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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1988)
Wednesday, April 6, 1988/The Battalion/Page 3 State and Local mnesty organization director ondemns execution as torture By Todd Riemenschneider Staff Writer Execution in the United States is a form of torture to prisoners, Steve Herrick said Monday. “How sensible is it for a govern- |ientto kill people who kill people to Irove that killing is wrong?” Her- Jck, who is southern regional direc tor for Amnesty 1 nternational-USA, [aid Tuesday at Rudder Theatre. “People often assume that the |eath penalty deters,” he said. There have been endless studies |nd none have convincing evidence tat the death penalty deters.” Herrick said he believes that when a murder is committed, the people Ire in a moment of rage. He said many murders are com- |iitted by people under the influ- Ince of drugs or alchol or by people Tho are mentally disturbed. He said he believes the death penalty does not deter people from committing murders. Herrick said some people favor the death penalty as a form of self defense, believing that if a murderer is killed now, he will not be able to kill later. He blames some of this opinion on the media. “The news media reports the ex ceptional,” Herrick said. He was referring to the media’s portrayal of a murderer as being newsworthy after the prison term. Herrick said the less than one per cent of murderers kill again after prison. Herrick said some people also take the opinion that a murderer needs to be murdered for their crime. This eye-for-an-eye opinion is not good in Herrick’s view'. “If a person rapes, does the gov ernment arrange for that person to be raped?” Herrick said. “If a person is convicted of arson we don’t go burn their house down. “Society dosen’t gain anything by committing the act it condemns.” Herrick also talked about much of the oppression of prisoners around the world. Sexual assault, electric shock, beatings and injection of pain—pro ducing drugs are the methods of tor ture used by over a third of the 180 countries in the world, Herrick said. And not all of the victims of the tor ture are murderers. “People are jailed because of their beliefs,” he said. “It is not just political beliefs that can get one in trouble around the world, religious beliefs as well,” he said. Herrick, who was presented by Memorial Student Center Great Is sues, said that in some countries the judicial system is so poor that a per son cannot have a good defense even when the person was legally ar rested. He said that in those countries, the defense may be given only few minutes to prepare, or there possibly may be no trial at all. Some trials may be no more than a military tri bunal in which the judge has little or no judicial training. He also said the trials may last only a few minutes, with torture sometimes being used to get confessions. “Confessions coherced under tor ture may be admissible as evidence in court” (in these countries), he said. mnesty deadline extended for illegal aliens HARLINGEN (AP) —The dead line for illegal aliens to apply for ermanent U.S. residency is only one month away, but late applicants lill be allowed up to two more lonths to prove their their eligibil- My, government officials said. I Beginning Monday, illegal immi- rants seeking U.S. residency will be Jven 60 days after the May 4 gen- pal amnesty deadline to produce pie necessary documentation and medical examinations, Omer Sewel, pistrict director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said Monday. INS says immigrants don’t appeal denials EL PASO (AP) — About four-fifths of undocu mented immigrants who are denied amnesty in the Im migration and Naturalization Service’s southern region are not appealing their denials, officials said. Nevertheless, INS officials said Tuesday that those denied amnesty are given plenty of opportunity to ap peal. INS officials also said immigrants are not hampered by amnesty denial forms and appeal applications that are printed only in English. Applicants have 30 days to appeal and must mail the appeal forms to Dallas instead of to the office where they applied. As of last week, 6,706 immigration amnesty appli cants in the INS’ southern region had been denied am nesty, and 1,707 of them had appealed the decision, William Chambers, director of the regional processing facility in Dallas, said Tuesday. He said a dozen or two of the appeals had been proc essed and returned to Dallas from Washington, and that all upheld the denials. As of March 26, the southern region had received 304,099 amnesty applications, and 180,395 had been processed. So far, 3.7 percent of the processed applica tions have been denied. Illegal aliens applying for amnesty must prove they have lived in the ■nited States continuously before Jan 1, 1982. I Previously, the INS required ap plicants to document their residency when they filed for amnesty. tual