4 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
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Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
T
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
tothedaily@umich.edu
KARL STAMPFL IMRAN SYED JEFFREY BLOOMER
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
The Daily's public editor, Paul H. Johnson, acts as the readers' representative and takes a critical look at
coverage and content in every section of the paper. Readers are encouragedto contact the public editor
with questions andcomments. He canbe reached at publiceditor@umich.edu.
A kller system
Flaws illuminate tragic finality of capital punishment
There was an execution in Texas on Sept. 25. While that's
nothing unusual on its own - Texas has carried out almost
two-thirds of all executions in the country this year - this
one was especially questionable and highlights specifically why
capital punishment is a dangerously faulty institution. The prisoner,
Michael Wayne Richard, was convicted of raping and murdering a
nurse in 1986. He was a terrible man with little remorse. Howev-
er, the many things that went wrong in his execution process have
sparked debate and controversy. If this is truly how the process
works, then it can easily swallow up innocent people, and it is a dis-
grace that such a system still exists in our country.
NABLEQ TAE
On this week of Thanksgiving, nobody has
more to be thankful for than I do."
- Michigan head football coach Lloyd Carr during a
press conference yesterday in which he announced his retirement after 13 seasons.
The Daily's liberal bias
0
In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that it is unconstitutional to execute a pris-
oner who is mentally retarded. Richard had
a documented IQ of 64 - any number less
than 70 typically legally denotes mental
retardation. Since the 2002 ruling, repeated
attempts by the defense team to suspend the
execution on grounds of Richard's mental
retardation have been denied.
Then, on Sept. 25, just hours before Rich-
ard's execution, the defense team thought
it had caught a break. The Supreme Court
announced that it would review a Kentucky
case about whether using a particular three-
drug cocktail for lethal injection causes
pain and should be classified as "cruel and
unusual punishment." The defense raced to
file an appeal to suspend the execution until
the Kentucky case was decided, but it was
delayed by glitches in its computer system.
The defense notified the Texas attorney
general of its computer problems and plead-
ed for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
to stay open a little past 5 p.m. to allow the
team to submit the appeal. That request was
denied, and the defense was given just six
minutes to file its final appeal to the Supreme
Court. The judge responsible for denying
the extension is now being sued, but that
would be little consolation if an innocent
person was executed because of such arbi-
trary decisions.
Texas overlooked court precedent on
executing a mentally retarded person, and it
chose to discount a pending court case that
could make Richards's execution unconsti-
tutional on other grounds. This should come
as no surprise for a state that mass produces
executions, to the tune of more than 400
since 1976. Regardless of whether Richard
was guilty or innocent, a judicial system
with this many problems cannot be trusted
to condemn anyone to death. The criminal
justice system is a human institution, and
it will make mistakes. Thus, no sentence
should be as final as death.
In 2000, then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan
recognized the fallibility of the death pen-
alty, suspending executions in his state
indefinitely after he noticed that more death
sentences were overturned than carried
out in the state. But the problem doesn't
only exist in Illinois. From 1973 to 2007, 124
people have been released from death row
nationwide after being acquitted, having
their charges dropped or receiving a pardon
based on new evidence. These were 124 peo-
ple wrongfully waiting to die.
What about all of the other people who
didn't get released at the last minute? The
Richard case shows that the flaws in our
court systems could very well lead to sen-
tencing a wrongly convicted prisoner to
death. With even one wrongful execution,
our courts have undeniably committed mur-
der. Exactly who can we hang for that?
I s the Daily a liberal newspaper?
This is a question that's raised reg-
ularly by readers who criticize the
paper. The charge
is usually leveled
against a news story
or an editorial that
the reader feels
unfairly maligns
his or her view of
the world or doesn't
even acknowledge
that another point PAUL H.
ofview might estJOHNSON
The "liberal" JON N
tag is also part of a
broader indictment of the mainstream
press in general. There are many who
see newspapers as an arm of the elite
whoworkinlocksteptobrowbeatthose
who disagree with them to ensure
widespread support of the pro-choice,
pro-gay marriage, anti-global warming
agenda and scoff or belittle those who
disagree with them. Or worse, they
see newspapers merely as an arm of
the Democratic Party. It's also a way to
discount news they see in the newspa-
per by saying it's just not fair because it
only represents one point of view.
