4- The Michigan Daily SummerWeeky-Wednesday;May 6,1992

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0 OPINION[I


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EDITOR IN CHIEF
ANDREW M. LEVY
OPINION EDITORS
GIL RENBERG
DAVID SHEPARDSON

Unsigned editorials represent the opinion
of a majority of the Daily's editorial
board. All other cartoons, signed articles,
and letters do not necessarily reflect the
F opinion of the Daily.

420 Maynard Street
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Edited and Managed by
Students at the
University of Michigan

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S ummer,atimemarkedbyswelteringweather
and relaxation in the Arb, is also a time for
the administration and the Michigan Student
Assembly to take advantage of the paucity of
students by making controversial and arguably
damaging decisions. The administration and
MSA must not exhibit the shocking disregard
for student input that has been evident in past
summers.Insteadofrecklesslyhurryingtoimple-
ment policies before most students return in the
fall, MSA and the administration should make
their decisions with as much student input as
possible.
The administration is well versed in the
policy of cloaking decisions in the cover of
summer. Last summer, it increased student tu-
ition by nearly 14 percent and instituted apolicy
on alcohol abuse in the dorms; furthermore, the
University Board of Regents initiated the pro-
cess of deputizing campus police. In previous
summers, James Duderstadt was illegally cho-
sen president of the University, a speech code

Keep a weather eye...

Administration, MSA take advantage of students'
absence; students who remain should be wary

was adopted,and the regents passed bylaw2.01,
which grants the University president summary
power to dismiss students.
In the past school year, the administration's
actions and decisions were characterized by a
refusal to heed student concerns. Considering
the willingness of the regents to close the
deputization hearings to the public, the lack of
studentinputduring theselection of VicePi-esi-
dent for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford, a
similar lack of input into the creation of the new
social events policy, and the administration's
decision to accept the Ann Arbor Police
Department's contention that the teargassing of
students was justified, it is likely that this sum-
mer we shall be subjected to a continuation of
this infuriating neglect.

Like the administration, MSA uses the sum-
mer to act without worrying about the opinions
and concerns of the students it represents. Last
summer, MSA began budget negotiations dur-
ing which it sought to slash the allocations to the
Ann ArborTenants Union(AATU)and Student
Legal Services (SLS), despite the fact that most
of AATU's staff was gone for the summer.
During the summer of 1990, MSA approved
sending students on a "fact-finding mission" to
the Israeli Occupied Territories, knowing full
well that if made during the regular school year
this misuse of student funds would have been
angrily opposed by many students.
We should not expect that MSA's new lead-
ership will be different from previous ones. The
Progressive Party reportedly plans large in-

creases for the budgets of AATU and SLS.
Clearly, MSA views the summer as a time to
push through budget allocations with minimal
opposition.
Furthermore, MSA's mandatory student fee
comes before the regents each summer. In past
years, there has been no reasonable way to
predict whether MSA will ask for a substantial
increase or a deep cut - but either way, the
student body has little to do with the decision.
Students remaining in Ann Arbor during the
summer have a special responsibility to ensure
that neither the administration nor MSA abuses
the summer break by taking advantage of the
relative lack of opposition. All students are
urged to attend regents meetings, scheduled on
the third Thursday of every month, and MSA
meetings, which occur every other Tuesday at
7:30 p.m.on the third floor of the Union. Strong
turnouts will make the governing bodies at the
University think twice before blatantly disre-
garding the students' concerns.

9

Shock to the system
King verdict, riots point out the failures of a judicial
system that fails to grant basic rights to minorities

Killing our criminals "
Harris case shows Supreme Court's propensity
toward disregarding the rights of the condemned

R odney King receives 56 brutal blows in 81
seconds even as he lies immobile on the
ground and is shot twice with a stun gun while
at least a dozen armed officers are present. In
spite of this,ajurorcanactually say King"...was
controlling the whole show with his actions."
The, trial is moved to Simi Valley - a rural,
conservative community with only a two per-
cent Black population where many members of
the Los Angeles Police Department reside. An
entirely white jury finds theofficersinnocentof
assault with a deadly weapon and excessive
force.Something is terribly wrong.The horrify-
ing verdictintheRodney King case suggests the
officers' actionswerejustifiedandthat-inthe
hands of the law -a Black male's life is worth
very little. Outrage must cross all lines of color,
gender, and class.
While the violenceandrioting thathas taken
place across the United States in the past week
cannot be condoned, itmust be seen as a protest
from those who feel they have no other outlet
throughwhichtoexpressthemselves.Itistragic
that some people have misdirected their frustra-
tion and anger against their own communities
and innocent victims, while others rampaged
without cause and made the horrible events of
the past week indescribably worse. However,
one must not allow the riots to overshadow the
underlying problems spurring these events in
the first place.
Alcoholics must admit to having a problem
before they can begin to save themselves. Like-
wise; Americans must admit that racism does
exist; otherwise, we will never cure ourselves.
ToomanypeoplerefusetoadmitthattheUnited
States isstill beset by racial problems; too many
others absolve themselves of racismby shifting
the blame to others. Meanwhile, the core of the
problem is overlooked - until an event of

