2s- The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 9, 1999 Court rejects McVeigh's appeal AROUND THE NATION . WASHINGTON (AP) - Timothy McVeigh, sentenced to die for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more, lost a Supreme Court appeal yesterday. he court refused to hear McVeigh's aruments that his trial was tainted by jury misconduct and news reports that ie confessed to the bombing, the worst such attack on U.S. soil. His lawyer, Richard Burr, expressed disappointment, saying, "We had hoped the Supreme Court would be able to rise above the terrible human conse- quences" of the case in evaluating McVeigh's appeal. "It is so easy to say 'no' to Timothy McVeigh," Burr added. McVeigh was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy and weapons-related charges in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building. The bombing could be heard miles away, and television screens soon were filled with stunning images of the shattered building and rescue workers looking for survivors. A federal appeals court last fall upheld his convictions and death sen- tence in the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers. Oklahoma prose- cutors have said they plan to charge McVeigh with first-degree murder in state court for the deaths of the other 160 bombing victims. McVeigh still can pursue a new round of appeals challenging the consti- tutionality of his federal prosecution. Under a 1996 federal law, inmates have up to a year to file such an appeal. His Supreme Court appeal said the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rul- ing that upheld his conviction sent a message that "the rules of law may be applied on a sliding scale when the crime is unspeakable and public outrage is great." The appeal said pretrial news reports of a purported confession by McVeigh to his lawyers created a serious threat to his fair-trial rights. Four jurors indicat- ed in pretrial questioning that they had seen the reports. "No such procedure should send Mr. McVeigh to his death," the appeal said. Justice Department lawyers said the bombing "caused extraordinary harm" and that courts took "extraordinary steps" to ensure McVeigh a fair trial, including disqualifying the original judge and moving the trial to Denver. Prospective jurors were examined thoroughly for signs of bias, and news reports never established that McVeigh actually confessed, prosecutors said. At McVeigh's trial in 1997, prosecu- tors said he and co-defendant Terry Nichols carried out the bombing in revenge for the April 19, 1993, deaths of about 80 people in the siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. Prosecutors said McVeigh, now 30, chose the Oklahoma City building because he believed people responsible for the Waco siege worked there and x'gf Be a part of our front desk aff! + Work at the front desk of your What could be better? favorite residence hail Pick up your applications now at Enjoy your summer in Ann Arbor the residence hall front desk + Take classes nearest you or stop by our . Work 15-40 hours per week office. Applications are due on March 12, + Make money 1999 by 4:00 pm to: . Help create your own flexible Conference Management Services schedule Room G-121 South Quad + Meet people from all over the world 600 E. Madison + Work exciting events like Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1372 Orientation, Art Fair, A734) 764-5297 -FutureProblemSolvingAnA^eAction/Equal OpportunitEmpyer Fnuturerbl ieeoling University Housing,A Division of Student Affairs and Summer Engineering Academy HELP US "PAINT TH E SUMMER WITH SERVICE!" because the building was an easy target. Nichols was convicted of conspiracy in a separate trial and sentenced to life in prison. McVeigh is being held under maxi- mum security at a federal prison in Florence, Colo. A federal death row and execution chamber have been built at a prison in Terre Haute, Ind. But, the facility has not been activated and the 19 other inmates currently under federal death sentences are being held in prisons around the country as they pursue court appeals. McVeigh's jury-misconduct allega- tion concerned one juror's comment to others during the trial. An alternate juror told a court official that jurors discussed which of them would decide the case and which would serve as alternates, and that one juror said: "It wouldn't be very hard. I think we all know what the verdict should be." MIORS Continued from Page 1 Dworkin said the possibility of a minor program has benefits and draw- backs for his department. "A minor program could cost us con- centrators," Dworkin said, adding that students who may have double majored before may now choose to receive a minor instead. Dworkin said the opposite is also possible, explaining that the program may bring in students who before would have not pursued the field at all. Guidelines recommended by the cur- riculum committee state that students must use department-created minors and will not be able to use more than one class to satisfy both their major and minor. But Owen said the guidelines are not certain. "Guidelines evolve with time and experience" he said. "There is always finetuning and tweaking." In order to help with the fine-tuning process, LSA Student Government Academic Relations Officer Seema Pai said LSA-SG plans to set up a network of student clubs with corresponding majors. LSA sophomore Mohiba Khan, a Pre-Med club member, said the executive board already has inter- ested students willing to help the physics department curriculum committee develop a minor pro- gram. Curriculum committees "especially need this student input," Kahn said. "They need student discussion and stu- dent opinion:' KNOW OF NEWS.? CALL THEDAILY AT 76-DAILY Foundation in California, accused Nixon's image. Justice dept argues right to probe Starr WASHINGTON - The Justice Department yesterday asserted its power to investigate alleged miscon- duct by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, while President Clinton's former business partner, Susan McDougal, vowed an "all-out fight" against the alleged excesses of Starr's office as