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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Letters To The Editor

LAW AND JUSTICE

Prosecution point not well-taken

Re: the June 17 article by Tom Sowa, “Murder victim also raped, jurors told”:

Statistics may be damned, but only when those who attempt to use them get sloppy. Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Sweetser and expert witness John Brown have done just that. Though the evidence presented in the Dwayne Woods trial compensated for the statistical gaffe, it is worth describing the error that went unchallenged.

Sweetser asked, “How many other people could match the DNA sample taken from (the victim)?”

Brown replied, “Among African Americans, one in 125 million.”

Unfortunately, Brown has given Sweetser an answer to a different question. Sweetser intended, but failed, to ask for the duplication (specified) probability (the chance that another African American male could match the DNA taken from Jade Moore that Dwayne Woods matches). Brown, presumably, has given Sweetser the random match probability (i.e., the chance that any African American person would match the DNA taken from Jade Moore). The difference is hardly negligible.

Assuming that there are roughly 10,000,000 African-American males, the answer to Sweetser’s intended question is one in 13. There is a 7.7 percent chance that at least one African American male besides Dwayne Woods matches the DNA.

The answer to Sweetser’s actual question is 10,000,000 at an astronomically tiny probability. Technically, everyone could match.

The difference between eight-thousandths of a percent and nearly 8 percent is huge. Does this mean that Woods is innocent? It’s doubtful. So why rock the boat? Because the integrity of a criminal justice system which sentences people to death based on statistics depends on it. Adam P. Karp Seattle

Court action misreported

John Craig’s June 25 article about Dog Patch, “Deal could keep woman out of jail,” contains an erroneous statement.

The Court of Appeals has not instructed Stevens County Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson to give Joyce Tasker a chance to correct the nuisance caused by her housing of dogs. In fact, the Court of Appeals has made no rulings other than to grant multiple continuances and dismiss the appeal.

The appeal, filed for no other purpose than to delay compliance with the injunction, was dismissed because of Tasker’s failure to meet the Court of Appeals’ deadlines. She never even filed her opening brief setting forth Kristianson’s alleged errors. There is no appeal pending at this time.

The public should be aware that Tasker was found in contempt for her failure to comply with the court-imposed injunction. Should she be arrested and placed in jail for her failure to comply, she would have no one but herself to blame.

Any reasonable person would expect to be jailed for contempt of court. She seems to believe she is above the law and seeks publicity to gain sympathy for being openly defiant of the court’s orders.

Tasker has received way too much attention for her lack of respect for the court system. The public should look at this case with an open mind, not sympathy. How would you feel if you lived next door to a kennel that housed approximately 40 dogs that bark, whine and yelp each and every day? Chris A. Montgomery attorney for plaintiffs Hickey-Schwartz, Colville, Wash.

Death penalty a faulty tool

I used to think that the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for heinous crimes if there is little or no doubt about the guilt of the offender. Part of my reasoning was that society should be rid of these people with the most dependability and least cost.

The problem with this logic, as many readers have noted, is that it draws society into killing, thus compromising our moral intention. It also ignores the slight but not entirely dismissible possibility that the individual is innocent.

Perhaps worse, it pre-empts any long-term remorse, moral conversion or additional confession that might eventually offer some comfort to the victim’s family.

A more just punishment might be life imprisonment without parole, accompanied by appropriate torture in the form of the constant presence of photos and tapes of the crime scene, the victims and the families affected.

If this policy were to be reliably enforced, it would be much more of a deterrent (to those who can be deterred) than the slim chance of an instant and painless death after years of appeals.

Murderers, rapists and molesters are not noted for placing a high value on anyone’s life, including their own. Many criminals choose the death penalty over appropriate long-term punishment in what can be a convoluted form of suicide. Let’s not give them that choice. Dave K. Johnson Elk

If convicted, no leniency is justified

In reference to the article, “Stabbing suspect beat elderly man two years ago,” on the front of the June 26 Region section:

Adrian Washington was convicted of second-degree assault in a beating that ultimately robbed our family and this community of a Spokane fixture of more than 50 years by taking the life of my father-in-law, Peter LaBeck. Washington should have been convicted of murder.

