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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2015)
Page 12A NATION/WORLD East Oregonian Saturday, November 21, 2015 AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File This May 2013, ile photo shows Barry Beach wearing a T-shirt that says “I didn’t do it” at a Billings, Mont., diner. Man freed after three decades in prison calls moment ‘surreal’ Associated Press Daniel Zampogna /PennLive.com via AP Amish marathoner In this photo taken on Sunday, Leroy Stolzfus of Gordonville runs in the 2015 Harrisburg Marathon in Harrisburg, Pa. The Pennsylvania man turned heads as he whizzed by fellow runners, not because of his speed, but because of his unusual racing attire. Stolzfus inished the 26.2-mile race in just over three hours and ive minutes — all while wearing his community’s traditional clothing. Push to prevent gun sales to those on terror list list administered by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, though only about WASHINGTON — People on the 2 percent of those are U.S. citizens or U.S. government’s terrorist watch list legal permanent residents legally able often can’t board commercial airliners, to buy guns. The new Democratic push, which but they can walk into a gun store and legally buy pistols and powerful is considered unlikely to succeed in the GOP-controlled Congress, is PLOLWDU\VW\OHULÀHV Sensing a political opening from focused on legislation by Sen. Dianne last week’s Paris attacks, Democrats Feinstein, D-Calif., that would let are renewing calls for Congress to the attorney general compile a list of pass legislation aimed at preventing known and suspected terrorists. Federally licensed gun dealers terrorists from buying guns. Similar bills — including a post-9/11 measure ZRXOGEHEDUUHGIURPVHOOLQJ¿UHDUPV backed by the Justice Department to them, just as they are already under Republican President George W. prohibited from sales to people with Bush — have been stymied for years, felony convictions or serious mental thanks in large part to opposition from illnesses. The proposed legislation gun-rights groups and congressional would not prevent transactions that don’t involve licensed dealers, such Republicans. According to a March analysis as those between private individuals at by the Government Accountability gun shows or many sales online, which 2I¿FH SHRSOH RQ WKH )%,¶V FRQVROL- don’t currently involve background dated Terrorist Watchlist successfully checks. Feinstein introduced her bill in passed the background check required WR SXUFKDVH ¿UHDUPV PRUH WKDQ February, well before the mass killings percent of the time, with more than in Paris injected new life into terrorism 2,043 approvals between 2004 and and public safety as top-tier political 7KH RI¿FH LV DQ LQYHVWLJDWLYH issues. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. branch of Congress. Feinstein’s bill echoes legislation 7KH )%, LV QRWL¿HG ZKHQ D EDFN- JURXQGFKHFNIRUWKHSXUFKDVHRI¿UH- that the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, arms or explosives generates a match D-N.J., proposed repeatedly over the with the watch list, and agents often last decade. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., use that information to step up surveil- has also long pushed the same legisla- lance on terror suspects. Under current tion to no avail. Republicans took advantage federal law, however, association with a terrorist organization doesn’t prohibit of voters’ newly aroused security D SHUVRQ IURP SRVVHVVLQJ ¿UHDUPV RU concerns this week, when they easily pushed legislation through the House explosives. About 420,000 people are on the preventing Syrian and Iraqi refugees Associated Press BRIEFLY Gunmen attack hotel in Mali’s capital, killing 20 BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Heavily armed Islamic extremists seized dozens of hostages Friday at a Radisson hotel, but Malian troops, backed by U.S. and French special forces, swarmed in to retake the building and free many of WKHWHUUL¿HGFDSWLYHV$WOHDVW 20 people, including one American, were killed along with two gunmen during the more than seven-hour siege, a Malian military commander said. An extremist group led by former al-Qaida commander Moktar Belmoktar claimed responsibility for the attack in the former French colony, and many in France saw it as a new assault on their country’s interests a week after the Paris attacks. While French President Francois Hollande did not link the violence at the Radisson Blu hotel with last week’s bloodshed in Paris, he declared that France would stand by the West African country. *XQ¿UHFRQWLQXHG throughout the day at the hotel, which is popular with airline crews and other foreigners doing business in the capital of Bamako, but the shooting had stopped after dark. 2I¿FLDOVZRXOGQRW FRQ¿UPWKDWWKHHQWLUH complex had been secured by nightfall, although the RQO\DFWLYLW\ZDV¿UH¿JKWHUV carrying bodies to waiting ambulances. Malian state television said late Friday night that the government had announced a 10-day state of emergency beginning at midnight as well as a three-day period of national mourning. E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle expands to 6 states NEW YORK (AP) — An outbreak of E. coli linked to Chipotle that originated in WKH3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWKDV spread south and east and has now infected people in six states. New cases have been reported in California, New York and Ohio, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The ¿UVWFDVHVZHUHGLVFRYHUHG late last month in Oregon and Washington, and more recently in Minnesota. Investigators have yet to determine the ingredient linked to the illness. So far, 45 people have been infected, with 43 of them saying they ate at Chipotle in the week before they became sick. The CDC said it is aware of illnesses starting on dates ranging from Oct. 19 to Nov. 8. The agency said that illnesses after Oct. 31 may not have been reported yet. