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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2005)
Law school graduate gives talk on civil rights service Oregon Innocence Network, a journalism and law student group, hosted the public defender who spoke BY AMANDA BOLSINGER NEWS REPORTER With a practiced air and a gravely voice, Lawrence Aschenbrenner shared stories from his 45-year law career Thursday afternoon. Aschenbrenner is a 1957 Universi ty law school graduate who devoted his career to fighting civil rights cases and defending innocent people wrongly placed behind bars. Oregon Innocence Network, a group com prising law and journalism students, hosted the discussion and is lobbying the University to support a clinic ded icated to working on behalf of inno cent people in jail in Oregon. Aschenbrenner was appointed as Oregon’s first public defender in 1964. “I was the only public defender and I always claimed I was the best one,” Aschenbrenner said. When Aschenbrenner became the public defender he began receiv ing hundreds of letters from inmates requesting review. One of his earli er cases involved Teddy Jordan, a young black man from Klamath Falls who was convicted of first de gree murder of a white man and sentenced to hang. Jordan was con victed by an all-white jury, and it was discovered later that racial prejudice may have played a role in his conviction. “Southern Oregon was a hot bed of racism, believe it or not,” Aschen brenner said. Jordan told Aschenbrenner that another man had admitted to the murder as a deathbed confession, but when Aschenbrenner went to find the witness, he learned that the woman had died months earlier. Be cause that avenue was closed, As chenbrenner pursued the case on the grounds that Jordan had been denied the right to counsel. “He walked out the gate as a free man, and I walked out with him,” Aschenbrenner said. “He later be came a teacher at Rouge Community College in Grants Pass and was un questionably innocent.” Aschenbrenner also talked about his work in Mississippi as a volunteer lawyer for civil rights workers during the late 1960s. “A favorite tactic of the white pow er structure was to arrest civil rights protesters and leaders and convict them with all-white juries,” Aschen brenner said. “Lawyers would refuse to represent any civil rights workers, black or white.” During that time, hundreds of volunteer lawyers offered their assistance. The volunteer lawyers were never denied admittance into court at the state level, but were de nied admission in federal courts once the lawyers began winning cas es by forcing courts to put black peo ple on the jury. “After they were forced to put blacks on jury we didn’t lose a case,” Aschen brenner said. “I had 14 hung juries in a row, but they were never re-tried, so that’s the same as a victory. ” Aschenbrenner also shared stories about cases against the Ku Klux Klan and a victory in a civil case that end ed with a $1 million award. After the talk, Aschenbrenner ac cepted questions from listeners about his work as well as asking for advice and input on the Innocence Network. “I don’t know how to explain how my work in Mississippi is relevant to the Innocence project,” Aschenbren ner said. “But I think there are pat terns of wrongly convicted people. One, people who plead guilty with out counsel is a danger sign. Second, they maybe didn’t realize that they weren’t guilty. Third is people con victed on circumstantial evidence or allegedly voluntary confessions.” “I was interested in the issue of ex oneration,” second-year law student Joy Nair said. “I thought it was great. He totally lived an amazing life and it’s good to know that there are peo ple like him in Oregon.” abolsinger@ daily emerald, com Nicole Barker | Photographer Civil rights lawyer Lawrence Aschenbrenner spoke at the Knight Law Center on behalf of the Oregon Innocence Network on Monday night. University places 2nd in RecycleMania competition Defending champion Miami University of Ohio took first place, narrowly beating the UO residence halls BY EVA SYLWESTER NEWS REPORTER University residence hall students took second place in RecycleMania, a national intercollegiate recycling competition that ended April 9. Despite the loss, event organizers are still optimistic about the increased recycling awareness the competition brought to campus. FUJICOLOR IP R 0 C E S S I M G. I II C.l PHOTO SPECIALS April 25 - May 1 $100 OFF PHOTO CD PACKAGE 24 exp. 35mm, 4x6 prints Standard Processing: $8.25 Premium Processing: $11.17 Color print film only. Please allow 2-3 working days. UOBookstore.com UNIVERSITY OF OREGON BOOKSTORE “Second place is not second rate, in terms of our performance,” Uni versity Housing Recycling Coordina tor Robyn Hathcock said. “I’m really proud of the U of O.” Defending champion Miami Uni versity of Ohio took first place, col lecting 66.19 pounds of recyclable materials per residence hall resident during the 10-week competition. The University placed a close second, with 65.1 pounds. There are 3,131 students in the residence halls. According to a RecycleMania press release, the University actually held first place by a slim margin through the first six weeks of the competition. “The final week was an unprece dented effort,” Hathcock said. The weekend before the competition end ed, volunteers from the Residence Hall Association went door-to-door in the residence halls and offered to take out students’ recycling for them. The effort netted an average of Gome GeleWiate National Dance Week! IWHZZO Tuesday April 26 4-5pm i Dance Improvisation @ Gerlinger Lawn Wednesday April 27 4-5pm Dance Improvisation @ Pioneer Mother Statue Thursday, April 28 4-5pm Intermediate/Advanced Musical Theater Workshop @ Gerlinger Annex #354 Friday, April 29 12-1 pm Tapjam @ 219 Gerlinger 2-4pm Capoeira Workshop @ 352 Gerlinger Annex * All events are free to the public. Sponsored by Dance Oregon. 10.12 pounds of recyclables per stu dent that week, compared with ap proximately six pounds per student other weeks. Hathcock emphasized that the University’s performance improved since its last RecycleMania appear ance in 2003, when the residence halls collected 51.4 pounds of recyclables per student. “We’re excited because we really raised the bar," she said. RHA President Todd Mann said the competition drew attention from students. “Seeing resident after resident checking the scores day after day was inspiring to me,” Mann wrote in an e mail. “By mixing competition, com munity service and leadership, I be lieve we really increased a sense of responsibility to the community in the residence halls. ” Mann described the competition as a way to get stu dents interested in recycling. “RecycleMania serves as reminder to those in the residence halls and throughout Housing that recycling re ally does make a difference,” Mann RECYCLE, page 12A STUDENTTRAVEL Cheap Student Airfare London $783 Amsterdam $974 Brussels $1000 San Jose costamca $468 Tokyo $703 Mexico City $372 Bangkok $864 Sydney $1069/ "The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page." V-Saint Augustine 354 A.D. > | We've Got EVERYTHING You Need for Summer Travel! 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