application. Then they’ll be scheduled for an interview' sometime in July or August, at which time doc umentation must be provided. I Now, all they have to come up Sew'd said the extension is part of <with initially is the filing fee and ac- a nationwide effort to encourage il legal aliens to come forward and ap- pfy. “A number of people have watted until the last minute, and we’re hop ing this skeletal process will help a number of people here in the Val ley,” Charlie Perez, chief legalization officer at the Harlingen amnesty center, said. Perez said interviews will begin 60 days after the May 4 deadline and continue at a rate of about 40 a day until all applicants have been proc essed. I'ZSBKSBeK Vandals, marches mark assassination of Reverend King Associated Press Racist vandalism, marches by prominent black leaders and rallies for community support for the homeless marked observances of the 20th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. King, who was 39, was gunned down April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., where he was supporting a strike by sanitation workers. Monday in San Antonio began with black leaders marching in sup port of a state holiday commemorat ing King ended in violence when a white vandal threw paint on an statue of King while an accomplice shot at a black man who tried to stop him. “I’d like to thank President Rea gan for signing into law Jan. 15 as a holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King,” the Rev. R.A. Callies, the march organizer said. “We can’t say the same thing for Gov. (Bill) Clem ents.” State law now allows for state em ployees to take off King’s birthday if they work on an official state holi day. However, King supporters feel that the black leader deserves to have a state holiday named in honor of him with no stipulation for miss ing the work day. Late Monday night, in the same plaza where Callies spoke, a drunken white man threw a bucket of white paint at a statue of King while two accomplices waited nearby to help him in getting away from the scene, witnesses of the incident that caused an uproar told police. One of his companions fired a, pis tol at a black man who stopped his car to ask the three men what they were doing and why they were run ning. No one was hurt and the three men fled the scene, police said. Only King’s foot and the lower part of his robe were stained by the paint, police said. Much of the paint landed on the pavement, but it did cover the word “dream” in the phrase, “I have a dream,” and other- areas on an 8-foot pedestal beneath the statue. Ethel Minor, president of the San Antonio chapter of the NAACP, may have summed up the mixed sentiments of the city. “It’s tragic that we are still march ing and carrying banners,” Minor- said. “We have to ask ourselves, ‘Did Martin die in vain?’ Racism and pov erty still exist.” In Dallas, meanwhile, more than 20 national leaders testified at a con ference that the same kind of eco nomic and social woes that prompted King to found the Poor- People’s Campaign still exist. Some of the problems are homelessness, poverty, high black infant mortality, an increase in the hungry and a lack of affordable housing. A Tennessee physician testified at the Dallas Poor People’s Hearing, one of 14 sponsored nationwide by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “A holocaust is being executed in slow motion, whether it is intended or not,” said Dr. Michael Byrd of the Mcharry Medical School in Nash ville, Tenn. He said blacks are being killed by poverty and a discrimina tory health-care system. Correction In an article in Tuesday’s Bat talion, it was incorrectly reported that two nonvoting members would be added to the MSC Council next year. Three new nonvoting members — the presi dent of the Interfraternity Coun cil, a representative of the Faculty Senate and a representative of the Multicultural Services Center, were added to the council when a new consitution was approved at Monday night’s meeting. The All-Star chamber orchestra. The Marlboro Music Festival has been called, "the highest con centration of artistic activity...in the U.S. and possibly in the world." Each year some of the world's most distinguished and gifted musicians gather to prepare and perform chamber music. Then they take to the road. The MSC Oj^era and Performing Arts Society presents Music from Marlboro, Monday, April 1 1 at 8:00 p.m. in Rudder Auditorium, nine all-star musicians performing chamber works by Mozart, Janacek, Ligeti and Beethoven. There are still a few good seats available for this season's Music Series finale. MSC Box Office • 845-1234 • Dillards Ticketron sj-js'Icmoti.ll Student tenter • tev.is Vc'd ( ni\ersit\ • tte>\ I I • ( {illee|i M.ition l\ 77H44'mih1 GATHRIGHT AWARDS AND BUCK WEIRUS SPIRIT AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENT AND PRESENTATION 9:00 A.M. SUNDAY, APRIL 10 RUDDER AUDITORIUM All applicants should attend!