Page 10-Saturday, October 20, 1979-The Michigan Daily
SUPREME COURT DENIES STAY
Nevada killer to die
From AP and Reuter
CARSON CITY, Nev.-The U.S. Supreme Court yester-
day rejected another request to spare the life of convicted
killer Jgsse Bishop, who says he wants to be executed on
schedule Monday. But his frustrated defenders renewed their
efforts to stop the execution.
The high court voted 7-1 in Washington to reject the latest
appeal filed in Bishop's behalf by the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund. It was the second rebuff by the court this month to
Bishop's defenders, who also have been turned down by the
Nevada Prdons Board and various state and federal courts.
THURSDAY, JUSTICE William Rehnquist had refused to
postpone the execution. Defense fund lawyers then turned to
Justice William Brennan Jr., who referred the matter to the
full court, setting the stage for yesterday's vote.
Bishop, condemned to death for murdering David
Ballard, a Baltimore newlywed, during a holdup in Las
Vegas in 1977, has repeatedly spurned efforts by those who
want to halt his execution in the gas chamber.
His execution, set to take place between 18:01 a.m. and 2
a.m.,PDT Monday, would be the first in Nevada since 1961
and the first in the United States sinceJohn Spenkelink was
put to death in Florida in May.
THE COURTS have said the defenders have no legal stan-
ding in the case, and Bishop agrees.
"I'm not glad that the ACLU asked (for a stay of
execution) because I have no respect for them," he said at
one point.
After the Supreme Court's ruling, the American Civil
Liberties Union filed suit with the sentencing judge, Clark
County District Court Judge Paul Goldman of Las Vegas,
asking for an immediate stay of execution.
THE SUIT SAID the procedure to sentence Bishop was
unconstitutional because there allegedly was no con-
sideration of any mitigating circumstances. Therefore, the
suit said, no state money should be spent on the execution.
"We have no quarrel with Mr. Bishop's desire to die," said
Henry Schwarzschild of New York, director of the ACLU's
capital punishment project. "Our quarrel is with the right of
the state of Nevada to kill him."
"The state of Nevada, all of us, have a hand in this," said
Eric Moon of the American Friends Service Committee in
Reno. "Some tiny portion of the cyanide egg belongs to me. I,
if no one else, ought to be able to jay I don't want a part in
that killing."
IN A TELEPHONE conversation with reporters, mean-
while, Bishop said he had tried out the chair in the gas cham-
ber--and had found it to be uncomfortable.
"I have a lot of life left in me, but no way to live it," he
said from his cell on Death Row.
Bishop says any delay in his execution would needlessly
prolong the suffering for him and his family, and he has
refused to take an'y action on his own.
He has even refused to offer mitigating evidence in court
that could lessen his sentence, evidence that the defenders
claim might prevent the execution.
Schwarzschild has argued that the courts should consider
the evidence anyway. "The fact of the execution is a moral,
political social act of transcending importance," he said.
He said murderers like Bishop have no right to choose
their own execution.
"It's not what they want," Schwarzschild said. "If they
had not committed murder they might be able to say whether
they live or die."
Schwarzschild called the slaying for which Bishop was
convicted a "run-of-the-mill murder" that did not warrant
the death penalty.
But in rejecting clemancy for Bishop, Gov. Robert List, a
proponent of the death penalty, said state laws clearly cover
murderers like Bishop.
Boston racialconflict continues
AP Photo
CONDEMNED TO die Monday, Jesse Bishop kicks back cockily during an interview at the Nevada State Prison.
The 46-year-old confessed killer has steadfastly spurned all attempts to block his execution.
Kennedy inches closer to announcement
BOSTON (Reuter)-White teen-agers
attempted to march on City Hall
yesterday and then chased a .black
couple across Boston Common as the
city suffered its third day of racial
unrest.
Meanwhile, Senator Edward Ken-
nedy pleaded for blacks and whites in
Bostoncto work together to stop the
violence that caused several high
schools to be shut yesterday.
"IT IS UP to the adults to solve the
racial problems," he said at a meeting
here sponsored by black and Jewish
groups.
Senator Kennedy said: "We seek the
young people in many ofour cities, in
the schools of this city, struggling one
against each other in senseless acts of
violence.
"There is no role for senseless violen-
ce in our society."
Just after he spoke, more than 200
white students marched to City Hall
where police dispersed them.
Later a group of them chased a black
couple through Boston Common, the big
park in the heart of the city, and were
stopped by two white city councilmen
from harming them.
The violence was spared by the
shooting two weeks ago of a black youth
by whites in an attack that left the
youth paralyzled from the neck down.
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(Continued from Page 1 )
CARTER'S FORCES, meanwhile,
acted on the assumption that both Car-
ter and Kennedy will be candidates and
took full advantage, of the newly
released vote totals from last week's
Florida caucuses.
Vice President Walter Mondale told
reporters in New Hampshire the
Florida vote-pegged by UPI at 522
delegates for Carter and 269 for Ken-
nedy-was likely to be repeated in other
contests.
"We have received there (in
Florida), despite the fact our opposition
spent more money, a mandate of nearly
2-l," Mondale said.
HE SAID HE thinks Florida
represents "a good cross section of the
country" and expects Carter to do
equally well against Kennedy in other
states.
The Florida caucuses were held to
elect more than 800 delegates to al
Democratic state party convention next
month. Those delegates, along with
another 00 party officials, will take a
presidential straw vote.
Since Carter won most of the
delegates and is the overwhelming
favorite of the Florida party officials,
there is little doubt he will win the straw
vote, and Kennedy forces said they may
simply withdraw from the contest.
Ford not interested in nomination
(Continued from Page 1)
back in order to ascertain my intentions
to jump into the fray on behalf of the
candidate of their choice," he said.
Asked if Republican leaders or other
candidates urged him to make the
statement, Ford said: "This was totally
done by myself. I made this decision
exclusively on my own."
AND DID MRS. Ford influence his
decision?
"Betty and I always had a wonderful
relationship," Ford said, smiling. "I
made the decision with her full con-
currence."
What about those who have already
begun draft-Ford movements?
"I feel badly about that," Ford said.
"There is never a perfect time to make
such an announcement."
Ford said he chose to make his an-
nouncement in the House press gallery
because, "The House of Represen-
tatives is like an old home."
HE
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