I think part of this criticism arises
because newspapers tend to be critical
of those in power. Ask Al Gore about his
treatment during the 2000 campaign,
and I doubt he'd say it was universally
fair. Or ask Hillary Clinton - who said
in the 1990s that there was a vast right-
wing conspiracy out to get her husband
during the Monica Lewinsky scandal
- and see if she believes there's a liber-
al bias. Another problem is that readers
often don't see the difference between
editorials, which express a point of
view, and news stories, which are sup-
posed toube objective.
At the Daily, like almost every major
newspaper, there is a wallbetween edi-
torial policy and news coverage. Edito-
rial board members meet twice a week
to propose and discuss editorial top-
ics and vote on what positions to take.
Leade
T he last contact most students
had with Michigan Student
Assembly President Zack Yost
was his Nov. 13 e-
mail callingon us to
pack the Big House
forthegameagainst "
Ohio State. Howev-
er noble his senti-
ments, perhaps his
one monthly e-mail
could have focused
on the mess in his ROBERT
own house, MSA. S
MSA Rep. Anton SOAVE
Vuljaj, former chair
of the Budget Priorities Committee,
is facing felony charges for allegedly
criminal behavior in the 2006 MSA
election. Vuljaj, then a supporter of the
Students 4 Michigan party, is charged
with intentionally crashing the website
of the opposing Michigan Progressive
Party during the election. In the face of
overwhelmingevidence,Vuljaj stepped
down from his position on LSA Stu-
dent Government, but he ran for MSA
a year later with the Michigan Action
Party, an offshoot of S4M. He stepped
down from his leadership position
on the Budget Priorities Committee
after being charged last month, but he
remains an assembly representative.
Even as another student implicated
in the attack pled guilty in recent days,
there's no chance that MSA as an orga-
nization will do anything to hold Vul-
jaj accountable for the damage he has
done to MSA's reputation. Obviously,
Vuljaj is legally innocent until found
guilty in a court, but senior S4M offi-
cials admitted in 2006 that their party
was behind the attack: If the culprit is
not Vuljaj, then someone else is in the
News reporters do occasionally come
to editorial board meetings, but gener-
ally only to explain their stories, and
they do not vote on editorials.
Editorials do not drive news cover-
age. "News stories always come first,"
said Editorial Page Editor Imran Syed.
The editorial staff usually waits to
write about campus issues until the
news staff has published a story.
,Are the Daily's editorial opinions
liberal? "Yes they are," says Editor in
Chief Karl Stampfl.
"I don't think anyone would deny
that," Syed said.
But that doesn't diminish the paper's
commitment to fairness in its news
pages. "We're really careful to make
sure the major viewpoints are rep-
resented," Stampfl said. This doesn't
mean every story has to have a perfect
balance of every side of an issue that
would lead to wooden news report-
ing. Instead, it means that every effort
should be made to ensure thatthe story
is fair.
Sometimes when a story appears
unbalanced and seems to support the
ideas championed by the newspaper's
editorial page, it can fuel the criticism
that the newspaper's news stories only
work to reinforce its political agenda.
In the Nov. 6th news story written
by reporter Mara Gay (Courtset to hear
benefits case: Same-sex couples say they
might leave 'U' if court doesn't overturn
decision), a reader might get the feeling
that there is no one who disagrees that
the Michigan Supreme Court should
overturn a ruling denying the Univer-
sity the ability to grant domestic part-
nership benefits. This was followed
by an editorial Nov. 12 calling for the
Michigan Supreme Court to restore
benefits for gay couples.
The Nov. 6 story didn't include com-
ments from people at the University
who supported the idea that the state
should ban public universities and
municipalities from providing domes-
tic partner benefits, and some readers
,rs, not polio
party is guilty. MSA must either take
action against Vuljaj or actively work
to find the real culprit, not simply try
to gloss over the whole situation.
When he spoke to the Daily's edi-
trial board"earlier this month, Yost
didn't give a clear answer when asked
if he would ask Vuljaj to resign - even
ifaguiltyverdictisreached.Yost'snon-
chalant attitude, even in the face of one
of his guys facing criminal charges, is
quite revealing of MSA as a whole. The
assembly is a closed-door club that
looks out for itself before looking out
for the students. This calls into ques-
tion the relevance and necessity of
having such a governing body at all.