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. closed 43 restaurants in Oregon and Washington in late October after health RI¿FLDOVGLVFRYHUHGPRVW of the people sickened in the outbreak had eaten at its restaurants. from entering the U.S. until the admin- istration tightens restrictions on their entry. That issue put Democrats on the defensive. Forty-seven of them voted for the bill, ignoring a veto threat by President Barack Obama, who said the current screening system is already strong and accused Republicans of fanning fear among worried voters. Democrats are hoping to turn the political tables on Republicans by focusing the debate instead on terror- ists’ access to guns. Congress has yet to vote on Fein- stein’s proposal or on nearly identical ones that have been introduced for years. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has not said whether he would be open to allowing a vote. The GOP-run House has not held any votes on major gun control measures since the killings of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., did not respond directly when asked Thursday if he favored barring people on the watch list from buying guns, saying, “We are just beginning this process of reassessing all of our secu- rity stances.” 7KH 1DWLRQDO 5LÀH $VVRFLDWLRQ signaled this week it will oppose Fein- stein’s bill, as it did those before it. NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker pointed to past instances where inno- cent people were added to the watch list either in error. DEER LODGE, Mont. — A Montana man who spent three decades behind bars for a murder he says he did not commit walked out of prison Friday after the governor granted his clemency request. Barry Beach, 53, told reporters gathered outside the Montana State Prison’s front door that the moment was “surreal.” “I knew it was going to be here someday,” Beach said. “The good Lord in heaven has always assured me that I’d reach this point. I never dreamed it was going to take this long.” He added there would be “a lot of healing and a lot of tears” during the four-hour drive to his Billings home, and he thanked Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock for keeping his word. The governor, who was not present, previously said he’d look favorably on Beach’s request. Beach was serving a 100-year sentence with no possibility of parole for the 1979 beating death of Kimberly Nees, 17, on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeast Montana. Bullock noted in his order that Beach was only 17 at the time and exhibited good behavior in prison. The murder of Nees, an honor student, gripped the small town of Poplar after her body was found alongside a river at a popular place for teenagers to party. No arrests were made, and small-town gossip built until Beach confessed to out-of- state police who picked him up on an unrelated crime. But Beach said his 1983 confession in Louisiana was coerced. His long campaign for freedom drew support from hundreds, including Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, former Gov. Brian Schweitzer and former Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns. A cousin of the victim, Glenna Nees Lockman, said Friday it was shameful Beach had been released without someone else being charged in the crime. “Oh, my god. That’s so not right,” Lockman said. “Someone needs to be held accountable. If it’s not Barry Beach, go to court and prove who it is.” Lockman for years counted herself among those who believed in Beach’s innocence. She said she became uncertain over the past two years and came to view him as “a con, a manip- ulator” who was willing to hurt others for his own EHQH¿W In his order, Bullock did not directly weigh in on whether Beach was innocent or not, and a spokesman said the governor would have no further comment on the issue. Beach was released for 18 months beginning in 2011 after Montana District Judge E. Wayne Phillips ordered a new trial, based on witness testimony that Nees died in a ¿JKWDPRQJDJDQJRIJLUOV But the state Supreme Court blocked the trial, sending Beach back to prison. Phillips, who has since retired, told The Associated Press on Friday he was pleased to see Beach ¿QDOO\ IUHH %HDFK DOUHDG\ has proven he can handle life outside prison by staying employed and out of trouble when he was previously released, Phillips said. “Even assuming that he was guilty, he’s shown himself to be reformed. Isn’t that the goal of the American justice system?” Phillips said.
