THE
Summer Daily
Vol LXXXIII, No. 38-S
Ann Arbor, Michigan-Thursday, July 12, 1973
Ten Cents
Twelve Pages
Most heated exchanges thus far
itchel
enials of
Watergate
continue
WASHINGTON (A--Under intense
questioning by the Senate Water-
gate committee yesterday, former
Attorney General John Mitchell dog-
gedly clung to his testimony that he
turned down the burglary-wiretap-
ping plan, despite a statement to
the contrary made by his former,
assistant.
The questioning of jMitchell, in
his second day of testimony, became
so bitter that at the day's end he
commented "It's a great trial -they're
conducting up here, isn't it."
DURING THE SESSION, Mitchell con-
ceded that presidential silence about the
Watergate scandal risks public suspicions
but predicted "the good name of the Pres-
ident is going to be protected by the facts
and the President himself."
Mitchell's own reputation as an attortney
and former attorney general came under
severe attack by Sen. Lowell Weicker-
(R-Conn.) who cited several evident 'on-
flies in Mitchell's sworn testimony before
the committee and his earlier statements
under oath.
The senator elicited from Mitchell that
he had not informed the judge in the
Daniel Ellsberg Pentagon Papers trial-
or anyone else - when he learned that
Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office had been
broken into by White House "plumbers."
The incident was one of the "White House
horrors" Mitchell said he feared would be
disclosed if he told Nixon about Watergate.
WEICKER IN HIS questions suggested
that as a lawyer and officer of the court
Mitchell should have spoken out because
"you knew 'silence might possibly convict
an American citizen by means of illegal
conduct."
Mitchell, however, added that "in retro-
spect it probably would have been the
right thing" to inform the judge about
the break-in.
While quizzing Mitchell, Weicker quoted"
from a digest of testimony given by for-
mer aide Fredrick LRue.
LaRUE STATED Mitchell did not reject
a political espionage plan presented by G.
Gordon Liddy during a strategy meeting
on March 30, 1972. Mitchell merely said
the plan did not have to be decided on at
that time, according to LaRue.
"My recollection is very distinct," Mit-
chell said. "The matter was rejected. I
was tired of hearing about those things
and didn't want to hear a b o u t them
again."
The March 30 meeting was the last of
three at which Liddy presented plans 'hat
included burglary, wiretapping, mugging,
kidnapping and prostitution. Jeb Stuart
See MITCHELL, Page 10
AP Photo
JOHN MITCHELL takes advantage of a break in the hearings to close his eyes
and collect his thoughts. The rest must have been a welcome one for the former
attorney general as his day before the committee was highlighted by some of the
most grueling and at times bitter cross-examination the hearings have thus far
produced.
A thr
decision
attorney
status *o
patients
to medi'
The W
released
case of
State Ho
a "crimi
chosen b
experim
Court prohibits mental
epa tien t psychsugr
By REBECCA WARNER the Lafayette Clinic in Detroit could not due to. the "inherently coercive" nature
ee-judge panel has rendered a experiment on Doe's brain. The decision of mental institutions: "Institutionalization
prohibiting psychosurgery which effectively outlaws all psychosurgery in tends to strip the individual of the support
s say could radically change the the state. which permits him to maintain his sense
f involuntarily committed mental Basing its findings on testimony from of self-worth and the value of his own
and prison inmates with regard psychiatrists, legal precedents established physical and mental integrity.
cal research and treatment. during the Nuremberg war crimes trials, "Psychosurgery should never be under-
c r rand the Bill of Rights, the panel pro- taken upon involuntarily committed pope-
Vayne County Circuit Court panel nounced involuntarily committed mental lations when there is a high risk-low
its statement Monday on the patients legally incapable of giving their benefit ratio as demonstrated in this case,"
"John Doe," an inmate of Ionia "competent, knowing and voluntary" con- the decision said.
spital designated by the state as sent to experimental medical procedures. LOCAL 'ATTORNEY, Gabe Kaimowitz,
inal sexual psychopath." Doe was rhe judges also argued the surgery would who acted as one of the plaintiffs in the
y medical researchers to undergo violate patients' constitutional rights to - Doe suit, expressed exuberance over the
ental psychosurgery aimed at freedom of thought and privacy..
curbing uncontrollable violent rage.
HE WAS committed involuntarily at
Ionia in 1954 for an indefinite period after
confessing to the rape and murder of a
student nurse at Kalamazoo State Hos-
pital, which he had entered voluntarily.
The panel ruled that neurosurgeons at
ALTHOUGH DOE originally consented
to the experiment, he did so under a
choice between surgery and continued
indefinite confinement at Ionia without
treatment.
The judges claimed involuntarily com-
mitted persons cannot give legal consent
aecision yesterday.
"As far as I'm concerned, I've never
read a decision of anyone's victory that's
as great as the victory I just won,"
Kaimowitz remarked, claiming the panel's
decision included "everything I wanted."
He predicted the decjsion will affect
See PSYCHOSURGERY, Page 9