The Battalion
; i : b ■ : " i i g
Paji
Wednesday • March 26,
Nation
Inmates move to
higher grounds
ANGOLA, La. (AP) — About 3,000
inmates were temporarily evacuated to
higher ground Tuesday as waters from
the swollen Mississippi River threat
ened to undermine a levee protecting
the nation’s largest prison farm.
“We don’t gamble with the lives
of inmates," Warden Burl Cain said
after the early morning move to a
tent city on the only bit of high
ground on the 18,000-acre
Louisiana State Penitentiary.
As the inmates made the uphill
climb, many could not help noticing
a block-long trail of red ants going in
the same direction.
The inmates were returned to
their regular dormitories 10 hours lat
er, after they piled on 30,000 more
sand bags to stabilize the 21-mile-
long levee that has held since the
turn of the century.
“It is wet, it is soaked, but it is
stable,” Cain said. He added that if
the river creates more problems, an
other evacuation would be ordered
and could involve all of the prison’s
5,000 inmates.
So far, death row has remained
untouched. After a flood in 1973 that
also threatened the levee, the state
put that building on the hill so as not
to worry about evacuation of con
demned killers.
The prison farm rests in a horse
shoe bend 50 miles upstream from
Baton Rouge.
The river is expected to crest near
the prison Friday at a record 61.1 feet,
more than 13 feet above flood stage
► This day in History
but not enough to reach the tops of the
prison levee, said Dave Reed, a hy
drologist at the Lower Mississippi Riv
er Forecast Center in Slidell.
“It’s kind of scary, isn’t it?” prison
spokeswoman Cathy Jett said as she
gave reporters a tour. “The water is
almost level to our eyes.”
“If we have a levee break, every
thing you see will be 13 feet or more
under water — all but what is on this
hill,” she said.
Bush jumps to fulfill
long-time promise
YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz.
(AP) — George Bush took a flying
leap Tuesday.
In doing so, the former president ful
filled a wartime promise to himself,
jumping from a plane over the Arizona
desert under a rainbow-colored para
chute — a serene, Technicolor repeat
of his leap to safety from a disabled
Navy bomber half a century ago.
“It was wonderful. I’m a new man
— and I go home exhilarated,” the 72-
year-old former chief executive said.
It was his second parachute jump,
but his first planned one. Bush was
forced to bail out of his Navy bomber
in the Pacific during World War II, and
promised himself that one day he
would make a jump for fun.
He had a little help, with two
jump masters holding onto his har
ness until he opened his chute
safely, and half a dozen people —
including wife Barbara — running to
cushion his landing. Medical emer
gency personnel also were standing
by on the ground.
Asked how he felt, Bush gave a
thumbs up and said: “Like that.”
Florida execution goes up in flame
Incident should detour people from committing murder, officials a
STARKE, Fla. (AP) —A mask concealing the
face of a condemned killer burst into flames
Tuesday as he was put to death in Florida’s
electric chair, and the governor said the state
will consider other methods of execution.
Pedro Medina, one of nearly 125,000
Cubans who came to the United States during
the 1980 Mariel boatlift, was sentenced to die
for the 1982 stabbing death of a
woman who had befriended him. |
There was no indication Med
ina felt the flames, Gov. Lawton
Chiles said.
“We’ve had an occasion of
smoke before,” Chiles said. “But
the question is really, Ts this
something that is torturous or
painful?’”
However, Attorney General
Bob Butterworth said the in
mate’s gruesome end would be a
deterrent.
“People who wish to commit
murder, they better not do it in the state of
Florida because we may have a problem with
our electric chair,” Butterworth said.
It was the second time an inmate’s mask
has burst into flame during a Florida execu
tion. The first time, in 1990, executions were
suspended for three months.
While there was no visible reaction from
Tuesday’s 39 witnesses, some later said they
were nauseated by the sight and the smell.
“It was something entirely out of the ordi
nary. I have witnessed 11 executions and have
never seen anything like what we saw this
morning,” said a visibly shaken Gene Morris,
spokesman for the Department of Correc
tions.
Medina, 39, had appeared calm, pursing
his lips and looking up while he was strapped
into “Old Sparky,” the three-legged oak chair
built in 1923. He never looked at the witness
es seated in front of him on the other side of a
window.
“Pedro was somewhere else when he was
in there,” said the Rev. Glenn
] Dickson, who spent the night
| outside Medina’s cell. "He told
! me he was not afraid of dy-
“It was some
thing entirely out
mg.
of the ordinary”
Gene Morris
Department of Corrections
Medina’s last words were:
“I am still innocent.”
Then the black leather
mask was lowered over his
face to conceal his expression
from the witnesses, and 2,000
volts of electricity were sent
through his body.
There was a small flicker
on the right side of the mask
and then orange and blue flames up to a foot
high erupted and burned for about 10 sec
onds.