tremendousmagnitudeforces American society
to confront its unmentionable disease.
Incidents of harassment and police brutality
against members of minority groups, particu-
larly Black males, are problems that have been
repeatedly obscured by rhetoric. The video-
taped beating is a painfully glaring example of
what minorities assert has been going on for
years. Without the presence of the videotape,
Rodney King would have been reduced to yet
another statistic. This time the statistic had a
name, a face, and a battered body. This time it
was hard for people to ignore a beating replayed
constantly on television. For those people who
refused tobelieve in police brutality before, the
videotape graphically validated victims' previ-
ously ignored claims. People who previously
ignored the fact that there are more Black males
in prison than college are finally beginning to
question the judicial system that loks them up.
Dr. Martin Luther King once said "Riots are
the voice of the unheard." At this moment in
1992,thesevoicesbelongtotheunderprivileged
members of our cities who feel dissatisfied with
the country's power-wielding establishments.
Compounded by law enforcement's severe dis-
regard for minority citizens' lives and property,
these voices belong to people who witness on a
daily basis the deteriorationof thegovemment's
social policies and the failures of the judicial
system.
If the problems of the minority racial groups
in this country are continually ignored, racial
divisions will continue to grow through lack of
understanding and ignorance. This can only
lead to similar incidents in which disenfran-
chised Blacks, whites, Hispanic and others will
try their best to be heard - and they'll use the
only method they can rely on to attract our
attention.

T he controversy surrounding the recent ex-
ecutionofRobertAlton Harris in California's
gas chamber has been overshadowed by the
advent of riots in California. However, the re-
sultsof this Supreme Court ruling may be justas
far-reaching as the King case.
Harris' execution produced a chilling devel-
opment in capital punishment cases that cannot
be ignored: after striking down a last-minute
petition from California's death row, the U.S.
Supreme Court issued an order prohibiting any
additional Federal Appeals Court delays with-
out the permission of the Supreme Court.
Thisdecision is unprecedented. The Federal
Appeals Court had issued a stay to consider
Harris' appeal that death in the gas chamber
constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
Stripped of the right to appeal his sentence by
the highest court in the land, Harris was ex-
ecuted 20 minutes later.
This method of streamlining the appeals
process to eliminate court delays continues a
disturbing trend, as the conservative Supreme
Courthasconsistently triedtolimitthepowerof
federal appealsjudges to upsetstate convictions
in recent years. The Constitution guarantees the
accused the right toa fair trial and the right to due
process of law. Prohibiting a court from issuing
a stay of execution to consider a constitutional
question undermines the appeals process.
While the journey down death row to the gas
chamber can encourage numerous appeals over
several years, many legal experts argue that the
lengthy process of appeals and federal review is
necessary to uncover injustices. Over the last 15
years, federal appeals judges have discovered
constitutional errors in nearly 40 percent of
death penalty cases brought before them. Since
1927, 50 people have been executed and later
cleared posthumously.
Limiting the federal appeals process could

ultimately result in the wrongful execution of
the innocent. For example, last month in Cali-
forniatwo men who had served 17 years each of
life sentences for murder were set free after new
evidence came to light which exonerated them.
If these men had been sentenced to death rather
than life in prison, their families may only had
the satisfaction of seeing them receive posthu-
mous vindication.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court hasdenied
otherrecentcapital punishment appeals, includ-
ing an Arkansasman whowasmentally retarded
and hadno idea thathe was about tobe executed.
However, the court has consented to hear the
appeal of a defendant in Texas who argues that
his innocence ought to be considered in his
appeal. This trend of denying all but the most
unusual appeals has undoubtedly resulted in the
deaths of people who were convicted unfairly.
The penalty of death is itself objectionable
for a variety of reasons. Sentencing convicted
criminals to death is more costly than merely
imprisoning them because of the high cost of
appeals. Black people are disproportionately
sentenced to death, which is a symptom of
racism still present in the judicial system. Over
95 percent of all death penalty cases are tried by
public defenders, who are typically less skilled,
over worked, and have a cap placed on the
amount of work for which they are paid.
Capital punishment is clearly not working.
The interminable delays between sentencing
and execution, the thousand of dollars poured
into the criminal justice system for countless
appeals, and the failure of the death penalty to
deter violent crimes noticeably all show that the
system is in desperate need of an overhaul. In
signaling its impatience with last-minute ap-
peals by streamlining the appeals process, the
Court has placed expediency over the rights and
possible innocence of defendants.

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