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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1994)
Opinion ««§ ! d Press rway . with the i (i a lways| ^w, asBrif it gets ev? Friday, February 18,1994 The Battalion Page 7 PRO CON Should capital punishment he an option for juvenile offenders ? the Wii% announce- all that fJ §■ Say wit; 5 judgm® the coni[t. obablyu. eeds aflt! autt comiii; ; triple an; aconds it: s technic; i, I'm sit it," Boitac it, though,! i because! somethin: g "1 hop! land it, in in theme ig else k ; ded. "k yself forh ntrate aft g forced: iibility tk ill the sacr for nothin ROY L. CLAY Columnist ver the last sev eral years, there has Ken a move ment to try juve niles — people under the age of 18 — as adults M cases of vio lent crime. Tra ditionally, teenagers could be punished by the courts, but normally they Were neither tried as adults nor suffered the same consequences as an adult offender. For the most part, teenagers have been sentenced to re form school for criminal actions. I But in today's world, we are seeing an alarming capacity of "juveniles" to rape, beat and kill with a brutality that simply can't be attributed to the igno rance of youth. Trying teenaged people as adults is no longer enough. The con sequences of a crime must fit the severi ty of the criminal act, including the death penalty in the case of first degree murder. m The thought of sentencing a teenager to death seems cruel, but think of some of the cases we have seen in the last few ROBERT VASQUEZ Columnist se step >nd routir: s of excel- ing teenaged people as adults is no longer uietsdi enough. The conse- . sidebun ^ . , iggied w quences of a crime must rvous ® fit the severity of the im, likeli criminal act, including the P enin 8 death penalty. )U re realKIf-f 1 J mo pausej ody expf 1 t of his re flawless • Iges attkj iheafre p ;: mers, B t; in pic clue' - nailed h is legs, v, 1 thoujf' ; to Child as cutti 11 - Hende^' f the ball : -ad latide*! its intend io made® i the foul ;st praise s from I'll antes to 1*1 Barone^ fish bash!' e been a I :SWCov0 id. remende 11 ' -ds." years in Texas alone. Last June in Hous ton, a gang of boys, most of them juve- iCes, came across two young girls. The boys raped and sodomized them, then strangled them with shoestrings. | In Ft. Worth, a high school girl is charged with planning her parents' death. Her boyfriend and another young man went into the parents' home late one night, killed the girl's mother, and beat her father so badly they thought he was dead. The apparent motive was the inheritance of the cou ple's $21 million estate. I These atrocious crimes are only a small sample of those committed by ju veniles in Texas. However, they pale in comparison to the amount of violence and death committed by youths in places like New York and Los Angeles. I The simple fact is that the rate of vi olent crimes perpetrated by juveniles is steadily increasing in both frequen cy and cruelty. These young people have the capacity to understand what they're doing the same as people in their early twenties. Criminals just three or four years older are being sen tenced to death for the same types of crimes. • . There are no age barriers to commit ting a crime. A 19-year-old who kills is probably thinking the same thoughts as a 17-year-old murderer. Slapping their wrists or putting them into reform schools is only allowing the violence to continue. In its own way, it only en forces the idea that a person can get away with a major crime with relatively light consequences. Juvenile penalties are just not enough to curb this tenden cy. f: The fact is that sentencing juveniles to death is not the tragedy. The real tragedy is that it has become necessary. // I am not an advocate for fre quent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and in stitutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed ... institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to re main ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors." — Thomas Jef ferson It's long been said,, "the punish ment should fit the crime." Now, United States courts are finding that the punishment should fit the criminal as well. Courts across the country — all the way to the Supreme Court — have struggled with the question of killing juveniles for capital offenses. There was a time when generic punishments were applied for generic crimes, re gardless of the age. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology says, "prior to the last few centuries, the death penalty was imposed often and for a variety of offenses, some of which seem trivial to the modern eye." The question is not whether these people are criminals. That point is clear. Anyone who kills another per- so?t has committed murder. They are murderers. In Thompson v. Oklahoma, the Supreme court ruled that a fifteen- year-old boy convicted of murder It's long been said, "the punishment should fit the crime," but courts across the country have struggled with the ques tion of killing juveniles for capital offenses. should not be sentenced to capital punishment. The Justices expressed the great difficulty they had defining the line between childhood and adult hood. The Court noted how no state allows a 15-year-old to vote or serve on a jury. All but one state prohibit a 15-year-old from driving without parental consent, all but four prohibit a 15-year-old from marrying without parental consent. The Journal said, "The Court has long maintained that the death penalty is a constitutional penalty under cer tain circumstances, and