her latest trial began. Less than a month after the Senate acquitted Clinton on perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges referred by Starr, the independent counsel finds himself the focus of attack on multiple fronts. The Justice Department has advised Starr of its intent to investigate his han- dling of the Monica Lewinsky matter, and in papers filed yesterday with the special court that oversees independent counsels the department argued that the court has no power to block the disci- plinary inquiry. In his own filing, Starr urged the court not to heed a conservative legal the government of trying to tarnish group seeking an order to block Justice from investigating him. But Starr left open the possibility of mounting his own challenge if the Justice Department decides to proceed with an ethics investigation of his conduct. Intel, FTC resolve * antitrust lawsuit WASHINGTON - Striking a deal just 24 hours before a trial was to begin, lawyers from the Federal Trade Commission and Intel Corp. yesterday settled a suit that the government brought in hopes of establishing rules of competition in the fast-growing computer industry. Terms of the deal, which th* agency's commissioners must consider, were not publicly disclosed. But sources said the government won a key concession: Intel agreed to drop its practice of withholding crucial techni- cal data from companies it is battling in court, a tactic the agency had deemed to be illegal arm-twisting by a monop- olist. New Nixon tapes played in court WASHINGTON - It was President Nixon uncensored: On secret White House tapes played in federal court yesterday, the late president made derogatory com- ments about Jews and Mexicans and said former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart "was a little dumb." Government lawyers played the tapes, which were peppered with profanity and candid remarks, in an attempt to persuade U.S. District Judge John Garrett Pen that Nixon would not have tried to sell the tapes after leaving office. Nixon's estaW argues they were worth millions of dollars and wants the government to compen- sate for seizing them. In the first tape played, which included parts never made public before, Nixon orders the Immigration and Naturalization Service to check out a "wetback;' an illegal alien believed to be working as a gardener for an executive of The Los Angeles Times. "I want to start taking the Times on;' Nixon says in the conversation on Oct. 7, 1971. Later, he tells Attorney General John Mitchell on the phone: "I want the whole goddamned bunch gone after." John Taylor, director of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace AROUND THE WORLD No matter what your place looks like - you WP. . can tind a subletter! Advertise in The Michigan Daily SUMMER SUBLET SECTION and your subletter will find you! Put your personalized ad In our special pullout-section Publication Date Is Wednesday, March 24 Cost: $37 If placed before March 12 $40 If placed between March 15-17 PLUS... place your ad on our special color pages for only $3 more if placed by March 12 Look for us In fue Fehbowl Mar 10,f11, & 12 Clinton urges world support for victims POSOLTEGA, Nicaragua (AP) - At the foot of a volcano where mud- slides buried 2,000 people, President Clinton knelt yesterday on parched earth imprinted with the outline of a lit- tle girl who died. He told Nicaraguans, "You deserve the world's support in this moment of need?' On a dusty, sweltering afternoon, Clinton opened a four-day trip to hurri- cane-ravaged Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. He promised an unprecedented amount of recon- struction aid - $956 million - and offered encouragement against any threat of political instability. "Not so long ago, your country over- came a terrible war and emerged even stronger," the president said in a speech at a Posoltega school yard. The farming communities around Posoltega were destroyed by Hurricane Mitch last October. A wall of mud from the swollen crater lake in Casitas Volcano roared down the mountain - witnesses said it sounded like a swarm of helicopters - and left only one house standing in the village of El Porvenir, Across Central America, more than 9,000 people died - more than 5,000 in Honduras alone. Thousands more remain missing. Crops and bridge were destroyed and the damage too- ranges up to $10 billion in the already impoverished countries. Battling Irish parties get extension on plan BELFAST, Northern Ireland -Wth Northern Ireland's politicians still bat- tling over the problem of Iris Republican Army disarmament, the British government yesterday gave them yet another extension of the dead- line to form the new government envi- sioned by last year's peace plan. Mo Mowlam, the British cabinet min- ister in charge of Northern Ireland, said the province would be given until Good Friday - that is, April 2 - to carry out the terms of last year's Good Friday peace agreement. - Compiled fom Daily wire reports. Richard Moore Premier Environmental Justice Leader On "Sustainable Justice" TUESDAY, March 9 at 6:30pm The U of M Business School's Hale Auditorium. Free and Open to the- Public. Recipient of numerous awards for his life-long work, including the Albuquerque Human Rights Award and the Tides Foundation Award for Public Policy. Recent Chair of the Environmental Justice Advisory Council to EPA. Founding Member and Coordinator of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, an organization comprising over 80 grassroots and community groups, founding member of the Southwest Organizing Project, and former Director of the Bobby Garcia Memorial Clinic. The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday tnrougn -riday ouring tne ril anu wine r term Isy students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $85. Winter term (January through April) is $95, yearlong (September through April) is $165. On-campus sub scriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of the Associated Press and the Associated Collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. 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