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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 1983)
m Thursday, November 17,1983/The Battalion/Page 7 R.I. by Paul Dirmeyer student Acnvinss co<m mnR for hgiardnall, BRIAN (rRETZKOWITZ.. VIE TRY AMD MAKE,SURe auzMMsoFmfbmm FismtfmmoNAL Acn/IVES. VIE OKAM&UBT/FmM TomYmutkmosM OMVMs m'smMrFm^at' Yomsmfc iMA toy fl?sw WHoFAN/mhuesai AWMCti&itETBUYi® vAiaimam/tYHiu.' 1\ Lawyers fight to save man from electric chair h > 'ury focuses on murder Feminist found innocent United Press International GRETNA, La. — California feminist Ginny Foat was found nnocent Wednesday in the 965 tire-iron slaying of Argen- l ine businessman Moises Chayo. The courtroom erupted in icreams and shouts as the six- nan, six-woman jury returned he verdict after deliberating for wo hours. Defense attorneys in closing Battalion! aimlesiii died Nov, EDS teviol ns, whidu ■ “firm fin -allapprt) lunicatioii As the verdict was announced, Foat’s mother, Virginia Gal- luzzo, shouted, “Thank you. ” d irguments characterized Foat’s :hief accuser, her ex-husband, is a drunken and vengeful liar, Hit prosecutors claimed the alifornia feminist was a crafty nurderess trying to hide from a iolent past. Foat was besieged by jurors m vho hugged her and asked for icr autograph. She wrote on l, wouldanjbne piece of paper, “My love, my othecotlappreciation, my thanks for lelping me to continue my be- iranceCoi lef in our system. Ginny Foat.” tbineagrtt As the verdict was •geswerea innounced, Foat’s mother, Vir- itract,bull giniaGalluzzo, shouted, “Thank Ibelesslli jou,” and the rest of the cour- room let out a loud shriek. Foat iftelephoi dipped her head and cried, ble,those “It’s the First time I’ve had to kepartinif tellmy story to the people,” Foat »m, p ;nt d rison re- ehavior m. ng to have; rta BendU its hat there* :r about i! /as chosen, wealth tside of t ws,” he s l was in said, adding that previously when she had told her story to police and prosecutors who did not believe her. Foat’s sister, Emilia Guidi, said, “She’s finally free. It was the last time he (Sidote) could do this to her.” Jurors said they reached the verdict on their first vote and one juror, Melba Sowell, said “I didn’t decide until we sat down and considered all the facts.” Defense attorney Robert Glass said, “I always had doubts, but this is a person who deserved to be free.” While defense attorneys attacked the character of John Sidote, her ex-husband and star prosecution witness, prosectors urged jurors to concentrate on the facts of the case instead of Sidote’s alcoholism, cord and viole against Foat. Sidote, the second of Foat’s four husbands, was granted im munity in exchange for his testi mony. He is serving a 25-year prison term in Nevada for a parole violation stemming from an unrelated killing. Tom Porteous, an assistant prosecutor, questioned Foat’s memory “blackout” the night Chayo died and Foat and Sidote left New Orleans. “I can tell you why she (Foat) can’t remember anything about that evening,” Porteous said. “(It is) because they had just perpe trated the murder of Moises Chayo. “The past is the one thing Virginia Foat cannot hide from any longer. Miss Foat’s past is her downfall. The crime she committed, she must be ncidents": iversityf®' throw assette pla ; r Animal ter. cle from from the ^ lie Wl from thel- ackpack , checkbo* cense, ^ d Mpact®' :ked -ed that impact is arrested oxicated ;le into a ■ e parke :et, Unive f student*' ;° unl '. .. tXPOSl^ edhim^ r C. fr ans as arre 1 and il. punished for.” Foat, 42, whose emotional testimony spanned two days, claimed Sidote physically and sexually abused her and blamed her for Chayo’s death in retalia tion for their failed marriage. Defense attorneys said Foat, former president of the Califor nia chapter of the National Organization for Women, could be convicted only if jurors be lieved the “lies” of Sidote — a man who had “the red glow of the devil.” “Ginny Foat is innocent and John Sidote is a crazy person and a liar — a person whose word cannot be trusted, whose accusa tion means nothing,” Glass said. United Press International TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Less than 24 hours before Stephen Todd Booker’s scheduled ex ecution, his lawyers fought in federal and state courts Wednesday to spare him from the electric chair for raping and murdering a 94-year-old woman. Last-minute petitions for a stay of execution were pending in both the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. District Court in Tallahassee. Booker, 30, is scheduled to die this afternoon at Florida State Prison for the 1977 slaying of Lorine Demoss Harman, who surprised him burglarizing her Gainesville apartment. The late appeals centered on a defense claim that Booker’s first lawyer inadequately repre sented him during his trial by not presenting evidence demon strating he was mentally incom petent. Booker’s 90-pound victim, described by a judge as “active, alert and spry,” was beaten, wounded with a knife, raped and then fatally stabbed. Her body later was found in her ran sacked bedroom. Court papers show Booker, who had a juvenile record in New York, admitted using a variety of drugs since age 13, and was disciplined for violence while in the military and con victed of an armed robbery in Florida. Two of three court-appointed psychiatrists declared him com petent to stand trial. The third was unable to reach an opinion. Testifying against himself during the sentencing phase of his 1978 trial, he told the jury, “A defendant found guilty of such a crime should receive the death penalty.” He also testified he had “no recollection” of his activities the day of the murder. Booker’s conviction and death sentence were affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court in 1981 and Gov. Bob Graham signed a death warrant for him 1 on March 22, 1982, but his ex ecution then was stayed by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The appeals court subse quently rejected Booker’s appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case on Oct. 17. Graham then signed the current warrant. 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