The Battalion
2STATE & LOCAL
Friday, July 7, 1989
tate senators spar over right to burn flag
ashington filibusters to stall resolution calling for constitutional amendment
■ AUSTIN (AP) — A lawmaker
Bho says he opposes flag burning
Hauled on the floor of the Texas
Henate on Thursday to defeat a reso-
lution to exempt desecration of the
■Jnited States and Texas flags from
. Hie constitutional protection of free-
makeup j dorn of speech.
lutingi; j Sen. Craig Washington unoffi-
n spirit Siallv began his stalling tactics at 1:25
h maldinH' m -’ a ltn° u gh he g°t to his feet at
^Bl:17 a.m., when the resolution was
|rought up.
I An early test vote went 23-2
against Washington, D-Houston.
'V reconl
>r the I
His delaying efforts drew immedi
ate response from Sen. Hugh
Parmer, a Democratic candidate for
the U.S. Senate, and Railroad Com
missioner Kent Hance, a likely Re
publican candidate for governor in
1990.
Parmer, D-Fort Worth, intro
duced a bill to outlaw flag burning in
Texas, saying there is no need to pe
tition Congress to pass a constitu
tional amendment that would allow
states to enact laws prohibiting the
desecration of the flags of the
United States and the 50 states.
“If we wait on a constitutional
amendment, the United States flag
will remain unprotected in Texas for
at least the next two years,” Parmer
said.
The resolution passed the House
last week, when members stood and
recited the pledge of allegiance, in
response to a 5-4 decision by the
U.S. Supreme Court in which it was
held that flag burning is protected
under the First Amendment.
The case on appeal to the court
involved the burning of a flag at the
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Producer, former inmate argue
over rights to ‘Blue Line’ story
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DALLAS (AP) — The producer of the movie that
was instrumental in freeing Randall Dale Adams from
Texas’ death row said the former inmate wanted none
jf the Film’s profits because he didn’t want to hurt his
hances for release.
Adams has Filed suit in state district court in Harris
County, claiming “The Thin Blue Line” producer Errol
Vlorris no longer has rights to his life story.
Randy Schaffer, Adams’ attorney, said his client is
eeking the declaration so he can pursue offers esti
mated “in the neighborhood of six figures.”
Morris said Schaffer has demanded he pay Adams
560,000 as Adams’ share of the movie’s profits. But
Schaffer has said his client only is interested in deter
mining who has rights to the Adams’ story.
His lawyer demanded that I not only return all
rights, but my rights as well plus $60,000,” Morris told
the Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednes
day from his Cambridge, Mass., home.
But Adams didn’t want money from the movie, the
filmmaker said.
“What he wanted was freedom. He himself felt if you
were to receive money from the movie, it would in some
way weaken his attempt to get out of prison.”
Besides that, Morris said there has been no profit
from ‘T he Thin Blue Line.”
“I’m still in debt on this movie,” he said.
Adams served more than 12 years in prison before
an appeals court ruled he did not receive a fair trial in
the 1976 shooting of Dallas policeman Robert Wood.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s office later
dropped the murder charge.
Lawyers reopened Adams’ case largely because of
Morris’ film, which contained numerous interviews
with witnesses from Adams’ trial, including the pros
ecution’s key witness who virtually confessed to killing
Wood in the film.
He said Adams signed three releases concerning his
rights to profits from the film.
Morris said Schaffer was present when Adams signed
the first release.
“In the first, really he had handed over all of his
rights and in the subsequent agreement he got those
rights back . . . through a partnership between him and
me, that he would share in any profits, in the sense say a
book would come out or say a movie would come out af
ter the fact,” Morris said.
He said the two agreed Adams would receive
$60,000 for another theater feature based on Adams’
life. He did not recall how much Adams would receive
from a book.
The third release was essentially the same as the sec
ond, but was redrafted so it would be written by the
same firm that wrote the first release, Morris said.
“The idea has never been to deprive Randall Adams
of something. It’s a case of an attorney gets a hold of
something and things get out of hand,” Morris said.
But according to Adams’ attorneys, a 1986
agreement under which Morris paid their client $ 10 for
a two-year option on Adams’ life story has expired, so
Morris no longer holds any rights to the story.
