EOFILMCrNTE!
P.o. BOX 12188
DALLAS
, TX 75225-0188
-
he Bat
:
Vol.82 No.94 USPS 045360 14 pages
—:—r ?
College Station, Texas
M -m i
Monday, Ff^bruary 9, 1987
—
Judicial selection bills
to elections
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
In the latest of many efforts to
eliminate direct election of judges in
Tesas. five legislators introduced
btlli rhursday caritna for an ap-
pouitive system of selecting district
and appellate judges
Texas judges currently declare
party affibatiott and run m compet
itive, popular elections. Under the
proposed system, judic ial candidates
Texas facing
big changes
with reforms
By OUtriur Uyttebrouch
Supporters of the judicial reform
par I age call it “merit selection.’' Op
ponents call k “the patronage sys
tem." By any name, legislation intro
duced Thursday could radically
the way Texas chooses its
would be nominated by committees
and the final selection would be
made by the governor The public
would have the chance to remove
the judge in periodic “retention elec
tions.”
Since 1974. at least 16 proposals
have been introduced in tne Legis
lature to revamp the judicial selec
tion system
, The current effort is led by Texas
Supreme Court Chief Justice John
HiU and supported by an impressive
roster of legislative and judicial lead
ers. ,-
Sen Kent Ca pert on, D-Bryan.
one of the bill’s chief supporters,
says that Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby and
House Speaker Gib Lewis both tup-
port the legislation
A spokesman for Gov. Bill Clem
ents announced Thursday, however,
that the governor currently opposes
the so-called “merit selection” of
,ud K ep
Hunt
' u< fe
currently employs a parti
san election system for selecting its
judfes.
IF the pending legislation becomes
law, Texas would vote on a constitu
tional amendment in November that
would establish an appointive system
of selecting pudges
The constitutional amendment
would establish 29 nominating oom-
• One statewide commission to
nominate Texas Supreme Court and
Court of Criminal Appeals justices.
• 13 Court of Appeals commit
a judgeship becomes vacant, the ap
propriate ( ommuskin would nomi
nate three candMiert
The governor then would pick
one from the list The appointment
would face Senate confirmation
The newly appointed fudge would
me 14
nis campaif
Clements indicated that he might
support a change in the way judges
are selected but now apparently has
backed off to his current position fa
voring direct elections
To understand the current con
troversy over judicial selection is to
understand something of the state’s
history and the changes that have
rocked the state over the last decade.
Texas’ current system of partisan
elections is in some wavs a museum
piece of pre-Civil War days — a relic
of Jacksonian Democracy once fa
vored by 24 of the 34 states in 1860
But dissatisfaction with machine
politics in the late 19th century per
suaded most states to abandon direc t
electionc in favor of juipotnuve-com-
musion systems, similar to the plan
introduced in the Legislature on
Thursday
Today, Texas is only one of 13
35SAgg|«jUtoc* *yBBte
cjki iviP!i vyvic ill icrr ** nxTfnjf jufifg* a
In space of the official System, how
ever, a majority of Texas judges are
appointed directly by the governor.
An article by Anthony Cham
pagne in the May issue of tne South
western Law Journal notes that 62
percent of all district and appeBate
court judges on the Texas bench in
1984 were appointed to their poets
And because of the traditional
one-party dominance in Texas, once
appointed judges took office they
tended to stay mere.
Champagne s article notes that
few judges ever were challenged in
the primary following appointment
And once the judge had the Demo
cratic nomination, there was practi
cally no chance of an election defeat
With the advent of a second party
in Texas, however, this cory stambtv
in the Texas judiciary went the way
of segregated bathrooms. Cham
pagne i article notes that in 1984 —a
(tanner year for Republicans nation
wide — only four of the 20 incum
bent Democrats that ran in contested
races were re-elected.
Also because of Ronald Reagan s
long coattails in 1984. of the 10 con
tested races in which there was no in
cumbent. only one Democrat took
the bench that year. Champagne
notes.
In regard to judges. Dallas
County is virtually aM-Republican to
day. In Houston, and to a lesser ex
tent San Antonio and ocher urban
areas, the two parties are in heated
competition for control of the
courts. Champagne says.
The issue is so divisive that the
State Bar Association of Texas has
not taken an official stand for or
against the bill.
“The bar is clearly divided almost
down the middle on these propo
sals.” says Larry Fitzgerald, director
of communications for the state bar.
“The rural areas are for beeping
partisan elections — the urban areas
support the proposed system."
