Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2005)
P j^c v ______________________________________________ i l î k ì J J t ì r t k x t t ò ( i D b s e r u e r __ _ M a r c h i200s High Court Stops Juvenile Executions Death penalty for youths ruled ‘cruel and unusual’ (AP) - The Supreme Court ruled Tues day that the Constitution forbids the ex ecution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a prac tice used in 19 states. The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes. The executions, the court said, violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In 1988, the court outlawed executions for those 15 and younger when they com mitted their crimes. Three years ago ju s tices banned executions of the mentally retarded. Tuesday’s ruling prevents states from making 1 6 -and 17-year-olds eligible for execution. "The age of 18 is the point where soci ety draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote. Juvenile offenders have been put to death in recent years in only a few other countries, including Iran, Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia. Kennedy cited interna tional opposition to the practice. “It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight o f international opinion against the juvenile death pen alty, resting in large part on the under standing that the instability and emotional imbalance of young people may often be a factor in the crime,” he wrote. Kennedy noted most states don’t allow the execution o f juvenile killers and those that do use the penalty infrequently. The trend, he said, is to abolish the practice Worst Insurgency Bombing Kills 120 (AP) - Weeping and beating their chests, hundreds o f Iraqis in spected co rp ses at a hospital morgue in Hillah on Tuesday, look ing for friends and relatives miss ing in a suicide bombing that killed at least 120 people, the single dead liest attack in the two-year insur gency. Meanwhile, the toll rose as hos pital officials said at least five suc cum bed to w ounds overnight. More than 140others were injured in the blast, which targeted mostly Shiite police and National Guard recruits lined up for physicals at a medical clinic. Monday’s bombing presented the boldest challenge yet to Iraq’s efforts to build a security force that can take over from the Americans. At the morgue, distraught rela tives placed the dead into coffins and loaded them onto pickup trucks for the trip to mosques and hom es where the bodies w ill be w ashed before burial, a M uslim tradition in Iraq. The bom bing com es as the Sunni Arab insurgency tries to disrupt the form ation o f the first g o v e rn m e n t led by m a jo rity Shiites. The Shiites have refrained from striking back — m ostly at the behest o f their most revered leader, G rand A yatollah Ali al- Sistani. He wants nothing to im pede Shiites from coming to power and will not allow them to engage Iraqis mourn near the site of than 120 people. (AP photo) in a sectarian war. HIV Doubles Among Blacks Stark evidence shows widening of racial gap suicide bombing that killed more Local Rapper Shot 12 Times, Survives P olice are on the hunt for the su sp ect w ho shot local rap p er L ad ariu s D avis, 24, w ho p e r form s u nder the nam e K orbell. He w as shot a dozen tim es after because “our society views juveniles... as categorically less culpable than the aver age criminal.” In a dissent. Justice Antonin Scalia disputed that there is a clear trend of declining juvenile executions to justify a grow ing consensus against the prac tice. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Clarence Thomas and Sandra Day O ’Connor, joined Scalia in the losing opin ion to allow the executions. g ettin g into an arg u m en t at a Police conclude that the crim e local bar, fam ily m em bers say. occurred in the vicinity o f N orth Davis survived the shooting Interstate A venue and Skidm ore and underw ent m ultiple surger S treet and w as g a n g -re la te d , a l ies at Legacy Emanuel Hospital. though fam ily m em bers d o n ’t b eliev e D avis w as in v o lv ed in g a n g s. P o lice are still g a th e rin g in fo rm atio n on a p o ssib le su s p e c t. (AP) - The HIV infection rate has doubled among blacks in the United States over a decade while holding steady among whites - stark evidence of a widening racial gap in the epidemic, government scientists said Friday. Other troubling statistics indi cate that almost half of all infected people in the United States who should be receiving HIV drugs are not getting them. The findings were released in B o sto n at th e 12th A n n u al Retrovirus Conference, the world’s chief scientific gathering on the disease. Researchers and AIDS preven tion advocates attributed the high rate among blacks to such factors as drug addiction, poverty and poor access to health care. The HIV rates were derived from the widely used National Health and Nutrition Examinations Sur veys, which analyze a representa tive sample o f U.S. households and contain the most complete HIV data in the country. Research ers at the Centers for