“Errol Morris, in fact, may have made a great busi
ness deal for himself when he gave Randall Adams
$10,” Schaffer told the AP.
1984 national Republican conven
tion in Dallas.
Hance said Washington is “out of
line.”
“The people of this state don’t
want the U.S. flag burned, and Craig
Washington should be able to un
derstand that,” Hance said.
Washington, wearing small Amer
ican flag stickers on both lapels, said
the issue is not flag burning, but pro
tection of the First Amendment.
Washington wiped tears from his
eyes as he spoke of his deep respect
of the First Amendment and its
guarantee of free speech.
For comfort, he wore soft-soled
shoes and had the plastic floor cover
removed from under his desk at 3
p.m.
The Senate sponsor of the resolu
tion, J.E. “Buster” Brown, R-Lake
Jackson, said, “The American flag,
of course, to some people is nothing
more than some different colored
material that is used as a symbol of
some sort and does not have any spe
cial meaning.
“And it may have no meaning
when it’s held in the hands of a small
child on the Fourth of July. . . . But it
does have meaning to those who be
lieve this country represents the last
best hope for f reedom and democ
racy throughout the world.”
Brown, who also wore an Ameri
can flag on one lapel, said to many
people “who engage in an intellec
tual discussion of First Amendment
rights, this is a high-level debate in
volving constitutional scholars.”
But to the average American, the
Supreme Court opinion “is an opin
ion that says it is OK to burn the
American flag.”
Washington responded that the
resolution “has no purpose.”
“It is utterly without substance, it
is nothing more than a symbolic oc-
casidn for us to tell our constitu
encies and the world how we feel
about this issue. It is as shallow, in
my opinion, as an issue can be. It is
meaningless rhetoric for us to en
gage in,” he said.
A&M medical student
receives Reagan award
Susan A. Olsta, a third year A&M
medical student from Huntsville, is
the 1989 winner of both the Na
tional Pathfinders Fund’s Nancy
Reagan Scholarship and the Joseph
Collins award.
The $2,500 Nancy Reagan Schol
arship, established in 1985 by the
National Federation of Republican
Women, is presented annually to a
woman studying in various fields re
lating to substance abuse.
The $2,500 Joseph Collins award
is given by the Joseph Collins Foun
dation in the name of the late Dr. Jo
seph Collins, a physician and pi
oneer neurologist. The award was
established to help a deserving medi
cal student receive an M.D. degree.
In addition to having financial
need, the Collins award winner must
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LOUPOT’S
Bookstores
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Senate repeals
3-week-old law
after outcry
AUSTIN (AP) — In an appar
ent response to an outcry from
the news media, the Senate voted
24-0 Thursday to repeal the
three-week-old law that allows
police to withhold from the press
and public the names of felony
victims.
The repeal measure now goes
to the House, where it originated
in the regular legislative session
under the sponsorship of Rep.
Fred Blair, D-Dallas. Blair said
the law was aimed at protecting
crime victims from “harassment,”
by reporters or others.
Sen. John Leedom, R-Dallas,
sponsored the repeal measure af
ter guiding the original proposal
through the Senate. He said the
intent of the law was to protect
felony victims from solicitations
from security companies.
Leedom said he believes Blair
will carry the repeal bill to a
House committee on Monday.
Leedom also said there was not
enough time in the special legis
lative session to refine the law,
but there would be attempts “to
deal with the problem in a more
specific manner” during the 1991
regular session.
“Under the time frame, it
seemed appropriate just to repeal
it, then have a long study to try to
draft a bill to be more specific and
narrow,” Leedom told the Senate.
There was no Senate debate,
but in committee Wednesday
Leedom said the law had been
“misapplied to such an extent
that many law enforcement offi
cers are not furnishing (informa
tion) — that was not the intent.”
The law amended the Texas
Open Records Act to allow au
thorities to withhold information
that might identify victims of fel
ony crimes, such as aggravated
assault, robbery and capital mur
der. Police may withhold the vic
tims’ names as well as information
that could lead to their identifica
tion, such as addresses.
As the uproar grew against the
law, Gov. Bill Clements added the
repeal measure to the agenda of
the special legislative session.
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