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Thursday, January 26, 1984/The Battalion/Page 3
Death row
Inmates say court ruling gives
state 'green iighf for executions
United Press International
HUNTSVILLE — Texas death row inmates
aid Wednesday the Supreme Court has given
he state a “green light” for more executions by
efusing to require proportionality review of
Heath sentences.
I think it’s kind of a green light,” said
fhomas Barefoot, 39, convicted of the 1978
hooting of a central Texas police officer. “I
hink they’d like to get everybody killed off as
astas possible . but I don’t think it’s going to be
!no flood like some people think.”
By a 7-2 ruling, the Supreme Court rein
stated the death sentence for Robert Alton
Harris, a California killer whose appeal was
based on the so-called proportionality issue.
The court ruled death sentences do not have
to be automatically reviewed to be sure they are
proportional to penalties in other cases.
A last-minute appeal based on that same
issue dramatically halted the Oct. 4 execution
ofTexas killer James David Autry. Autry, con
victed of killing a convenience store clerk, lay
strapped to a hospital cart and hooked up to
intravenous needles for over an hour before he
won a stay.
Autry, 29, who refused to meet reporters
Wednesday, Barefoot, and Ronald Clark
O’Bryan are considered the three Texas in
mates closest to execution following the Sup
reme Court action.
“I think it moves everyone one step closer
because it eliminated one issue that had held
everyone’s cases up,” said O’Bryan, 39, who
was convicted of feeding his 8-year-old son
poison candy on Halloween 1974 to collect in
surance money.
“I know my appeals are getting fewer but
I’m never going to give up,” said O’Bryan, who
maintains his innocence.
When asked if he fears death, O’Bryan said:
“No . My son has died. My wife has remarried.
My family has been broken up, and for a man
like myself that’s all but killing me.”
Inmate Jimmy Vanderbilt, 31, a former
Amarillo policeman condemned to die for the
1975 killing of a teen-age girl in Amarillo, pre
dicted four to six executions would occur in
Texas by the end of 1984 because appeals in
those cases have been exhausted.
“It used to be when you got a (execution)
date, it didn’t count, it didn’t mean anything.
Now, when they set a date, it means some
thing,” said Vanderbilt, who spends his time
studying death penalty cases. “I’m beginning to
get nervous.”
Billy Hughes, 31, convicted of killing a DPS
troooper near Sealy, Texas, in 1976, said in
mates on death row felt a chill upon hearing
news of the Supreme Court ruling.
“I don’t want to say the men are running
scared or they’re fearful, but I know they’re
terribly worried. I can see the worry in their
faces,” Hughes said.
Jaoanese government OKs
military spending increase
United Press International
TOKYO — The Japanese
government bowed to pressure
from the Reagan administration
Wednesday and approved a fis
cal 1984 budget that calls for a
hefty increase in military
spending.
The budget plan, approved
in a special Cabinet session, ear
marks some $ 12.5 billion for de
fense spending — an increase of
6.55 percent or $771 million
over the 1983 Defense Agency
budget, officials said.
The Cabinet’s decision came
on the eve of Foreign Minister
Shin taro Abe’s arrival in
Washington for an eight-day
official U.S. visit in which milit
ary spending was expected to be
an important topic of discussion.
In contrast to the military
spending increase, the total na
tional budget grew by a mere 0.5
percent over the previous year
to $216.2 billion.
The Social Welfare Ministry
received only a 2 percent budget
hike, the Education Ministry a
0.8 percent raise and the Minis
try of Public Works was hit with a
2 percent cut in spending
power.
“We feel that this is compara-
.^ely a good victory for the De-
,l ,(ise Agency,” said a senior de-
^ fise official, who declined to be
f i^ntified.
> “Our national welfare and
.Juration have been sacrificed,”
official said. “The budget
1 |jocation for defense has been
^ry conspicuously increased.”
v “There may be some critic-
. jfis but we believe the figure
|*is needed to fulfill the target
^4 in the national defense prog-
^.jUi outline,” Prime Minister
^jsuhiro Nakasone told repor-
^rs before the Cabinet
1 ^proved the budget.
^The budget proposal, which
jUSt be approved by the Diet, or
-rliament, was worked out in a
sought a 6.9 percent spending
increase. The hike approved by
the Cabinet comes to 4.8 percent
after inflation and represents
0.99 percent of the nation’s pro
jected GNP.
Diet approval of the budget
for the fiscal year starting April
1 is virtually certain because the
LDP controls both houses of the
law-making body.
The spending hike, will allow
the agency to purchase 17 new
F-15 Eagle fighters, eight P3C
Orion anti-submarine patrol air
craft, three destroyers and three
CH47 Chinook transport heli
copters, officials said.
It will allow the agency to
approach the level of purchases
outlined in a five-year “mid
term defense program” adopted
in 1983 to meet U.S. demands
that Japan shoulder a greater
share of the joint U.S.-Japan de
fense burden.
te-night session of hard bar-
mning between Defense Agen
cy officials and a group of Liber-
L \ Democratic Party executives
Tuesday.
The Defense Agency had
o
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ortugal to decide
n legal abortions
United Press International
LISBON, Portugal — Parlia-
riends ment opened a heated, closed-
door debate on legalizing abor-
tOuldall> (,n Wednesday but Prime
r j e | e Minister Mario Soares shrugged
of! threats to his coalition and
w | leil the country to attend a con-
' e ' ference.
B Several leaders of the Social
nany 1 Democratic party, junior part-
avemt ners in Soares’ 8-month-old
world ( coalition, have threatened to
le tofcfesign or called on the party to
isee li (fandon the government if Par-
0 r [ ( jilment approves the Socialist
| )U( abortion bill.
hr I 9 Abortion is a controversial
11 issue in Portugal, an overwhelm-
ick bwdpy Roman Catholic nation,
irenteifi Observers said the bill, limit
ing abortions to cases involving
risks to the health or life of the
woman, deformed fetuses or
rape, was almost certain of pas
sage, given the declared support
of the opposition Communist
Party.
A Communist bill, allowing
abortions for a wider range of
social and economic reasons,
was also under debate.
Before departing for Geneva
for a Socialist International
meeting on Middle East prob
lems, Soares rebuffed threats to
the government’s future, saying
both ruling parties were “more
concerned with solving the eco
nomic crisis.”
Observers interpreted Soares’
trip as a move to defuse the “cri
sis atmosphere.”
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