I applaud Judge Neil Q. Rielly’s exceptional sentence for Washington. It was the harshest sentence available for a minor, which Washington was at the time. Washington was released from detention in April of this year and is back in the saddle.

Anyone who would viciously beat an 81-year-old man, spend 65 weeks in detention, get out and (allegedly) stab someone else has no conscience or conception of societal responsibility.

Washington has once again proved he should to be kept off the streets for good, as he presents a very real danger to society. If convicted on this latest charge, he finally should be kept off the streets for good. Michael D. Lynch Spokane

Appeals court roadblock to justice

The jury in Denver voted to put Timothy McVeigh to death for his terrible crime against innocent humanity. Now we get to watch the best legal minds in the country try to stop his execution at our expense.

I remind you that the appeals courts will not consider guilt or innocence. They will be looking at technical legal issues at trial. I don’t believe McVeigh will be put to death.

A recent article stated that Texas is putting people to death at a near-record rate. Why?

Here in Washington, we have sentenced Mitchell Rupe, Willie Mak and David Rice to death. Are they dead? No. Technically, at the moment, none is under sentence of death. All sentences were overturned on technicalities by judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

If I were McVeigh’s lawyer, I would do everything I could to get to appear before that court. I notice that the attorneys for Ted Kaczynski, allegedly the Unabomber, prefer that he be tried in Sacramento, Calif. Guess which appeals court would hear the case?

I believe the death penalty should be enforced, as the president said, swift and sure. Walter E. Lane Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Hanford Reach issue one of control

In response to “Delegation gets earful on Hanford Reach” (June 22): I attended the Senate Hanford Reach field hearing June 21 in Mattawa, Wash. Those who favor federal control of Hanford Reach do not seem to have a stated reason for it.

Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) questioned the experts who testified in favor of federal control at least three times, asking, “How would the Hanford Reach be enhanced or improved over current conditions by future federal wild and scenic designation?”

The answers he received were devoid of reasoning. Many who testified in favor of federal control did clearly state the need for additional control of the surrounding area. One even spoke of the area from Nevada to Canada, east of the Cascades to the Rockies. That is the motive behind the wild and scenic designation.

Skeptics who favor local control seem to have a point. Hanford Reach is not the motive behind the wild and scenic designation. The motive is federal control.

I say no thank you to that. It was tried in Russia for 70 years. This country was made great by responsible citizens making their own decisions. Mark E. Booker Othello, Wash.

Never privatize Social Security

Don’t let Congress privatize our Social Security system.

Multinational giants such as IBM, American Express, A.I.G., Alex Brown Inc., countless banks and brokerages are spending huge sums on Congress to sell the idea. In January, their Advisory Council on Social Security released three plans to gain long-term solvency.

One of those plans would divert $4.2 trillion from Social Security taxes into risky, uninsured individual stock market accounts managed by banks and brokerages.

We’re talking a sum larger than our national debt, three times bigger than our 1996 federal budget and more than all American mutual fund investments. The temptation is great.

This isn’t so much a movement as an attempted bank heist, for ideology and profit, of a government social insurance program.

If the market rises, Wall Street collects billions in fees, retirees get their hard-earned money and everyone will be happy.

But what if the market falls? Billions in fees still will go to brokerages and banks. But a nightmare of poverty-stricken old age faces current workers and future retirees. That risk is unacceptable.

We remember the Roaring ‘20s promises and the crash of 1929. The market took 25 years to fully recover.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt created our Social Security system so no American worker would suffer that tragedy again. For more than 60 years, the stock market was a roller coaster but Social Security was stable.

Remember 1929. Don’t gamble with our hard-earned retirement savings. Notify your Congress people now. Vern L. Klingman Billings, Mont.

Enough of Jones and Republicans

If women’s lib goes along with Paula Jones, as Republicans claim, I can no longer support either. Right is right and wrong is wrong, regardless of whether a man or woman is involved. And Jones has done more to hurt the government than any other woman.