further that the juvenile justice system is itself worthy of merit. As the Court demon strated, it is difficult even for reason able minds to draw an appropriate line that effectively separates the child from the adult and the offender from the punishment. However since soci ety can protect itself from violent juve nile crime without resort to execution, the Court can safely guard the princi ple that children, though deserving as citizens of certain fundamental due process rights afforded adults, must nevertheless receive the special con sideration and treatment embodied by the juvenile justice system." e 6 ?rence f meet inkj— cy Zamz i p in theq iders ii> : i. phy, l' ), l mg wi n what is' ent as mgthenM om the k imes thaq meet just j ims' r season- mportant ring the j-aditiona m. strong f jets," Nek ig to scot as possi' ealistic ah indoor tr; p should h Roy Clay is a senior history major Robert Vasquez is a senior journalism major HO MW0R6 . fALMppJ flimxsjK High and dry in a foreign land Drug possession in some countries a terrible risk LYNN BOOMER Columnist S pring break is fast approach ing, and you're thinking about leav ing the country. Care to do any illegal drugs? It you're thinking it's no big deal, think again. Mark D (not his real name), a Boston College student, was on break in Thailand when he was arrest ed in his Bangkok hotel for smoking hashish. The Nov, 1993 issue of "De tails" magazine tells the story. "When the cops broke into my room, I really thought they were making a mistake! I was like, 'No, no, you got the wrong guy!"' explained Berger. "I didn't know it was a setup, that they wanted me to buy my way out of trouble. I had no cash, only about forty bucks, and no — damn credit card — they were willing to charge my bribe!" Apparently, some hotel proprietors in Bangkok will watch their boarders to see who seems to ha ve money and is glassy eyed. They then set up a police bust with • the stipulation that they will get a kick-back from the bribe the boarder is sure to proffer. Mark Berger is currently serving a one-year sentence in Bambat prison "for possession of nine joints and several grams of hash." Ironically, although he had never tried heroin before, Berger is now addicted to the drugs he can easily buy from the prison guards. An American undercover agent rants, "This is a police state run by an unbe lievably corrupt military government! Twenty bucks is more than some cops earn in a month here. If a kid on spring break is gonna sit in his room smoking pot all day, someone is going to notice and take advan tage of the situation." So what can the United States govern ment do? Part of the U.S.—Thai Prisoner Transfer Treaty states that "except under extraordinary circumstances, no person shall be transferred to a prison in the Unit ed States under this treaty who at the time of his arrest had on his possession one kilo gram or more of heroin." A prisoner transfer would allow an American prisoner to serve out the remain der of his sentence in the United States, but only after serving four to six years in a for eign prison. And if Americans are arrested with a kilogram or more of heroin, they would be forced to spend their lives in prison, with no chance of release short of a royal pardon. Even when caught with a drug as seem ingly minor as marijuana, an American can be imprisoned for up to five years in an "open-air cell... [where] each prisoner is al lotted a space eighteen inches wide on the concrete floor, where dozens of prisoners sleep shoulder to shoulder" and where those who dare to break the 8 p.m. curfew for communication between prisoners can be put in solitary confinement for up to 10 days. A prison Sentence in the United States for the amount of marijuana that Berger had when he was arrested might be up to 180 days in jail or a fine of up to $1500. " According to Richard Gonzalez, former chief of the Near East and Asia division of the Citizens Emergency Center in Washing ton, there were over 3,000 Americans ar rested in foreign countries in 1992. Forty percent of these cases involved illegal drugs." All of this sounds foreboding, but how many A&M students plan to go to Thailand for spring break? And how many plan to use illegal drugs if they do leave the coun- try? A large number of students probably do plan to visit Mexico, if only to grace its bor der towns. Many may not be aware that they are under the jurisdiction of a totally different government Monica Daniels, a sophomore genetics major from El Paso, has made many trips to the neighboring border town of Juarez. She explained that police will often arrest Americans under the age of 18 for drinking or "disturbing the peace." As in Thailand, these police expect bribes if the arrested American wants to stay out of jail. Daniels said that if it is obvious that travelers have a lot of money with them or if they appear to be Americans — particu larly if they have blond hair — they are Likely to be harassed by police who will take any thing from jewelry to credit cards as a bribe. The moral of this story? "It's a foreign country," says Daniels, "So you don't have any rights. That's some thing to keep in mind." Lynn Boohcr is a sophomore English and psychology major vtovU x Ch To bovt -sAmiq BlM V\%L WII£ W>B£T,V\M 3 I\'2.IUE J Editorials appearing in The Battalion reflect the views of the editorial board and are not necessarily the opinions of other Battalion staff members, the Texas A&M student body, regents, administration, faculty or staff. Columns, guest columns and letters express the opinions of