Editor in chief: Laura Cadiz
Editorial Editors: Bret Jacobson, Laura Lucas
Newsroom: (541)346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
On-line edition: www.dailyemerald.com
Justice Served
Bryan Dixon Emerald
Some events leave perma
nent scars and need per
manent healing. That
said, Kipland P. Kinkel
should spend the rest of his
life in prison, just as ordered
by the court on Wednesday.
Kinkel was sentenced to al
most 112 years for four counts
of murder and 26 counts of at
tempted murder for killing his
parents and going on a shoot
ing spree at Thurston High
School in May 1998. While the
defense lawyers argued for
only 25 years of imprisonment
and the prosecution sought
220 years, the sentence im
posed by Lane County Circuit
Judge Jack Mattison was ap
propriate because it ensures a
disturbed individual will not
be let loose on society ever
again.
Despite the fact that it
would not be too difficult to
hope for a rehabilitation for
such a young man, issuing a
sentence allowing Kinkel to be
released before he dies would
be a terrible action for both
practical and ideological rea
sons.
Practically speaking, there is
no way to definitively say that
an older Kinkel would be a
safer member of society, and
the only way to release Kinkel
alive would be to have a good
faith belief that he would be
rehabilitated through therapy,
medication or treatment. It
would be irresponsible, how
ever, to have blind faith that
there will be advances potent
enough in the mental health
field or that a pharmaceutical
company will find a wonder
drug to fix an incredibly ill
young man. No punishment
for crimes so severe should
ever be based on hopeful
whims.
Along with the fact that a
free Kinkel would come along
with a constant, terrible fear
that he could relapse, it is an
* important facet of the Ameri
can judicial system that there
are appropriate penalties for
crimes. Four bodies lie in the
ground and countless students
and society members have
been stricken by one’ devastat
ing series of actions by the
young man. Society demands
that those directly injured re
ceive justice. The gravity of
Kinkel’s misdeeds requires
that he pay with the rest of his
life. To require only 25 years
would be to ignore the princi
ple of justice in favor of un
warranted hope in rehabilita
tion.
Lawyers for Kinkel claim
they will appeal until his sen
tence is reduced to 50 years.
Because he should not be re
leased alive, a sentence of 50
years should be rejected by the
courts as many times as it
takes to ensure that Kinkel
will not be released back into
society.
It would be nearly impossi
ble to fully comprehend the
tragedy of this entire course of
events, from the young age of
the assailant to the final ac
tions of the surviving victims.
It is hard to reconcile that
such a young man actually de
serves to spend the rest of his
life locked away. There will
always be questions as to his
motives, his state of mind and
if there were any signs that
should have been detected but
weren’t. But for all the dehu
manizing actions of one boy,
we all hope for victims to be
able to nobly carry on and
thrive.
Victims in this case, howev
er, should take a lesson from
the parents of Matthew Shep
ard, the gay college student
killed in Wyoming. The Shep
ards brokered a deal with one
of the convicted killers of their
son to spare his life in an in
credible display of courageous
and magnanimous maturity.
That is quite a different note
from Thurston victims.
An hour after sentencing a
small handful of victims gath
ered at a news conference and
sang a song. Not a tune of
grateful closure but a gloating
theme song from the Mickey
Mouse club because Kinkel
had a severe distaste for Dis
ney World. That is not the best
step toward healthy closure.
With hope, they will learn
something from the Shepards.
In the end, the only justice
for those victims, even those
who don’t act the way we
wish, is for Kinkel to go away
for the rest of his life. He can’t
be trusted, and he must pay
his debt.
This editorial represents the opinion of the
Emerald editorial board. Responses may be
sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Letters to the editor
Kudos to ODE
My congratulations to Jeremy
Lang for his article titled “Devel
opment threatens Alaskan
wildlife” (ODE Nov. 9). The article
had a local angle (Erin Pursell) and
presented many sides of the dis
cussion in an unbiased and infor
mative manner. I hope to see many
more articles of the caliber of this
one in the ODE. Congratulations
Jeremy and whoever helped him
with this article.
Dr. Dean Livelybrooks
Department of Physics
Senators need to set example
I sincerely Ijppe that Senator
Andrew Schneider’s letter (ODE
Nov. 8) does not discourage or dis
able other students from filing
grievances with the Student Sen
ate. I can only attribute Schnei
der’s statements to this being
Schneider’s first year on the sen
ate.
It is the senate’s job to hear and
listen to grievances from students,
not individually attack students.
I hope that students can see
through the attempts of senators to
take the limelight off of the subject
at hand.
All programs must hold office
hours to maintain a space in the
EMU. If senators are not going to
do this, they need to give their
space to a program that will hold
office hours.
In order to receive a stipend,
certain duties must be accom
plished. This is true for all groups,
and not just the senate.
Senators need to set an example
for other programs and should not
hold themselves above the laws
that other students and programs
must follow. To take a stipend
without accomplishing the duties
is theft from the students.
I hope the senators in question
will take responsibility for their
actions instead of trying to put the
blame elsewhere. I also hope that
the senators will not sink to even
lower levels of name calling and
blame pushing.
Autumn De Poe
political science
Alaska not all oil-influenced
I consider myself somewhat of
an environmentalist, and I am not
in favor of opening ANWR, but as
someone who has lived my entire
life in Alaska, I can say that Tues
day’s story on the subject was mis
informed and under-researched
propaganda (ODE Nov. 9). The
statement that “ almost every
part of the state has been leased,
drilled or influenced by the pres
ence of fossil fuels...” is absolute
ly ludicrous.
As a person from the southeast
region of the state, I have very lit
tle experience with the oil indus
try, but I do have considerable ex
perience with the state. The fact is
that a huge portion of Alaska has
never seen a pipeline or a drilling
site. According to the Alaska Divi
sion of Tourism, Alaska contains
over half of the nation’s parklands.
The largest park is the Wrangell
St. Elias National Park and Pre
serve, with 24 million acres. Com
bined with Glacier Bay, and con
tiguous Canadian parks that are
connected to it, it is part of the
largest internationally protected
area in the world. The state of
Alaska manages approximately
120 other parks, with a total of 322
million acres of public lands
throughout the state.
Clearly, remarks made in Tues
day’s ODE were misleading and
uninformed. While other parts of
the article may have contained
pertinent information, the first im
pression is false and done in the
interest of furthering a cause
through loaded language, rather
than informing through responsi
ble journalism.
Gypsy Walukones
undeclared