The president has done more for women than any other president by giving them responsible jobs and respecting their rights. If they turn on him and tie his hands so he no longer can defend himself, I guess they deserve to lose him.

Republicans have given him a bad time ever since he was elected president. They hit rock bottom when they got Jones to go after him. They are no better than she is. The character issue is very important in this situation because it will shed light on just what kind of woman she is.

Jones claims the president had something different about him that would prove he did what she claims. However, when it came out that he might have to submit to an examination, she now claims he had an operation to have the evidence removed. Ernestene D. Becker Clarkston, Wash.

HIGHER EDUCATION

Drummond departure welcome

I believe editor Chris Peck and the Eastern Washington University board of trustees have overlooked an important factor in the troubles EWU faces - namely, its leadership.

In his years as president, Mark Drummond has failed to lead the university in a direction to maintain its health. Perhaps EWU’s decline in enrollment and its financial woes are due to this lack of leadership or management. Over the years, top administrators have received raises, while staff and faculty jobs have declined and education programs have been cut.

Maybe a change in leadership is what EWU needs. L.S. Bise Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

At least filter kids’ Net access

Re: the Spokane public library’s Internet service and Diann Brown’s June 21 guest column, “Library’s sound policy beats questionable technology”:

N2H2 out of Seattle says its system can screen out 200,000 pornographic sites and it updates nightly. Isn’t it wiser to use this filtering package at the library than merely set up a kids’ home page?

Is the library board waiting for a perfect filtering system to be marketed before it will implement anything?

Library staffers should not be so naive as to think there has been only one violation in the last two years.

That one person lost Internet use privileges because of downloading, not because of what he was accessing.

There are no guidelines for librarians to rely on to determine if material is too sexually graphic. Theoretically, children and adults can be viewing images of rape, mutilation and child pornography at the public library as long as they are not causing a disturbance.

In fact, N2H2 reports that even schools with filters are finding that teens are attempting to access porn sites up to 700 times a day. Furthermore, a Staten Island, N.Y., newspaper reported that 12- and 13-year-old boys are accessing X-rated Web sites at their branch libraries. Who knows what they’re doing after they leave the library.

If the library would use a filter on at least the children’s terminals, the beneficial capacity of the Internet could be realized in an atmosphere free from public concern and free from destructive abuses. Kim A. Utke Spokane

See through weight-loss scams

Day after day, we read advertisements in the newspaper and magazines, hear them on the radio and see them on television. Buy this gadget or that potion or drug and, after using it for just 10 days, you’ll lose 10 pounds - or some other ridiculous claim.

Some people have real medical problems with weight loss. They have to (or should) go to a real doctor for proper treatment. But the majority of people simply don’t eat properly and don’t exercise. They look for a quick fix - a gadget to build washboard abs or a potion or drug to melt away fat and pounds. And the multimillion-dollar weight-loss and exercise scam operators get richer.

By heeding one short sentence, a lot of money can be saved: Simply eat properly and exercise.

You don’t have to spend money on gadgets. Get outside and walk, jog, ride a bike, do calisthenics. No potions or drugs are needed. Stop eating so much fat. In this modern age of health and fitness, it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out what’s needed to lose weight and become fit and healthy.

Without a good diet and vigorous exercise program, people open themselves up to many more health problems and an early trip to the undertaker.

So, keep your money in your pocket and take a walk in the park or on the trail. How about a chicken breast sandwich instead of that double meat cheeseburger? You’ll feel a whole lot better for it. George Britton Spokane

Fire occurred in 1949

The Man Gulch forest fire near the gates of the mountains north of Helena, Mont., occurred in the summer of 1949, not 1940 as reported in Ken Olson’s articulate account of smoke jumping and the current forest management debate that appeared in the June 22 issue of The Spokesman-Review.

Anyone who wishes to learn more about smoke jumping and the tragic Man Gulch fire, which claimed the lives of 12 young smoke jumpers, should read “Young Men and Fire,” a painstakingly on-site-researched account of the fire by the late Norman Maclean, author of the acclaimed “And a River Runs Through It.” Charles G. Cromwell Spokane