Show ' r v : J : Tuesday November 20 2001 r 1 j : A4 i i'' I ’ V " The Herald journal I Regional view Death penalty needs rethinking From The Daily Herald: row His latest attempt has been quashed It almost makes you wonder why bother having a death penalty if we are going to wait 0 years to use it on someone We recognize that capital punishment is the most severe penalty the judicial system can impose Once the sentence is carried out it cannot be undone if it comes out that the wrong man was executed And that is a good reason for granting automatic appeals for death penalty cases But are we really serving justice when we wait this long to put someone to death? What does this do to the families of the victims? Their loved ones didn’t get a chance to appeal their deaths We think one round through the entire court system should be sufficient Once the appeals have been made to the court of last resort that should be the end of it But to make this work we think there should be greater safeguards at the front end of the system The standard for a death penalty case should be absolutely no doubt of a person’s guilt instead of beyond reasonable doubt If we are going to kill someone let’s make sure that all possible doubts are eliminated Die trial is die time to check all the DNA evidence bring out every witness and question everything That will eliminate most of the issues that bog down the appeals process and make it easia for appel-late judges to spot true errorsland miscarriages of justice It will also help the families of victims achieve closure in a more timely manner While there has been a lot of discussion on innocent people being sent to Death Row the fate of those sitting there rightfully doesn’t get much consideration Barring an inmate’s request to waive appeals a death sentence in Utah can mean the condemned have another 10 years yet to live at least Douglas Stewart Carter is a classic example of a prolonged appeals process Carter had his death sentence for a 1985 murder of a Provo woman upheld by the Utah Supreme Court Nov 6 This is not the first time this has happened for Carta1 His initial death sentence was reversed and he was sentenced to die again in 1992 He was supposed to be executed in the but raised appeals that the process again began The Utah Supreme Court’s decision which rejected Carta’s issues such as a juror using a dictionary during deliberations and inadequate legal counsel will not be the end of it There are federal courts that will hear this case William Andrews one of the “Hi-Killers’’ and Ron Lafferty are other examples of this prolonged process Andrews who was convicted for three murders in 1974 wasn’t executed until 1992 Lafferty who was sentenced to death for murdering his and niece in 1984 had his death sentence overturned once was retried and put back on death 10-2- mid-199- 0s Fi By Jack Anderson and Douglas Cohn United Features Syndicate WASHINGTON —Fteskfents come and go but Prince Bandar is fbreva Or so it seems Prince Banda bin Sultan the Saudi ambassador to tbe United States has been iri his job since the early days of the Reagan administration Unlike most ambassadors who after having their pictures taken with the president neva see the Oval Office again Banda can get an audience with the leader of the free world whenever he wants Die reason is oil A foreign-poli- i sister-in-la- w cy offi- Lawmakers rr James V Hansen Republican — Represents 1st Congressional District which includes Cache County Wash- Here is a list of addresses and phone numbers for some of Cache Valley's representatives in government: Doug Thompson 1567 Lynnwood Logan 753-689- 9 Ave L Thomas Kerr 35 N COUNCIL 1400 East Logan 752-315- 2 Alan Allred 1535 E 1500 North Logan 753-822- 4 Jan Pearce 727 N 150 West (retiring) Logan 753-359- 9 Steve Thompson 37 S 200 West Logan 753-601- 9 Karen Borg Logan 753-696-3 Tami Pyfer 52 1370 South PI 753-75(takes office iri January) US SENATE-UTA- which includes Franklin County 1449 Longworth House Office Building Washington DC 29515 (202) 225-55Idaho office: 304 N 8th Room 325 Boise ID 83702 (208) 334-195- 3 31 29 UTAH SENATE To call your Utah 60 O Larry Craig Republican — 520 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202)224-275- 2 Idaho office: 801 E Sherman Room 193 Pocatello ID 83201 (208) 236-681- 7 unknown effects a senator at the Senate or your representative at the House: call and ask for the person by name To write your senator The Honorable John Doe Idaho Senate Statehouse Boise ID 83720 To write your representative: The Honorable John Doe Idaho House of Boise RepresentativesStatehouse 83720 ' : H - - To the editor: Months ago one of the neighborhood meetings on the powa plant — a meeting held Woodruff School when everyone was talking about the old and the new generators — one of the officials from Logan Powa said “No one is proud of the fumes from the diesel generators” I beg to disagree I imagine tha years ago when the diesel generators first came online our elected officials v were quite proud of than Diey did not yet know all the negative effects of diesel pollution as we do now Certainly now no one is proud of foe 'diesel fumes a IDAHO To call your Idaho Michael Crapo Republican —111 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510 (202) 224-614- 2 Idaho office: 801 E Sherman Pocatello ID 83201 (208) 236-677-5 US Plant’s pollution has House of Representatives: (801) 538-102-9 To write a Utah representative: The Honorable John Doe State Representative State Capitol Salt Lake City Utah 84114 224-525- the Shah fell and was replaced by a fanatical religious regime Critics on the right and the left think it’s time the United States stopped propping up governments that make no pretense of advancing democratic values and that undermine our Western way of life in orda to deflect anga that might otherwise be directed them But the Bush administration has a full plate and encouraging democratic change in die Arab kingdom is way down on the list of priorities The official American attitude whetha a Democratic or Republican administration was in office has been that you deal with the government dial’s in powa Neitha the government in Riyadh nor Washington will walk away from the ties that bind The issue then is whetha