the authors. The Battalion will print as many letters as space allows. They must be 300 words or less and include the author's name, class, and phone number. We reserve the right to edit letters and guest columns for length, style and accuracy. Contact the opinion editor: for information on submitting guest columns. Address letters to: The Battalion - Mail Call 013 Reecl McDonald Mail stop T ill Texas A&M University " “ tfoo, TX 77843 * Academic windows shatter historic value I am writing in regards to the article in The Battalion (Jan. 26) about the replace ment of the Academic Building's windows. I am not only representing my own views but the views of my organization A.I.A.S. (American Institute of Architectural Stu dents) with over 200 members. We strongly support our Associate Dean of Student Af fairs and Professor, Dan McGilvray, when he says "it destroys the historic integrity of the building." The changing of these win dows is not going to make the building "fit in with the other building on campus." The only thing that will/has occurred is the de struction of the historic value of our most distinctive and prominent building. Why was this important decision made by the Physical Plant for Engineering with out the Historic Preservation Department of the College of Architecture even being consulted? We have a masters program in the practice of Historic Preservation and a very distinguished expert in this field, David Woodcock. I was informed that he offered his expertise, in this matter, but was seemingly ignored. If this is the policy Texas A&M Univer sity is pursuing, then they should just tear down the Academic Building and replace it with another Box. Michelle D. Carter A.I.A.S. President-elect Class of'94 Find your niche here In response to the article "Blacks deal with limited social life," it saddens me to think there are black students so uncom fortable here that they would leave this fine university to transfer somewhere else. A&M needs more black students. There are many white students like myself that attended 99 percent white high schools and were raised by openly racist parents or un knowingly racist parents. Students like my self could benefit greatly by exposure to other cultures and socializing with people of other races. I try very hard not to be the racist that I was raised to be. I have always been equally friendly to black and white students alike in my classes, and hope my actions encourage other students to do the same. Unfortunately though, nearly every time I try to include a black student to, for example, go to lunch with a group, they say, "No thanks." What else can I do? I agree that this small town does not provide a wide variety of night life enter tainment, but have you tried the Hilton Sundance Club? I know that it plays a vari ety of music you won't hear anywhere else in town. Not all whites think the Dixie Chicken is the place to be, either. I am an off-campus student, and I work full time to pay for my education. I know what it is like to feel like you don't fit in. The solution is not to go to another college, but to find your niche here. You have to make an effort to make friends, it doesn't just happen. Debby Hall Class of '94 Battalion manipulates perception of North In the chronology of the Iran-Contra scandal, the New York Times reads: "Oliv er North refused to testify in front of the Congressional Committee unless immunity were granted him." May 4,1989: "Oliver North is convicted of obstructing Congress, falsifying and de stroying Congress and accepting an illegal gratuity." July 10, 1990: "A federal appeal court sets aside the North conviction ruling that the case may have been tainted by the testi mony that North under a grant of immuni ty, had given to the Congressional commit tees." Oliver North is a convicted criminal who was set free due to a legal technicality. The fact that he was set free doesn't mean he is innocent of falsifying and destroying documents and lying to Congress. On Sept. 21, 1993, the day before North came to Texas A&M, The Battalion wrote: "North is best known for his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.... North was cleared of all legal charges stemming from the affair." Aggies weren't told that North was con victed and later cleared due to a legal tech nicality. I find the article manipulative. North was presented as a good guy, as the hero the College Republicans say he is. The same applies to The Battalion cover age of North's speech on Sept. 23; "North is best known by his role in the 1987 Iran- Contra affair.... North was cleared of all charges stemming from the affair." On Sept. 22, the editors of The Battalion censored my letter to Mail Call, in an at tempt to make my letter seem baseless. In that letter I called Oliver North a traitor to American Democracy for violating a con gressional order: the Boland Amendment. The Battalion censored my explanation of what the Boland Amendment was. The Boland Amendment explicitly banned U.S. military support to the Nicaraguan contras. The 2500 Aggies who packed Rudder to see North weren't violent skinheads who have no respect for democracy. I believe they were good but ignorant boys and girls who were manipulated by the vicious staffers of The Battalion and the College Republicans. Ignorant people and naive children can be easily manipulated, after all. Humberto A. Jorge Graduate student Editor's note: letters to the editor, as noted in the above box, should be 300 words or less. Due to space limitations, it is often necessary to edit, not censor, for length.