ourt says
etarded
dult can
be tri'ed,
o7r murdler
LANSING, Mich. (UPI) - The
ichigan Court of Appeals ruled
yesterday that a young man with the
mentality of a child could still be held
criminally responsible for murder.
The decision affirmed Russel Lee
Ash's Detroit conviction for second-
degree murder.
DtFENSE attorneys argued that
Ash- who was only 16 at the time of the
slaying, should not have been tried as
an adult.
They cited a juvenile judge's com-
exits that Ash's overall intellectual
functioning was equivalent to that of a
10-year-old and that his reasoning skills
and ability to understand cause and ef-
feet were those of a 6-year-old.
The attorneys cited a court ruling,
which found that children of seven are
presumed to be incapable of cimmitting
a crime.
"WE DO NOT believe that the
uvnile court judge's finding regar-
*ng defendant's reasoning skills man-
dates a finding that defendant here
could not be found criminally respon-
sible," the court said.
The court said the defense argument
about Ash's mental age "has no ap-
plication to the present case.
"We believe such rules could only be
applied when the child at issue is
chronologically six or seven-year-old,"
the court said.
"A physically mature yet mildly
etarded 16-year-old cannot be equated
to a chronological 6- or 7-year-old child
for purposes of a presumption against
criminality. We find no error in the
juvenile judge's waiver of jurisdiction
over defendant."
The court also rejected arguments
thata Detroit judge, in convicting Ash,
ignored evidence of insanity.
"Although the testimony indicated-
that defendant's personality was
characterized by impulsivity and
ependence and that he was easily led,
there was no testimony that defendant
was incapable of controlling his im-
pulse to commit a criminal act," the
court said.
1
The Michigan Daily - Saturday, March 24, 1984 - Page 11
Snoking dangerous
after only two years
LONDON (AP) - Within just two
years of taking up the habit, teen-agers
who smoke cigarettes appear "con-
siderably less healthy" than those who
don't smoke, British doctors said
yesterday.
Reporting in the British Medical
Journal, doctors at London's Charing
Cross Hospital Medical School said
their research "shows that the health of
school children may be impaired by
regular smoking."
THE DOCTORS reported: "Taking
up smoking was clearly associated with
the early onset of cough, production of
phlegm and shortness of breath on
exertion.
"After two years of smoking more
than a few cigarettes a day, the
children who smoked appeared con-
siderably less healthy than their non-
smoking peers and showed some
evidence of early obstruction of the
airways," the article said.
Dr. Lewis Adams, a lecturer in
physiology, and his fellow researchers
studied the smoking habits of 405
students at two schools in the London
borough of Hounslow between 1975 and
1979.
THE STUDENTS, who were 13 when
the study began, filled out yearly
questionaires and underwent annual
lung-function tests.
The smokers were compared with an
equal number, of non-smokers of the
same age. By the end of the study, there
were 187 regular smokers, those who
smoked more than one cigarette a day.
Among the 54 students who had been
regular smokers for two years, 27
reported persistent coughing, 24 said
they were short of breath after such
exertion as walking up a slight hill, and
31 reported the production of phlegm in
their throats.
AMONG 54 non-smokers, 13 reported
coughing, seven reported shortness of
breath and three said they produced
phlegm.
The researchers said the lung-
function tests disclosed a "significantly
poorer function of the small airways"
among smokers aftertwo years.
The doctors added: "The degree of
impairment shown in the lung-function
tests was so small that if the results
were taken individually, they would not
be considered abnormal."
BUT ADAMS said in an interview tha
the incidence of lung impairment was
"significantly higher" among smokers
as a group.
"What we can say is that when teen-
agers start smoking, they cough more;
they produce more phlegm and they get
out of breath more quickly," he said.
AP Photo
Pool ponderers
These preschool children in Lansing look a little nervous as they wait their turn to dive into the water during a YWCA
class in water safety.
Official: housing not
enou gh for homeless fr F
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of
Housing and Urban Development
Samuel Pierce said yesterday that
he thinks homeless people who have
serious mental problems may be
beyond the kind of help housing agen-
cies can give.
"There are a lot of them who really, if
you gave them a home, they wouldn't,
stay there. They're street people. They
want tQ be out on the street. And there's
nothing you can do about it," Pierece
said.