the Saudi royal family is vulnerable to being overthrown Die answa is yes But the answa has been yes going back least four administrations The royal family represented in Washington by the smooth and urbane Prince Banda has been tenacious in its hold on powa And the prince has been such a constant visitor to the Bush family — fathaand son — in Texas that he was nicknamed Prince Banda Bush One forma military offica the Saudi that predicts government will collapse “and when it does we’ll be on the wrong side! But this official is not making any forecasts about when that might happen Similaly we do not yet know all the negative of the pollution that will come out of the new gas generators Yes the EPA says tha based on what they know now the pollution from the gas generators will be okay but that is just wha they know now Think about it We were told tha asbestos was okay to use for building materials until we learned it was a serious carcinogen We woe told tha lead-baspaint was okay to use until our children suffered from brain damage We were even told tha it was okay to have fillings put in our teeth tha contained mercury until we teamed tha mercury can’t even be dumped into our landfills much lessinto our mouths Science finds out answers as we go along but white Occam’s razor slowly chips away at the truth it is important to remember that NO ONE HAS EVER PROVEN THAT a oil-centr- ic tic pa-mitt- ed anti-Americ- an a high-ranki- ng This column was written with the aid of political correspondent Eleanor Clift Your view UTAH HOUSE To call the Utah Sen Orrin Hatch Republican — US Senate Washington DC 20510 1 Utah office: 8402 Fed(202) eral Building 125 S State St Salt Lake City UT 84138 (801) £ i Seri- ate: (801) 538-103-5 To write your senator at the Senate: The Honorable John Doe Utah State Senator Room 319 State Capitol Salt Lake City UT 84114 524-593- 3 HOUSE-UTA- senator at the ? The policy directive doesn’t say anything about promoting democracy in die desert kingdom which has neva been a priority in Washington As long as the Saudi royal family behaved responsibly as guardians of the oil supply Washington turned a blind eye to whateva else they did There is no freedom of expression religion or the press in Saudi Arabia and much of the population lives in grinding poverty despite the oil riches These disparities Republican — Rep- Mike Simpson H SENATE-iDAH- reserve' resents 2nd Congressional District Utah office: 20510 (202) 224-544- 4 4225 Federal Building 125 S State SL Salt Lake City UT 84138 (801) US ty US HOUSE4DAHO Sen Robert Bennett Republican — US Senate Washington DC 524-43- says that as fa back as he can remenfoe ' there has been a national-securiderision directive committing the American militaiy to defend Saudi Arabia’s oil ington office: 2466 Rayburn Building US House of Representatives Washington DC 20515 (202) 225-045- 3 Utah office: 1017 Federal Building 324 25th SL Ogden UT 84401 (801) 625-567- 7 or 393-836-2 LOGAN-MAYO- R LOGAN-MUNICIPA- cial who has served four Ae didn’t capture Washington’s attention and American motorists were too busy buying up sports utility vehicles to that had question the kind of trade-off- s been made to guarantee the oil supply The cost of those trade-off- s became apparent on Sept 11 when 15 of the 19 hijackers turned out to be Saudi nationals Along with oil it seems that Saudi Arabia is exporting terrorism Not directly of course but as a byproduct of the way the royal family runs die country The combifornation of America’s eign policy and the Saudi family’s rule is a witches’ brew of hatred Die only outlet die repressed Saudi population is venom which has been rampant in the Saudi press Rich Saudis support charitable organizations that in addition to doing good works funnel jnfacy to r Osama bin Laden and his AlQaleda' network In turn bin Laden for die most part has directed his terror campaign outside of the Soldi borders even though one of his primary goals is to topple the Saudi regime This duplicitous game has been exposed to die discomfort of the royal family and its protectors in Washington Neitha capital can stand die heat The Bush administra- don insists that die Saudis have done everything asked of diem since Sept 11 “And we don’t want them to do anything that might put that regime in jeopardy” says an advisor The prospect pf a popular uprising in Saudi Arabia is terrifying to Washington policymakers who fea a repea of the Iran experience when ID - exhaust” : ed t Mallard Fillmore POLLUTION IS GOOD FOR OUR HEALTH and tha no one is likely to say “Wow that was certainly good for the students’ lungs to have them breath gas generator V ) v 1 J The Opinion pagels Intended to acquaint raaderesto a variety of viewpoints on matters of pubic importance and provide members of the community wtti a lorum tor Mr views t Personal colutnne cartoons and letters from roodore inflect the opinions of thdr united end creators Edfloriala under the toadngiOur1 represent the views of the Herod Journal ’ fi :v DOfifiL MOmDOrl DARRELL - ’ 01 M MMM DOME EHRUCKfctyedtor j' ' I :r ' M-- i‘ '4 ! ? l out ofa muIHtuie of tongues than thmghamj : f fad of authoritathe selection - Judge Learned Jbut America jurist ' i i t r (W2-196- 'V 'v r'' a ' : Letters should be: ‘‘ - A ' typewritten and double-apece-d ' In No more than 450 wonts length Addressed and Mude daytime phone ' number lor purposes of verification '? the author by Sgned IndMduals are Mtad to one pubMed let--' ' ter within any y period Address L Guest to Mere comv hjMtoOtynewsAom waloome and are run si ' mentarios are tto actor's dberedod al M I to begathered v"1 V-- The Herald Journal weioomee Mm to the PotontiaHy Ibeious or offensive Mars vN not be piSMied however and twadHor reserves the right to edk allotted A conform lotto length and styto requirements of the' actor 30-da- CINDY YURTWeatures edhor BRUCE SMTHpubfisher CHARLES McCXXUAAfaanagfngodnpr 4" i tv w 1 A: VttWe Claire Watson Logan t riSald Journal ' a To leave die plant its current location is to gamble with the health of all current and future sttidents of Logan High La us err on die side of cautioQ move the plant away from schools and keep our air as well as our conscience clea for future generations t r i t a f 1) v AK v :x: - V |