Yost's responses to questions from
the Daily's editorialboardwereincom-
plete and insincere: He couldn't even
say where he was during the night of
the 2006 election, insisting that he
simply could not recall. Yost's inability
to answer even this simple question
raises doubts about him where none
should exist.
I don't think Yost was actually
involvedinthescandal.Afarmorelike-
ly explanation for his dodgy answers is
this: He is already a seasoned, conniv-
ing politician. Unfortunately, it seems
that the wordy and disingenuous man-
ner of speaking that so plagues the
members of our state and national gov-
ernments might also be afflicting our
student government. If this is MSA, do
we really need it at all?
Investigating what MSA actually
accomplishes is a difficult task. Its
website lists numerous committees
and commissions, which would sug-
gestavery active role in campus affairs.
Some commissions give a promising
summary of what they would ideally
thought that it seemed like a willful
omission designed to show there was
unanimity of support for restoring
domestic partnership benefits.
Reporter Mara Gay said the Nov.
6 story was more of a feature story
about those affected by the pending
court decision rather than a traditional
news story about the pros and cons of
the domestic partnership benefits case
now facing the Michigan Supreme
Court. She said that all of the people
who would be affected by the law were
gay, lesbian, bisexual ortransgender.
Understanding the
difference between
news and opinion
The net result is that no opposing
views were featured in the story. This
could have been cured either by having
a separate news story that captured the
diversity of views on the subject or by
incorporating opposing views into the
Daily's story.
But that's not main reason why I
think it's important that both sides
of an issue should get aired in a news
story. I'm pretty sure even supporters
of reinstating domestic partnership
benefits would like to know how their
opponents justifyusing an amendment
that purports to ban marriage between
people of the same gender as a vehicle
to deny health care.
I think it's important that the Daily
ensure that all viewpoints are heard in
a news story, not just because that's the
right thing to do, but also because both
sides deserve to hear and understand
each other's arguments.
Paul H. Johnson is the Daily's
public editor. He can be reached
at publiceditor@umich.edu.
ticians
like to do, and then a "news" section
for that commission that is seemingly
always blank.
There is another, much shorter list
of projects that MSA has completed.
Tlie biggetproblem with this list is
that it names accomplishments from
fall 2004. Has MSA not done anything
since then? or it is too lazy to update
its website so that students may read
up on what the assembly is doing?
Perhaps MSA has done substan-
tive things in the past three years, but
regular students have little chance
of knowing about them. MSA clearly
MSA is becoming
an inept, useless
governing body.
suffers from an inability to be trans-
parent, as evidenced by Yost's vague
answers and the website's outdated
information.
As residents of Michigan and citi-
zens of America, we have all too often
been subjected to governments that
are disdainfully unaccountable to us.
If what we see today in MSA is indica-
tive of what is happening at other col-
lege campuses and what the future
holds for this country, we really have
no need for such organizations. The
University should be able to produce
a student governing body that breeds
leaders, not politicians.
Robert Soave can be reached
at rsoave@umich.edu.
WYMAN KHUU
YOU tart U
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS: Emad Ansari, Anindya Bhadra, Kevin Bunkley, Ben
Caleca, Jon Cohen, Milly Dick, Mike Eber, Gary Graca, Emmarie Huetteman, Theresa
Kennelly, Emily Michels, Robert Soave, Jennifer Sussex, Neil Tambe, Matt Trecha, Radhika
Upadhyaya, Rachel Van Gilder, Rachel Wagner, Patrick Zabawa
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
'U'should practice the
tolerance itpreaches
TO THE DAILY:
As a proud alum of the University, a
former Michigan athlete (varsity hock-
ey, 1995-98), a military veteran and an
aspiring military doctor, I have become
increasingly concerned by the Universi-
ty's position regarding Michigan Stadi-
um's inaccessibility for disabled veterans:
The belief thatthe stadium need not com-
ply with the Americans With Disability
Act's requirements because the project
constitutes repairs and not renovations.
