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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 2004)
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511 Suite 300, Erb Memorial Union P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403 E-mail: editor@dailyemeralcl.com Online: www.dailyemerald.com Wednesday, April 21,2004 -Oregon Daily Emerald COMMENTARY Editor in Chief: Brad Schmidt Managing Editor: Jan Tobias Montiy Editorial Editor: Travis Willse EE OI TO RIA L Earth Day gives chance to clean up White House Since activists first established Earth Day on April 22, 1970 — an event American Heritage Magazine 23 years lat er called "one of the most remarkable happenings in the history of democracy" — a new environmental ethos has permeated politics. The summer of that year, President Nixon addressed a letter to Congress citing unorganized, "piecemeal" govern ment-related activities and the need to create a unified En vironmental Protection Agency. The agency opened its doors that December. Politicians facing election aren't staying silent about en vironmental policies. Democratic nominee-elect Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass„ blasted President Bush's environmental record Tuesday. According to Kerry's critique, delivered at a Tampa, Fla. campaign event, the president's proposals will contribute to upward of 100,000 premature deaths and millions of asthma attacks. He also said Bush's policy of allowing dirt ier plants to not upgrade to cleaner technology, is doing se rious environmental and human damage. Regardless of how accurate these claims are, politicians are talking about the environment in big ways. In the mod em American political scene — which is one of heightened environmental consciousness — if politicians aren't doing more to establish a balance of human interests and envi ronmental quality, it's much harder to ignore green issues. The Bush administration has established some environ mentally friendly policies. The Landowner Incentive Pro gram, for example, offers grants to landowners who volun tarily protect the habitats of threatened and at-risk species that live on private property. In addition, the president's fis cal year 2003 budget included the largest National Parks operations budget ever submitted — $665 million. Still, Bush's White House record, it seems, is far from un soiled. The administration's environmental philosophy is re sults-oriented, according to the White House Web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov) — "making our air, water, and land clear." But a recent budget proposal slashes funding for the re covery of endangered species by almost $ 10 million. For the third consecutive year Bush also has asked Con gress to relax environmental laws for the military, and the Pentagon is seeking immunity from laws that regulate haz ardous waste and air quality. For all these efforts, the Bush administration seems to have a problem with scientific integrity. The White House Web site insists "(t)he President be lieves that we need to employ the best science and data to inform our decision-making." But Monday, the Union of Concerned Scientists released a rebuttal to a White House statement issued earlier this month. The Bush administration statement was itself a response to an earlier UCS report, "Scientific Integrity in Policymak ing, " which criticized the government for undermining sci entific integrity. The report, signed by many prominent sci entists, including 20 Nobel laureates, alleged the White House has manipulated in areas including air pollution, forest management and endangered species. This Earth Day, the Emerald Editorial Board urges the Bush administration to re-evaluate its environmental poli cies (and intellectual integrity) for the good of America's next generation. EDITORIAL POLICY This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Responses can be sent to letters @dailyemerald.com. Letters to the editor and guest commentaries are encouraged. Letters are limited to 250 words and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submission must include phone number and address for verification. The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, grammar and style. pF^ou kHowt^ r x THINK* WE $mi*> \>W\ THIS ^PAS5£«46 ^POT^| PROJECT: INNOCENCE It's quite interesting to read what hap pens in Salem as the Oregon State Peni tentiary counts down to an execution. With four days remaining until an in mate's execution date, the prison sends him only photocopies of his mail to en sure that he doesn't receive drugs. The in mate is restricted to exercising in his cell. With 48 hours to go, the superintendent must ensure that a death certificate has been readied and the mortician has signed a form authorizing the release of the body. Arrangements are finalized. In the inmate's final hours, the emer gency phones in the execution room are checked obsessively in case the governor issues a last-minute stay of execution. The syringes are readied. Soon after midnight on the scheduled date, the inmate is pumped full of sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. He is paralyzed, then his heart stops. Twenty-eight men await execution in Oregon. The Beaver State is one of 38 states that executes its criminals, and like every one of those states but Nebraska uses lethal injection. For a long time, the consensus has been that lethal injection is the most humane way to execute an inmate. Think again. According to an Oct. 8 article in The New York Times, the three-chemical com bination used in lethal injections could "lead to paralysis that masks intense dis tress, leaving a wide-awake inmate unable to speak or ay out as he slowly suffocates." Some ask why we should be so con cerned about the feelings of murderers. I would answer because they're human be ings, and simple compassion dictates a modicum of sympathy. I would also say that we are blessed with the wisdom of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. I have no problem, in theory, with exe cuting people for particularly heinous crimes if it can be done right. But it can't. : Chuck Slothower Taking issue Our years of experience with capital punishment have revealed too much im balance, especially on the basis of race and income, to allow it to continue. Recent cas es in which DNA evidence freed death row prisoners revealed the frequent mistakes made at the trial level, mistakes that were luckily caught before they became irre versible. How many weren't? A small group of University law stu dents, journalism students and faculty are working at a local level to oppose the more egregious mistakes of our criminal justice system. A handful of them gathered in Room 282 of Knight Law Center on April 14 to discuss righting the wrongs of Ore gon's criminal justice system. The activists are interested in starting a group to challenge wrongful convictions in Oregon, and it is modeled after similar groups across the country. One of the most successful groups, Northwestern Universi ty's Medill Innocence Project, came about after journalism Professor David Protess and his students freed eight wrongfully convicted men in Illinois, four of whom were on death row. The problems uncovered by Protess and his students led former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a pro-death penalty Republi can, to declare Illinois' capital punishment system a "catastrophic failure;" Ryan then commuted the sentences of all 167 death row inmates to life in prison and par doned another four. He was later nomi nated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the gut sy move. No one pretends that Oregon's criminal justice system has problems as severe as those found in Illinois. But excessive sen tences run rampant and the possibility of executing innocent prisoners can't be dis counted. These students and faculty are making an effort that citizens of all political incli nations can get behind. It's in no one's in terest to have innocent people sit in jail, and it's in no one's interest to have minor offenders taking up jail space while mur ders occur just because police have no room to house domestic abusers, as re cently happened in Springfield. "There's a lot of people in jail who shouldn't be doing the time they're do ing," said Cheri Brooks, a law student ac tive in the nascent innocence project. "They got screwed, but they're not inno cent necessarily." Brooks is actively seeking institutional support from both the University's law school and the School of Journalism and Communication. She said the deans of both schools have "expressed strong inter est" in the group. Journalism graduate student Rita Ra dostitz worked on capital punishment is sues in Texas for eight years and is helping to get the group off the ground. Brooks said the group has already been approached by prisoners' families who say they need legal help. The innocence project, which has yet to settle on an official name, could potential ly do a great deal of good in Oregon. Working to correct injustices and giving law and journalism students experience in long-term investigations and working with legal documents is something we all should value. Brooks hopes to have an e-mail account for the group ready at innocent@law.uoregon.edu. Contact file columnist at chuckslothower@dailyemerald.com. His opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald.
