national
Battalion/Page
September 8,1£
Professor predicts
pageant winner
United Press International
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. —
The computer that last year’s
Miss Texas, Sheri Ryman of
Texas A&M University, says
may have cost her the Miss
America crown predicted Miss
North Carolina will be the 1982
pageant winner.
“I was shocked. I didn’t think
I’d be the statistical choice,” Eli
zabeth Gray Williams said Mon
day as she prepared for the
beauty and talent show.
“But it’s going to be taken
very lightly. I’d rather be the
judges’ choice than the compu
ter’s.”
Dr. George Miller, a North
ern Illinois University statistics
professor who picked winners in
1979 and 1980 before failing last
year, has predicted that Wil
liams, a tall, green-eyed brunet
te, will win because she best fits a
composite drawn by a computer
programmed with data about
former pageant queens.
Miller’s 1981 choice, Ryman,
said the publicity may have
affected the judges and prob
ably cost her the crown. But Wil
liams does not believe she will
suffer that fate.
“I don’t think it will affect the
Reporter free
after jail stay
United Press International
' BOSTON — The Mas
sachusetts Executive Council,
Tuesday, freed a Boston Herald
American reporter jailed for re
fusing to testify against a news
source in a 1978 murder case.
The vote was 6-0 in favor of
commuting a 90-day prison
sentence to time served, eight
days. One councillor abstained
and one was absent,
Reporter Paul Corsetti,
clean-shaven and wearing a blue
blazer instead of the prison
greens he had been wearing for
eight days, told the emergency
meeting, “I have had to live with
this every day for 2‘A years.”
The council, which must
approve recommendations on
pardons or commutation of
prison sentences, called the
meeting to consider Gov. Ed
ward J. King’s request that
Corsetti’s 90-day jail sentence be
commuted to time served. It up
held the request after rejecting a
motion to delay the vote for one
week.
Corsetti, 33, was ordered to
the Middlesex County House of
Correction a week ago for refus
ing to testify about an interview
he conducted with a suspect in
the murder of a male prostitute.
' Refusing to recommend a
pardon after saying Corsetti
admitted he had broken the law,
King opted for the commuta
tion, saying Corsetti had suf
fered enough.
Over the weekend, King cal
led a special meeting of the
council to act on the matter.
“Corsetti is guilty of a crime,”
King said to a weekend news
conference, explaining why he
could not pardon the first jour
nalist in Massachusetts history to
be jailed for contempt of court.
“He has broken the law. He is
guilty and that stands,” King
said. “But the issue of compas
sion remains.”
Corsetti was found in con
tempt of court by a Superior
Court judge after he refused to
testify about interviews he had
with Edward R. Kopacz Jr.
Kopacz allegedly confessed to
the fatal shooting of a gay prosti
tute in Lowell in February 1978.
He was later acquitted by a jury.
In an article written by
Corsetti’s byline for the Herald
American on Dec. 15, 1979, he
named Kopacz as one of three
people involved in the murder.
The other two were not identi
fied.
Corsetti said he promised
Kopacz he would never testify.
King became Corsetti’s last
hope when Supreme Court Jus
tice William Brennan rejected
his request for a stay of sentence.
Corsetti told King society
would not benefit from his con
tinued confinement and he had
suffered through a divorce be
cause of his decision not to tes
tify about the interview.
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judges, or hurt me,” she said.
“Thejudges use the personal in
terviews, and that’s something
the computer doesn’t have.”
Personal interviews with the
judges began Tuesday.
Some of the other contes
tants, however, were not so sure
that Miss Williams could succeed
despite the computer pick.
“I think it’s a strike against the
girl chosen because the judges
don’t want the computer to be
right,” said Miss New Mexico,
Cindy Ann Friesen.
Most of the women also ridi
culed the idea that a computer
could pick the pageant queen.
“He (Miller) came close last
year, but close only counts with
skunks, horseshoes and hand
grenades,” said Miss Oklahoma,
Nancy Hapman.
The 50 pageant hopefuls
made their official debuts Mon
day, then plunged into a hectic
week of competitions and re
hearsals that will climax with the
crowning of a new queen on
Saturday.
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