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April 12, 1993 - Image 1

Resource type:
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Publication:
The Michigan Daily, 1993-04-12

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This week is Earth Week, and students should
take this opportunity to educate themselves
about the environment.

The movie "Sandlot" is a cross between "Stand By
Me" and "The Bad News Bears." Alison Levy
reviews the film.

The Michigan football team won its first game of
the season Saturday when Peter Elezovic booted a
31-yard field goal to give the White, 21-20.

Today
Chance of showers;
High 52, Low 38
Tomorrow
Partly cloudy; High 54, Low 39

WEi

.ti

One hundred two years of editorial freedom

al S1 o 15AnAbr ichgn-Mdy il 12993 199*TheMic iaDily

Federal jurors
deliberate on
King beating

Judge tells jurors
to ignore "external
consequences of your
verdict'
LOS ANGELES (AP) - It's a
different court in a different town,
but the key question is the same: Did
the four officers who beat Rodney
King abide by police rules in subdu-
ing him or did they beat him to do
him harm?
Lawyers pulled out all the stops
in a two-month trial in which prose-
cutors maintained that the white of-
ficers not only used excessive force
in the beating of King, a Black mo-
torist, but did so intentionally.
Nearly a year after a state jury in
suburban Simi Valley acquitted the
officers on most assault charges, set-
ting off an explosion of rioting in
Los Angeles, the hot potato that has
left a city unnerved is in the hands of
a federal jury deciding whether
King's civil rights were violated.
Before the case went to the jury
Saturday afternoon, the panel was
warned by U.S. District Judge John
Davies to ignore "any external con-
sequences of your verdict."
Deliberations, which lasted about
2 1/2 hours Saturday, resumed at
noon Sunday to allow jurors to at-
tend Easter services. They deliber-
ated for five hours, as scheduled,
without reaching a verdict, then re-
cessed for the day.
The defense introduced new
technological evidence and offered
colorful courtroom demonstrations.
Prosecutors were no less dramatic in
calling civilian witnesses who gave
emotional accounts of the beating to
remind jurors how horrible the scene
appeared on March 3, 1991.
If convicted, the officers face up
to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in
fines.
The opponents in this civil rights
trial essentially put on two cases: the
emotional case and the factual one.
On the emotional angle, the-

government called King to the stand
for the first time to tell of his pain as
officers beat and shocked him with
an electronic stun gun. "I was just
trying to stay alive," he said.
In final arguments, Justice
Department attorney Barry Kowalski
acknowledged that King had little to
add factually.
"The government called Rodney
King to testify not because he has a
perfect recollection of this incident,"
he said.
In the factual arguments, prosecu-
tors showed the videotape of King's
beating and had a Los Angeles
Police Department use-of-force ex-
pert analyze the officers' actions.
Sgt. Mark Conta, head of physi-
cal training and self-defense at the
city Police Academy, said Officer
Laurence Powell should have
stopped beating King after his baton
blows knocked King to the ground.
"An officer should use only the
force that is reasonable and neces-
sary to overcome a suspect's resis-
tance," Conta said. "Officer Powell
was completely outside of LAPD
policy."
About 32 seconds into the video-
taped beating, Conta said all blows
and kicks by the defendants were
unreasonable.
The defense's emotional case
hinged on courtroom demonstrations
- two policemen rolling around on
the floor to show how King could
have grabbed an officer's gun, an at-
torney swinging a baton and Koon
taking the stand to accept responsi-
bility for his officers' actions.
Sgt. Stacey Koon, a 14-year
police veteran, cast himself as the
consummate cop, a cool, forthright
leader who knew better than anyone
else what should be done. He said he
was sure King was under the
influence of PCP and thought he had
the strength of "The Hulk," a
cartoon character.