When the witnesses were removed several
minutes later, the room was still smoky.
Medina did not react obviously to the
flames, having already lurched back and
balled his hands into Fists when the current hit
him.
“The doctor says that there were no indi
cations from the observation or anything else
that Medina felt any pain as a result of what
happened,” the governor said. “The death was
instantaneous.
Chiles said the doctor told him that “the
burns were no different than you'd si
execution and, in his opinion, hefeltnon
One witness disagreed.
“It was brutal, terrible. It wasaba
alive, literally," said Michael Minena
heads a state agency that representsdi
row inmates.
Minerva said the governor should ha
executions of two inmates scheduledic
and quit signing death warrants.
Chiles said the state would considei
natives such as lethal injection, “asw
before.”
Only five other states have electrocui
their only means of execution: Ala
Georgia, Kentucky, Nebraska andTennt
However, Kentucky and Tennesseehai;
executed anyone since the SupremeC
allowed states to reinstate the deathpa
in 1976, according to the Death Penalty!:
mation Center in Washington.
Medina was convicted of the 1982 kill:
Dorothy James, 52, a teacher who ha:
friended him. He was found drivinghe
and a knife believed to be the murder
was found in the car.
Correction
A headline on the Opinion page oil
day's Battalion misidentified the Reside
Hall Association. It should have identified
Department of Residence Life and Hous;
► Weather
Today is Wednesday, Feb. 26th, the 57th day of 1997.
There are 308 days left in the year.
On this date:
In 1802, French literary giant Victor Hugo was born in
Besancon.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Is
land of Elba to begin his second conquest of France.
In 1846, frontiersman-turned-showman William F. “Buf
falo Bill” Cody was born in Scout County, Iowa.
In 1870, New York City’sTirst pneumatic-powered sub
way line was opened to the public.
In 1919, Congress established Grand Canyon Nation
al Park in Arizona.
In 1929, President Coolidge signed a measure es
tablishing Grand Teton National Park.
In 1940, the U.S. Air Defense Command was created.
In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was
ratified, limiting a president to two terms of office.
In 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced
that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb.
In 1993, a bomb exploded in the garage of New York’s
World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more
than 1,000 others.
Five years ago: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unani
mously that sexually harassed students may sue to col
lect monetary damages from their schools and school of
ficials. The Supreme Court of Ireland cleared the way for
a 14-year-old girl to leave the country for an abortion.
► Today's birthdays
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Mason Adams is 78. Actor
Tony Randall is 77. Actress Betty Hutton is 76. Singer
Fats Domino is 69. Political columnist Robert Novak is
66. Singer Johnny Cash is 65. Singer Mitch Ryder is 52.
Singer Michael Bolton is 44. Actress Jennifer Grant (Bev
erly Hills 90210) is 31.
Today
Tonight
Tomorrow
Cloudy with 20 percent
chance of rain. North
winds 15 mph.
Partly cloudy. North
winds 10 mph.
Partly cloudy. Winds
from the southwest.
Highs & Lows
'Today’s Expected ■
65°F r
Tonight’s Expected!
50°F ’
Tomorrow’s Expect
m
69°F
Tomorrow Nig/ii"
Expected Lai
55°F
Information courtesyofTMTCA
iss of 2000
T-shirts on sale!
A
T-shirts are on sale for $10 in the MSC Hallway
March 24-28 and April 4th at Fishball
Questions, Concerns, Comments?
Talk with your Vice President
for Student Affairs.
If you have any thoughts or concerns regarding student life here
at A&M, I’m very interested in hearing them. I am Malon
Southerland, your Vice President for Student Affairs and my
office is on the 10th floor of Rudder Tower. My door is always
open and I encourage you to come by if I can ever be of assis
tance. Feel free to call me anytime at 845-4728 or contact me
through e-mail : malon-southerland@tamu.edu
Kappa Alpha Psi
and
ExCEL Presents...
Hozu to choose the Right CAREER''
Agriculture and Life Sciences
he/,
lJ Q
*ti (
0/; ^
,,4 ‘V
March 26, 1997 Rudder 402, 8:30pm
m Goniunction with Princeton Review***
to
c
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AND INFORMATION
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r
MSC L.T. Jordan Institute for
International Awareness Fellows Program
presents:
Bonnie Ponwith
Tropical Rainforest Ecology
a case study from Costa Rica
&
Rachel Preston
Italian Architecture:
Bridging the Gap Between Renaissance
and Baroque
Wednesday, March 26th, 7:00pm
MSC Room 223]
For more information call 845-8770
or e-mail: ji-fellows@msc.tamu.edu
Persons with disabilities please call 845-8770
to inform hs of your special needs.
A
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The Battalion
Rachel Barry, Editor in Chief
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Helen Clancy, Night News Editor Brad Graeber, Cartoon Edip
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