The'Michigah Daily-Friday, May 22, 1981-Page 7 AT TORNEY GENERAL: SPECIAL PROSECUTORS UNNECESSARY Smith suggests ethics law revisdon WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General William French Smith said yesterday there's never been any justification, including the Watergate scandal, for mandating the use of special prosecutors when federal officials are accused of wrongdoing, and he urged Congress to junk the law. Smith told a news conference that the Justice Department would ask a Senate subcommittee headed by William Cohen (R-Maine) today to back repeal of the special prosecutor provisions in the 1978 Ethics in Government Act. HE SAID IF the administration fails on that score, he would urge the Congress to drastically amend the act to cover only the president, the vice president and the attorney general, and to allow the attorney general to name any special prosecutor. Smith said also the act should be amended to allow the same discretion not to pursue a case that the department exercises in its normal course of business. Under the act, more than 200 top federal officials are now covered. If the attorney general receives allegations about any of these persons he must begin a preliminary inquiry. Unless the preliminary inquiry finds the allegations totally unfounded the at- torney general must refer the case to a special prosecutor. SMITH TOLD the news conference that if the Congress will not repeal or amend the act, the depar-, tment would urge that it be allowed to expire when it runs out in 1983. The attorney general said that the act presented "severe constitutional problems" over the doctrine of separation of powers between the executive branch, the Congress and the courts. He also said the law was unfair and wasteful, in that it subjected top government officials to in- vestigations which would never have been pursued against ordinary citizens. "There's nothing in the history which I know which would indicate that the system cannot work and work well under the situation that existed prior to the time that act was passed," Smith said. Smith was asked whether he thought a special prosecutor had not been needed during Watergate, and he replied, "We didn't need a special prosecutor statute during Watergate." Death of 4th hun er _ "* striker sparks riots From AP and UPIm BELFAST, Northern Ireland - members of the Irish Republican Ar- Hunger striker Patrick "Patsy" The rioting appeared the heaviest O'Hara died last night in the Maze sine Saon dieared thn twhevekst Prison. He was the second striker to e since Sands died more than two weeks in a day, and the fourth this month in an ago. ffort to olitical status for Irish GANGS UP to 200 strong swarmed eft ogain ponto the streets of Belfast, London- . nationalist prisoners. derry, Newry, Dungannon, Strabaho, O'Hara died within 24 hours of fellow Portadown and Lurgan, police said. prisoner Raymond McCreesh. Rioters The Roman Catholic prirhate of all firebombed police stations and at- Ireland, Cardinal Tomas O'Fiaich, ap- tacked security forces across Northern pealed in "near desperation" for com- Ireland. W promise. He again denounced violence O'HARA WAS the fourth convict to and described the killing this week of fast to death this month. five British soldiers in an IRA explosion McCreesh and O'Hara, both 24, star- as a "revolting deed which shames us ted their fasts on the same day and died all." on the same day. Bobby Sands starved McCreesh, a 24-year-old IRA to death May 5, and Francis Hughes guerrilla, died in Maze Prison at 2:11 died a week later, on May 12. a.m. Thursday with his brother, the Catholics stormed the streets across Rev. Brian McCreesh, at his side. Northern Ireland and pelted security forces with gasoline bombs and rocks. - Snipers fired at police and regular British soldiers trying to contain the rioting. ALL THE Catholic convicts entered their "fast to the death" in a campaign to force Britain to give them status as political prisoners, but Prime Minister 375 N. MAPLE 769-1300 Margaret Thatcher has refused to con- Daily Discount Matinees cede to their demands. All seats $2.00 O'Hara, serving an eight-year jail Tuesday-BUCK DAY term for possession of explosives, was $1.00 ALL DAY the first hunger striker to die, as a Forged by a god. member of the Irish National t:30 Liberation Army, an extreme group Found by a King. 4:15 which claimed responsibility for the EXCALIBUR - 94a murder of Lord Mountbatten and Con- servative member of Parliament Airey Neaves in 1979. The other three were DOUBLE FEATURE the ann arbor THE FAN Film cooperative 111431800 FRIDAY 13th II TONIGHT TONIGHT 3:00-6:15-9:45 (5) presents DELIVERANCE * ' 7:00-MLB3 1111 D I GH T1:30-3:30-5:30-7:30-9:30 MIDNIGHT 130520930 EXPRESS l: 9:00-MLB 3 E sTALo $2 SINGE FEATURET $3 DOUBLE FEATURE R hA Daily Classifieds Get Results! C all764-0557 THE MOVIES AT BRIARWOOD -94 & S. STATE. 0 769-8780 lAdjacent to J C Penney) *DAILY EARLY BIRD MATINEES-Adults $1.50 DISCOUNT IS FOR SHOWS STARTING BEFORE 1:30 . I : 1 U Mon. thru Sat. 10:00 A.M. til 1:30 P.M. 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