoners.
Tom Cornell, secretary of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, and one of the original draft card burners, said 700 soldiers are now in prison because of their political beliefs, demonstrated by going AWOL, attending anti-Vietnam marches and a variety of other acts, and 2,500 are in litigation.
A former inmate of the Presido Stockade in San Francisco, and the Leavenworth Disciplinary barracks, Mike Martinez, said the average length of time for a prisoner in a military stockade to go without a trial is two months.
Mrs. Leon Bunch, mother of Richard Bunch, killed by a Presidio guard when he walked away from a work detail, told a Kansas reporter that her son never received a trial for going AWOL, and was in disciplinary barracks for nearly five months without a trial.
Focusing on the lack of real civilian control, and public ignorance of what goes on behind military doors, the speakers warned of what happens when the military is left alone in what Brown called "an increasingly militaristic society."
"The men who went AWOL because they could no longer cooperate with the military wanted to improve national life, not destroy it. We need those people back in the public forum. They have the sensitivity of conscience and view of the future that is desperately needed in this time," Brown said.
Though the conference was primarily interested in political prisoners, discussion moved to the conditions of
military prisons, and the lack of public awareness.
Paul Halvonik, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, defended Nesery Sood, originally sentenced to 16 years of hard labor for "mutiny." Sood took part in the Presidio 27 sit-down strike, following the killing of Richard Bunch. Halvonik described the type of work detail that Bunch walked away from:
"There are four prisoners in each work detail, followed by a guard with a shotgun. The guard is authorized to shoot to wound, but how can you wound someone with a shotgun at 10 to 15 paces?"
Bunch was shot in the small of the back.
"From what prisoners have said in signed statements, the guards play with their guns. One guard accidently shot a hole through a ceiling," Halvonik said.
"The Presidio stockade has room for 88 prisoners. On the day of the 'mutiny' there were 140 prisoners, with food being rationed for 115, including cooks and guards. Only four toilets were available for all the prisoners, and they backed up frequently, flooding the showers and the drainless floors with human excrement," Halvonik said.
In the last six months there have been 30 suicide attempts in the prison.
"The Army calls them 'suicide gestures,' as if they really didn't mean it," he said.
"One man slit his throat in a 'suicide gesture.' They patched him up and threw him in a 'black cell,' a cell with no light, no toilet, no chair, no radio, no mattress except at night, and all the windowless walls painted black. All this for a man who has lost a great deal of blood." Halvonik said.
Since the national controversy over the Presidio 27 started, the Presidio has been cleaned up, Halvonik said, and the number of prisoners has been reduced.
"But the investigators couldn't really have been able to see the entire picture. They weren't allowed to talk to any prisoners."
Martinez said he has talked to prisoners recently released from the Presidio who have said physical beatings, which were uncommon before the Presidio 27 mutiny, are now common.
"While I was in Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks, I was treated very well. I think the Leavenworth prison is the Army's showplace. I noticed a lot of groups touring it. They looked like politicians, but I couldn't say for sure."
Inside the UDK
Candidate's debate page 5
KU Relays page 6
Candidate interviews page 8
79th Year, No.114
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Monday, April 21, 1969
Narcotics arrests made
Five men and two women-at least five of them KU students—were arrested Thursday and Friday and charged with violating U.S. drug laws. They have been released on $1,000 bond, a Douglas County deputy sheriff said.
Those arrested were Mark Hamilton Auld III, 18, Overland Park freshman; Daniel Kirk Walker, Lawrence resident; David Walton Bouska, freshman living at Jayhawk Towers apartments; Ronald Frederick Casteel, 321 Kansas Street; Gary Steve Taylor, Wichita freshman; Connie Hale, Atwood freshman; and Connie Campbell, Lawrence freshman.
Law officers said the five men were arrested at 8:30 p.m. Thursday—Casteel and Taylor arrested at their homes, the other men at Jayhawk Towers—and taken to county jail by Douglas county sheriff's offices, officials of the U.S.
Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, and Lawrence and KU police forces. The women were arrested Friday. The official arrest was made by Vance Collins, U.S. Marshall of the Kansas District.
Law officers reported that they
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Weather
The U.S. Weather Bureau predicts clear to partly cloudy skies with cooler temperatures for the Lawrence area today. Fair tonight and tomorrow. Low tonight in the lower 40s. Precipitation probability today near zero per cent, tonight 10 per cent and tomorrow 20 per cent.
had made extensive investigations before the arrests were made, and incidental to the arrests, seized 280 dosage units of STP, a hallucenogenic drug, 50-60 grams of hashish, an oriental narcotic made from Indian hemp and 400 grams of marijuana.
Sheriff's office spokesman said Walker, Auld, Taylor and the two women would be charged with sale of LSD, another hallucenogenic drug; Bouska with possession of amphetamine and Casteel with sale of STP.
It was reported that no explanation of the charges of possession of amphetamine or LSD filed against Bouska and Casteel were immediately given by the arresting officers. Lawrence City attorney, Milton P. Allen said dates for preliminary hearings in a federal court would be set.
Photo by Ron Bishop
Navy ROTC queen finalists
Members of Navy ROTC have selected the finalists for the Navy ROTC queen title. Finalists are (from left) Margaret McCoy, Hiawata freshman; Pamela Reus-
ser, Cincinnati, Ohio, freshman, and Susan Yeagley, Marion freshman. The queen will be announced May 2 at the Navy Review.
UDK News Roundup
By United Press International
Decency rally ends in riot
BALTIMORE — Widespread fighting and knifing broke out among 40,000 youths attending a "rally for decency" yesterday. More than 100 were injured.
Police, using horses, shotguns and night sticks, were called in to quell the fighting which erupted as the youths were leaving Baltimore's Memorial Stadium in the Greenmount Avenue section, scene of some of the city's worst rioting last year.
Cornell occupation ends
ITHACA, N.Y. - Armed Negro students ended their occupation of the Student Union building yesterday, then stood over Cornell University officials who signed an amnesty agreement on the bottom step of the Afro-American Student Center.
In the seven-part agreement, university officials pledged to defend the demonstrators in case of any civil suits, to make the university responsible for any damages to the Student Union during the sit-in, to station a guard around the Afro-American Student Center 24 hours a day, to grant amnesty to all demonstrators and to drop disciplinary proceedings begun after past demonstrations.
Sirhan's life in balance
LOS ANGELES — Defense attorneys will fight for Sirhan B. Sirhan's life today when the penalty phase of his murder trial begins.
A seven-man, five-woman jury Thursday found the slight, dark-haired Arab guilty of first degree murder for the June 5, 1968 shooting of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
Under California law, the same panel must fix his penalty. For first degree murder, the alternatives are life imprisonment or death in San Quentin's gas chamber.
Yesterday the semi-official Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram predicted that Sirhan would be sentenced to life in prison because the United States wants to prevent his becoming a martyr in Arab eyes.
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