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
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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
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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.