Disease Con trol and Prevention compared 1988- 1994 data with figures from 1999- 2002. The AIDS virus in blacks has risen from 1 to 2 percent. The surveys look only at young and middle-aged adults who live in households, excluding such groups as soldiers, prisoners and homeless. Thus, health officials believe the numbers probably un derestimate true HIV rates in this country. Still, they show a striking rise in the prevalence o f the AIDS virus from 1 percent to 2 percent o f b la c k s. W hite ra te s held steady at 0.2 percent. Largely because o f the increase among blacks, the overall U.S. rate rose slightly from 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent. Treatment is widely viewed as a central component in preven tion. Powerful AIDS drugs that came into wide use in the mid- 1990s can knock down levels of the virus in the body, reducing the chances that the patient will infect others. Nearly 1 million people in the United States have contracted the AIDS virus since the outbreak be gan in the early 1980s. About 40,000 people test positive each year, and more than 18,000 die. Human Rights Abuses (A P )-M an’sinhum anitytom an was documented anew Monday by the U.S. State Department as it sur veyed human rights abuses last year in scores of countries and found systematic torture in Syria, serious abuses in China and the killing of civilians by government-backed militia in Sudan’s troubled Darfur province. Egypt, a close ally o f the United States in Mideast peacemaking, was condemned for security forces tor turing prisoners and for mass ar rests. Iran’s “poor human rights record worsened,” the State De partment report said. North Korea, which President Bush has denounced as part of an “axis of evil,” is one of the w orld’s most repressive and brutal regimes, the report said. An estim ated 150.0(X) to 200,000 people are be lieved to be in detention camps in remote areas, and defectors report many have died from torture, star vation and disease. C hina used w ar on terror as a pretext for cracking dow n on peaceful U ighur separatists and does not perm it outsiders to m oni tor the hum an rights situation in the country, the report to C on gress added. Judge’s Family Murdered (A P)— A federal judge who was when she returned home from work once the target o f a failed murder M onday evening, according to plot by a white supremacist was authorities and friends. under marshals’ protection Tues W hite suprem acist M atthew day following the shooting deaths Hale, 33, who was convicted in April o f her husband and 89-year-old 2004 of soliciting an undercover mother, and investigators were look FBI informant to kill her, is awaiting ing into possible connections to sentencing on murder solicitation hate groups, among other leads. and obstruction of justice. Authorities acknowledged the U .S . D is tric t Ju d g e Jo a n Humphrey Lefkow found the bod possibility that hate groups could ies of Michael F. Lefkow, 65, and be involved in the killings but cau her mother, D onna Humphrey, tioned against early conclusions. I t ’s time to make a change. A Home Equity Loan from U.S. Bank is the easiest way to start any project. You can get loans up to 125% of your home’s value. W ith competitive rates, you’ll enjoy an easy way to manage debt, build an addition, or even start a new business. Plus, the interest on the loan may be tax-deductible. And it's all backed by our Five Star Service Guarantee. Take advantage of this offer without the worry of closing costs, points, or fees. No coin counting necessary. Go online at usbank.com, visit a local branch, Congo Peacekeepers Killed [TCbank or call 1-888-444 BANK (2 2 6 5 ) ext. 4100 for any other questions. Five Star Service Guaranteed • 5 .7 9 % fixed APR available for terms up to 20 years on home equity loans with a U.S. Bank checking account with ACM and loan-to-value (L T V ) of 8 0 % or less. Higher rates apply for higher IT V s . Minimum loan amount or Increase of $ 1 0 ,0 0 0 required Consult your tax advisor regarding deductibility of interest. On a $ 1 0 ,0 0 0 , 20-year loan at 5 .7 9 % APR, monthly payments would be $ 7 0 .4 4 . Rates subject to change. Offer Is subject to normal credit qualifications. Some additional restrictions may apply. Not available with other discounts. Home equity loans are offered through U.S. Bank National Association NO Member FDIC ( I z% 55 b (AP) - A ttackers ambushed U.N. peacekeepers on patrol in northeastern C ongo on Fri day, killing nine Bangladeshis in the deadliest assault on the world body’s largest peace keeping m ission, the United Nations said. The slain peacekeepers were among 21 Bangladeshispatrol ling near a camp housing civil ians displaced by persistent fight- ing in Ituri province. Since 1999, fighting in the vast northeastern district of Ituri has killed more than 5O.(XX) and forced 500,000 to flee their homes, U.N. officials and hu man rights groups say. There are 11,4 15 U.N. troops in Congo - the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission, with the force eventually expected to reach 16.000.