Rural areas so far nave avoided
the turmoil that has rocked the btg
city judiciaries Champagne’s article
notes that turnover m fudges has
been confined to only 11 urban
counties while rural areas — the vast
major*} of Texas cownirs — have
Wen no wicumhent jwdtff s def^tr-i
• - -a „ _a
f nt» orraac
The explosion of lawsuits in re
cent yean has amplified the dissatis
faction many attorneys have with the
present system. Fitzgerald says. De
fense attorneys think judges have
been too generous in awarding
See Billa, page 14
Here’s Mud In Your Eye
kf OarngLm Mma
AlcM junior David Pounds, left, fumbles the ball
while scifT-arming junior Tom Hipsher during a
"mud football’' game Sunday. Sophomore Carter
tries
all game
coaching
Pounds from behind.
Tape: Kidnappers to kill Beirut hostages A&M reseachers
MUftUT.
-ncan hast*pr said
dropped on by has
lay that he and three
(AF> — An
in a vsdeo-
kidaappers
tope
Sunday
m< itidiny iw*.
killed it Israel foils to release 400
Arab prisoners within 24 hours.
A stK-ramuar videotape ahowuig
Bossow native Alann Steen. 47, was
delivered to a Western news agency
m the name of Mamie Jihad for the
Liberation of Palestine, which kid
gapped Steen and three others from
die campus of Beirut University Coi-
irgeost Jan. If.
The group 0 other hostages are
Robert Arihil. 53, of New York City
Jesse Turner, 39, of Rosae, Idaho,
Ixhrieshwar Singh, 60. a native
nri resident alien m the
indicated Sunday that it was
to discuss the swap of an 1s-
rman missing hi Lebanon for
base of the 400 Arab pnson-
proposal advanced Saturday
tmh Bern, head of the main
Shine Amal militia and Lebanon's
justice minister.
However. Israeli officials said m
Jerusalem they would not respond
to an ultimatum and would not con
duct such talks in public
Under Bern’s proposal, all for
etgn hostages also would be released
A weary-looking Steen, reading
from a statement in a monotone,
said on Sim day’s videotape: “If our
lives are important to America, it
must order Israel to release the 480
Palestinians as toon as possible —
that it, Monday (today) as a maxi
“If our lives arr important to America, it must order
Israel to release the 400 Palestinians as soon as possible
— that is, Monday (today) as a maximum. ” .
— Videotaped statement of hostage
m l^banon by the various extremist
groups holding them.
Bern meanwhile, backed away
Sunday from an earlier weekend
statement that Anglican Church hos
tage-negotiator Terry Waite would
be freed by today, now saying the re
lease would take
more time,
has been missing since Jan. 20
Watte
“We also teff America that if u
commits any stupidity, we will be
prone to he killed Besides. Ameri
cans in the whole world will be the
victims of our administration’s stu
pidity.
“They (the captors) do not fear
death because they perceive it as the
start of their life. In other words,
America can’t scare them through its
mibcary actions’’
Steen wore eyeglasses and a small
beard grown in captivity. A text of
the statement in his handwriting was
delivered with the tape
Cartier Sunday, another group
holding foreign hostages claimed
that Waste had earned a transmitter
to pinpoint suspected terrorist hide
outs for an American military attack
on Lebanon
Since Waite disappeared nearly
three weeks ago, during a mission to
seek freedom for foreign hostages,
there have been rumors that he was
being held against his will. But the
Church of England has said it could
not confirm that.
The Beirut newspaper LYTrsenr
Le Jour claimed Waite had been re
leased and would surface Sunday in
the Syrian-occupied Bekaa Valley in
eastern Lebanon Police said they
could not confirm the report.
keep eye on NASA
to maintain safety
By Debbie Monroe
Reporter
Since the shuttle Challenger ex
plosion on Jan 28. 1988, NASA has
been in turmoil James Retcher. the
new director, has been under pres
sure — from within and without —to
steer the agency through the maze
of problems threatening its effec
tiveness.