The University strives to maintain its
position as the leader and the best in all
that it undertakes. These endeavors have
always included offering top-notch aca-
demic and research programs, fielding
national championship caliber athletic
teams and being an institution where all
people, no matter their background, feel
welcome. Historically, the University has
also been a societal leader in accommo-
dating people that are disadvantaged.
Thus, I find the University's position
regarding the claims made by the Michi-
gan Paralyzed Veterans of America about
compliance with the ADA particularly
troubling. A place that deems itself a lead-
er in advancing the ideal that all people
are equal and deserve equal opportuni- V* *jit
ties should not shield itself with an atten-VLwpo/
uated and debatable legal position. ever-per
As much as University President Mary FO
Sue Coleman vowed to do after the pas-
sage of Michigan's race-based affirmative TO THE DAIL'
action ban, the University should attempt I would lik
to interpret the law to maintain its tradi- printing Ilar
tion of inclusion and tolerance. It is incon- last week (Ri
sistent for the University's values to cling 11/16/2007).
to the narrowest interpretation of an effective in
ambiguous statute to defend its position. exists at our u
The MPVA is not asking for special unchallenged.
treatment: The group is only request- sity that freq
ing that this great University comply key issue, wer
with the law. The men and women of the racism and ge
MPVA have made countless sacrifices for underlies it.
this country, and they should not have to
beg a state university to comply with a Hena Ashraf
law that so many people have fought to LSA senior
pass and protect.
We all must realize that there is a
growing generation of veterans in need of Daily s c7
the protection afforded by the ADA. For .
these reasons I ask that my alma mater giveawa
follows the very values and traditions it
instilled in me - those of tolerance and TO THE DAIL
understanding. By complying with the If the Da
ADA, the University will again solidify so well-infoi
Michigan Stadium's place as the greatest Amendment
stadium in the country. ownership is
nt attests to
sistent racism
.Y:
ke to thank the Daily for
na Weaver's viewpoint
acism lives in Ann Arbor,
Weaver's viewpoint was
discussing how racism
iniversity, and how it goes
. As students at a univer-
uently cites diversity as a
must do our part to abolish
t rid of the ignorance that
riticism ofgun
y was misguided
.Y:
ily's editorial board is
rmed about the Second
and concludes that gun
a collective right (Mis-
07), perhaps it can explain
Court of Appeals for the
olumbia Circuit recently
ruled that the Second Amendment is an
individual right (District of Columbia v.
Heller). The U.S. Supreme Court is cur-
rently deciding whether or not to hear
an appeal to the ruling.
Anyone who bothered to read the writ-
ings of the founding fathers would know
that private gun ownership was what the
Constitution intended. And if that isn't
enough, I suggest that the editorial board
spend a little time reading the Michigan
state constitution, especially Article I,
Section 6, which states: "Every person
has a right to keep and bear arms for the
defense of himself and the state."
The only fault the editorial board
should find with the College Libertarians
is that the voucher the group offered isn't
enough to buy a high-quality firearm.
Douglas Wright
University staff
Definition of democracy
not as obvious as it seems
TO THE DAILY:
Nathan Stano's impassioned defense
of the voice of the people in his letter
to the editor last week (Daily's mistrust
of voters is appalling, 11/16/2007) over-
looked some points. Arguing against
the Daily editorial board's commentary
on representative democracy, Stano's
argument rested on a familiar etymo-
logical argument concerning the true
meaning of democracy as a Greek word:
rule of the people.
Stano claimed that the Daily was
unfairly impugning the good reason and
intelligence of the voters of this state by
urging an end to right-wing campaigns
that seek to circumvent the legislative
process by placing hot-button issues on
the ballot for a direct vote. He said that
the people are well-educated enough on
all of the issues and should be trusted
to vote on them. But would Stano sup-
port such direct democracy in all of its
forms, including the denial of Swiss cit-
izenship to the adopted children in that
country, the Japanese Exclusion Act
and the election of Adolph Hitler? Do
these all correctly represent the spirit
of democracy?
Modern democracies tend to not only
protect certain values, but extend them,
in accordance with the Jeffersonian
notion that the state should protect the
right of the people to pursue happiness.
Perhaps Stano needs to learn some
other Greek-derived words: demagogu-
ery and tyranny.
John Thiels
Rackhanm
Greg Malicke
Alum
fire, 11/15/20t
why the U.S.
District of C
'I