NO ONE knows how many homeless
people there are in the country, but he
estimates the range as high as 3
million. Estimates of how many of
them may need psychiatric help range
from a quarter to a third.
In January, President Reagan ex-
pressed a similar frustration with the
problem.
'What we'have found in this country,
and maybe we're more aware of it now,
is one problem that we've had even in
the best of times, and that is the people
who are sleepinig on the. grates, the
homeless who are homeless, you might
say, by choice," the president said.
REAGAN PUT part of the blame on
"changes made in committing people
with mental problems to institutions
and they've suddenly been turned out,
willing to go. They want out, but they
have no place to go."
Pierce told news agency interviewers
that a department study nearing com-
pletion is designed to define the
problem.
Then, he said, the department can
decide "what can we do and how do we
approach it."
FTC: Firms must substantiate ads
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Federal Trade Commission
qhairman James Miller yesterday reaffirmed the agency
rctice of requiring companies to have proof in hand before
malking any advertising boasts about their products.
But his proposed policy statement defined for the first time
instances in which the FTC, in reviwing complaints against
advertisers, copld consider evidence developed after a con-
tested advertising claim was made.
THE FTC HAS considered such evidence in the past but
there was no policy saying when such material could be
reviewed by commissioners.
FTC Commissioner Michael Pertschuk, who has accused
Miller of inadequately enforcing consumer protection laws,
tlled the statement an admission that Miller's earlier
Wegervations about the principle of prior substantiation were
unfounded.
"Miller spent three years running up the hill and down
again," Pertschuk said through a spokesman. "The question
now is how will the policy be applied."
PERTSCHUK headed the FTC under President Carter.
The FTC adopted the advertising prior substantiation rule
in 1972. The rule states that an advertiser must have, a
"reasonable basis for the claim" and evidence in hand to
prove it.
Miller outlined the policy statement in a speech to a group
of businessmen.
"ADVERTISERS must have a reasonable basis for objec-
tive claims before they are disseminated," he said.
But Miller proposed specific circumstances under which
the FTC, in deciding a case brought against an advertiser,
could consider evidence developed after a claim was adver-
tised. They include:
* When evaluating the truth of an ad.
* When deciding whether there is a public interest in
proceeding against the firm.
" When deciding the appropriate scope of an order.
* When determining whether an advertiser was reasonable
in relying on prior substantiation he did have.
Linguistics may lose departnet status
(Continued from Page 1)
vision would not have a harmful ef-
fect.
Changing the department into a
program would be a !valid way to
reorganize, said Linguistics Prof. Rob-
bins Burling.
"(The change) certainly would not be
the, end of linguistics," said Burling
who also teaches anthropology.
Other schools such as Princeton
University have a linguistics program
instead of a department, added Prof.
Thomas Markey.
"I'm not shocked or anything...it
might not be such a bad thing," Markey
said.
If the revision goes into effect, faculty
members would probably not lose their
jobs, but they would teach linguistics
through other LSA departments, said
Linguistics Prof. John Catford.
"I don't think (a change) would have
a tremendous effect," he said.
According to Jack Meiland, LSA dean
for long-range planning, most faculty
members who teach in University
programs also hold appointments in a
department.
.Miterrand says arm control talks to resume
(Continued from Page 1)
exchange of French and American ar-
tists also is likely.
The senior U.S. official, who briefed
reporters on condition that he not be
identified, said the two leaders "agreed
nQ concessions should be made to bring
the Soviets back" to the arms control
talks on the grounds it would be "not
PUT THE official said they also
agreed "on the need for intensified
Exist-West dialogue" as well as the
necessity of "maintaining the West's
deterrent strength."
The official said the American view is
that "the Soviet leadership is going
thirough a period of introspection and is
attempting to divert attention from its
udwillingness or inability to engage us
in'negotiating for genuine nuclear arms
reductions."
deaths of Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri
Andropov..
"We also believe the Soviet Union
should not be allowed to escape respon-
sibility for intransigence in the effort to
achieve substantially lower levels of
nuclear weapons by a smokescreen of
propagandistic proposals in other
areas," he said.
LS&A I HOUSING DIVISION
Fail, 1984 - Winter, 1985
Graduate Student Teaching Assistantships
RESIDENT ADVISOR POSITIONS
in the
Pilot Program - Alice Lloyd Hall