Akira Abe, a research fellow in internal medicine, enjoyed the wide variety of jazz performed as part of the Earth Day celebration Saturday.~
Earth Week starts on a high note

by Randy Lebowitz
Daily Staff Reporter
Saturday's sunshine was not
the only reason students and Ann
Arbor residents went to Palmer
Field to relax. The Earth Week
kick off event - a concert titled
Illuminations '93 - was also a
reason.
The event was sponsored by
the University Activities Center's
Eclipse Jazz, which provides free
jazz concerts on campus.
Eclipse Jazz co-Coordinator
and LSA senior Jeff Koch said this

event was a good way to start
Earth Week.
"Jazz music is so tied up in is-
sues of multiculturalism and our
unification as a people and a
planet," he said.
The concert was delayed two
hours because of an electrical
problem, which Koch attributed to
a combination of incorrect wiring
and damp ground. As a result, the
first act - Francisco Mora, an
African Cuban ensemble - had to
play acoustically.
Other acts included the 1940s

and 1950s bebop group Teddie
Harris; the avant-garde student
ensemble Kingdom of Not; the
University Creative Arts Or-
chestra; Detroit's Michael Fletch-
er Gospel Chorale, and African
American female jazz ensemble
Straight Ahead.
Paul Keene, School of Music
graduate student, pointed to the
significance of the concert. "This
is important because it draws
people together using music as a
language for people to think about
things," he said.

In addition to the music, vari-
ous groups including En-
vironmental Action (ENACT),
Greenpeace and Amnesty
International sponsored informa-
tion booths. Between acts, repre-
sentatives from these groups
addressed the crowd.
ENACT member and LSA se-
nior Christa Williams said, "Your
education does not stop in the
classroom. In fact, there's so much
more to be learned by going out
into the community and doing
See CONCERT, Page 2

I

*Senate delays
discussion on
Clinton job plan
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate took a two-
week recess without approving President Clinton's
$16.3 billion jobs package, despite efforts by
Democrats, including Michigan Sens. Donald Riegle
and Carl Levin.
Debate over the measure is set to resume April 20.
Under an arrangement set up by both parties, each
party at that time will have a chance to offer an
alternative to the job-generating bill.
Republicans want to strip from it the $4 billion
intended to pay for extended benefits for the long-term
unemployed. They also want to trim the jobs portion
and pay for it by cutting other programs.
The jobs section is a key part of Clinton's economic
recovery plan.
Last Monday, Democrats again found enough votes
to end a GOP filibuster that stalled the bill for over a
week. This time, the vote to halt the delays was 11 votes
short of the 60 needed to clear the way for a vote on
final passage.
Levin and Riegle voted with the 49 members.
Riegle attributed the delay to political maneuvering
by Republicans eyeing the White House in four years.

DeBoer case may spur laws
allowing out-of-state adoptions

LANSING (AP) - More is at
stake in a highly publicized battle for
the custody of a 2-year-old girl than
the heart-wrenching issue of who
she'll live with.
Chances for relaxing Michigan's
adoption laws also might hinge on
the dispute between Jan and Roberta
DeBoer, of Ann Arbor, and the girl's
biological parents, Daniel and Cara
Schmidt, of Blairstown, Iowa.
"Right now, it would be a logical
and reasonable question to have: Are
we going to be creating one DeBoer
situation after another?" conceded
Monica Linkner of Lathrop Village.
Linkner, a member of Parents for
Private Adoption, said the bitter
DeBoer-Schmidt battle is not a
reason for Michigan lawmakers to
shelve adoption changes proposed

after months of study.
"That situation, unfortunately,
could arise in any case. The reason
this case is so highly publicized is a
measure of how rarely it does
happen," said Linkner, who adopted
a child in a private adoption out of
state.
Currently, Michigan law lets only
agencies do adoptions. Changes
proposed a year ago by a House
Judiciary Committee subcommittee
would permit private, or direct,
adoptions. In those adoptions,
biological parents and adoptive
parents deal with each other with the
help of attorneys.
Backers say birth mothers prefer
private placements because it gives
them, not an agency, final say in
who will adopt their children.

The DeBoers plan to ask the
Michigan Supreme Court to overturn
a 3-0 Michigan Court of Appeals
decision telling them to return the
child.
Three Iowa courts, including the
state Supreme Court, upheld
Schmidt's right to his child.
Last month, a Michigan court's
decision that it would be in the
child's best interest to stay with the
DeBoers was overturned by the state
Court of Appeals. The DeBoers plan
to appeal to the Michigan Supreme
Court.
The Schmidts' attorney, Marian
Faupel, said lawmakers should take
a lesson from the long, bitter fight.
"We think that to the extent
Michigan is considering relaxing its
See ADOPTION, Page 2

Cultural fest showcases dragons, dancers

by Peter Matthews
Daily Staff Reporter

School of Business poet and dancers.
An enthusiastic and ethnicalv-

brotherhood "no matter what color."
School of Music radate student

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