Watching Fletcher from the out
side are researchers working under
NASA grants. Dr Norman Gris
wold, Texas A&M associate profes
sor of electrical engineering, is one
of them
“When a major event (like the
Challenger accident) happens,"
V > K
ihrr
to get
re’s too
Legislator seeks protection for all motorcyclists
Mandatory helmet law may return to Texas
easel A. Le Bry
^ Staff Wruer
’ Motorcycle riders, young and
eld, mav again be required to
wear helmets while operating on
Texas rmsdi
The Texes State Affairs Com
mittee will brg»" conducting
■an d i ton motor-
w within the next
Chris dhoti leg
to Sen Ted
ir<
of the
the hear
be introduced
18
1977, Texas
protective headgear The new
Legislation, sponsored by Lyon,
would require aM cyclists to wear
protective head gear
Texas had a mandatory helmet
law from 1966 to 1977 Then, m
1977, Congress repealed the au
thority of the Department of
Transportation to withhold high
way funds from states without the
law
dbott said the magnitude and
characteristics of motorcycle car
nage is the driving force behind
the legislation. ■% *
"In the year immediately fol
lowing the repeal of the motorcy
cle helmet law. deaths and tnca-
injunes as a result of
accidents increased,'*
“Deaths by 64 percent
and incapacitating injuries by 16
fiercer! i
Eddie Carmon. a trooper with
the Safety Education Service of
the Texas Department of Pubfe
Safety, said these figures contin
ued to increase until they peaked
at 106 percent from August
1981-82. The increase in deaths
and injuries has remained at a
high level over the years since the
repeal, he said
A joint study conducted by the
Texas DPS and the Texas De
“What they are wanting
to do is stop people
from getting killed —
plain and simple. ”
— Jim Perry, Texas
Motorcycle Road riders
Association.
pertinent of Health reported that
*n Texas in 1985 motorcycles
were involved in less than 3 per
cent of all motor vehicle crashes,
but motorcycle riders rep-
percent
fatalities.
hide crash fatalities. The report
also eked data from several states
showing that head injury rates of
motorcyclists without helmets b
between two and three times
greater than the head injury rates
of hehneted riders.
Mike Ward, president of the
local Cavaliers Motorcycle Club
— an affiliate of the Texas Mo
torcycle Roadnders Association
— said he wears a helmet 99 per
cent of the time he’s nding but is
opposed to a mandatory helmet
law.
"It’s not that I disagree with
wearing a helmet,” he said. “1 dis
agree with the legist.,!
it. I don’t beheve T shot
to wear a helmet, it ritotrid be my
choice “
Most of the Cgi daars said they
were opposed to changing the
present law and that aaotorcyclisu
should be allowed to make their
own decisions about safety.
post of
I oe told
Jim Perry, second vice presi
dent of the Texas Motorcycle
Roadriders Association, said
T'MRA b in favor of the present
Texas law regulating helmet us
age
“What they are wanting to do b
stop people from getting luBed —
plain andsimple, he said “I can
appreciate the fact they are trying
to do something What I can’t ap
preciate b the fact they’re work
ing in a direction that is not going
to solve the problem.”
Perry said he believes the best
way to decrease the motorcycle
accidents b for the state »o pro
vide enough funding to get the
motorcycle rider education
course going at “firil speed " T he
motorcycle nder course b a pro
gram similar to the driver educa
uon program taught in most high
school*
Texas law requires people 15 to
See Helmet, peg* 14
l.nswold said, “vou re
your ducks in a row
much pressure not to.”
Witn the reorganization of the
space program, priorities have
rhangea Project saiet\ has become
paramount, and NASA b seeking
ways to minimise the danger* ks
crews are exposed to.
Griswold believes research like his
own will help
“I believe tt will cause them to look
at using computer vision and robot
ics, as opposed to men, in space." he
said. xrr ’
The researcher and has associates
have developed a stereoscopic vision
system which uses two television
cameras and computer software to
simulate the human eye’s ability to
judge distance and depth of field
Such a system will be essential to the
operation of a space station and to
the safety of astronauts
Suppose you have a robot free-
llier out in space working on a satel
lite,’' he said. “People in the space
station will want to see what k sees,
to check and see if the flier's working
right
“Man is safer in a shuttle or space
station if he can see what’s going
on."
He added that the public doesn't
realise how risky k b for a human to
work ki space.
“When a person gets in a space
sum and goes toddling outside of the
shuttle environment, everybody
cheers,’’ he said. “It’s sort of like be
made the basket. It’s a great thing
“But if a basketball player doesn’t
make the basket, the baH bounces on
the floor, and he gets another shot.
If something happens to an astro
naut’s oxygen system or to hb
tether, he’s gone.”
Besides Replacing Lost credibility,
NASA also will have to replace the
space shuttle Chlirnget
Associate Provost for Research
Dr Duwayne Anderson sahi the cost
of another spacecraft will affect the
14