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Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
michigandaily.com
scientists
welcome stem
cell ban repeal
State group considering
proposal for 2008 ballot
By EMILY BARTON
Daily StaffReporter
A ballot proposal committee formed
at the beginning of October is aiming to
overturn the ban on embryonic stem cell
research in Michigan. That would be a wel-
come change for University researchers
who say the law hinders on the develop-
ment of medical cures.
Michigan law prohibits embryonic stem
cell researchers from deriving their own
embryonic stem cell lines using federal
funding because it destroys embryos. It
does, however, allow for research on adult
stem cells and existing embryonic stemcell
lines.
A ballot initiative, if passed, would
overturn a 1978 Michigan law and allow
researchers to derive their own stem cell
lines from embryos that would otherwise
be discarded.
See STEM CELLS, Page 7A
Trial starts in case
of slain student
Poet Maya Angelou told an audience at Hill Auditorium on Friday to bring poetry into their lives. "It belongs to all of us," she said. "Just like math
belongs to each one of us, just like science belongs to each one of us."
'You need it to re-mind
yoursel how hum-an you are'
Defense says Dickinson
was already dead when
suspect entered
her dorm room
By CHRIS HERRING
Daily News Editor
The trial of the man charged with killing
an Eastern Michigan University student
in December is underway at Washtenaw
County Trial Court on East Huron Street.
Orange Taylor III; 21, from Southfield,
is charged with open counts of murder
- meaning a jury can charge Taylor with
either first- or second-degree murder if he's
found guilty - in the December death of
EMU student Laura Dickinson.
Blaine Longsworth, the prosecutor in
the case, said in his opening argument
Monday that Taylor killed Dickinson in
"every woman's nightmare come true."
Taylor, a former EMU student is charged
with intent to commit sexual penetration,
home invasion and larceny in a building in
addition to the murder charge.
Prosecutors used DNA testing, surveil-
lance camera footage, a bag of gifts and a
black hooded sweatshirt that Taylor wore
during the night in question to show Taylor
was present in Dickinson's room on Dec.
13.
While investigating, police found both
the hooded sweatshirt and a bag of gifts
at Taylor's home. Longsworth said Tay-
lor stole the bag of gifts from Dickinson's
room, and that the gifts had been given to
Dickinson during a Secret Santa party ear-
lier that evening.
Multiple witnesses saidtheydidn'tthink
Dickinson and Taylor had met before the
night in question.
Taylor's defense attorney, Alvin Keel,
acknowledged that Taylor had been in
Dickinson's room that evening. But Keel
argued it couldn't be proven beyond rea-
sonable doubt that Taylor actually mur-
dered Dickinson.
Keel said Dickinson's body showed no
physical signs of harm, citing the autopsy
report, which listed "probable asphyxia" as
a cause of death.
"(The autopsy) did not say asphyxia,"
Keel said. "It simply said probable. Prob-
able is one of those terms which does not
meet the standard of guilt beyond reason-
able doubt."
Keel said Dickinson had cardiac prob-
lems in 2005. He then suggested that Dick-
inson might have been sick the week of her
death.
Explaining Taylor's involvement in the
case, Keel said his client had been smoking
marijuana with friends in another dorm
and later wandered off by himself to find
more when he wandered into Dickinson's
room. Keel said Taylor found Dickinson on
the floor "in a compromising position" and
ejaculated on her. Keel said that doesn't
mean Taylor raped or killed Dickinson,
though.
"(Physical evidence) doesn't even mean
you touched the person," he said.
Keel finished his arguments by saying
that Dickinson lived in a room next door to
two girls who were in the dorm the night
she died. Keel said neither of Dickinson's
neighbors heard any suspicious noises that
Dec.13 night.
Among those who have testified for the
prosecution thus far are Dickinson's boy-
friend Travis Scott, Dickinson's rowing
teammate Maria Clary and EMU custo-
dian Michelle Lockwood, the person who
first discovered Dickinson dead in her
dorm room.
Following the opening arguments Mon-
day, Tina Taylor, Orange Taylor's mother,
See TRIAL, Page 7A
Angelou tells B-School
crowd to find a place
for poetry
By CATHE SHUBERT
Daily StaffReporter
Poet Maya Angelou urged students
and Business School alumni to bring
poetry into their lives in a speech Fri-
day at Hill Auditorium.
Although Angelou's speech touched
on difficult moments from her past,
including incidents of rape, racism
and her son's spinal cord injury, Ange-
lou sang, shimmied and smiled in her
ornately carved cream-colored chair
in the middle of the stage.
Angelou said even people with
careers unrelated to poetry should
embrace it. The humanizing nature of
poetry is one of the reasons is it nec-
essary even in the business world, she
said.
"It belongs to all of us, just like
math belongs to each one of us, just
like science belongs to each one of us,"
Angelou said. "If you're a business
person, you need it to remind yourself
how human you are. So are your col-
leagues, your clients, customers, stu-
dents."
Angelou cited African American
poetry in particular as a medium that
encapsulates this idea.
See ANGELOU, Page 7A
Tech industry is key for
state's futureleaders say
PEACE PRIZE
I
'U' researchers contributed
to Nobel-winning panel
University Research
Corridor hosts forum
on Mich. economy
By DANIEL STRAUSS
Daily Staff Reporter
Economists, academics, and
business leaders all agreed that
researching new technologies and
pursuing new businesses is the
key to fixing Michigan's struggling
economy at a conference Monday
and Tuesday.
How to help the ailing state
economy was the subject of conver-
sation during a conference held at
the Rackham Auditorium Monday
and Tuesday.
The conference, held at Rack-
ham Auditorium and hosted by the
University Research Corridor - a
See RESEARCH, Page 7A
C
pa
limate change call from Oslo, where the prize is
.announced.
nel shares prize Emeritus Geophysics Prof
Henry Pollack was part of a panel
with Gore that was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize on Friday, so he got a
By ANDY KROLL 6 a.m. phone call too - except his
Daily Staff Reporter was from his excited son in New
York, not the Nobel committee in
of the hallmarks of being Norway.
merican Nobel prizewin- The news, though, was the
the early-morning phone See NOBEL, Page 7A
SAM WOLSON/Daily
University President Mary Sue Coleman said the University Research Corridor's goal
is to help revitalize the state's economy.
One
an Ar
ner is
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