Shepard trial moves to second day
by Steven K. Paulson
Associated Press 1
Laramie, Wvo. — Matthew Shepard was struck
at least 20 times, the blows raining down so hard
that they fractured his skull a half-dozen times, a
coroner testified today.
“Matthew Shepard died as a result of the blunt
trauma injuries he sustained to his head and
face,” said Patrick Allen, coroner for Colorado’s
Larimer County, where Shepard died.
Some jurors winced as they viewed graphic
photos of the homosexual college student’s injuries,
including his bloodied face and ear.
Allen testified as the trial of Aaron McKin
ney entered a second day in the Albany County
Courthouse. He‘s accused of kidnapping, robbery
and first-degree murder.
Defense attorneys have said McKinney was
guilty of manslaughter, but have argued that his
judgment was affected by drugs, alcohol and child
hood memories of sexual abuse.
On Monday, jurors saw pictures of the pon
derosa pine fence where Shepard was left to die,
his hands tied behind his back, and the pool of blood
caused by blows as he fought his attackers.
Shepard’s mother, Judy, dabbed her eyes when
prosecutors showed jurors the graphic photos while
McKinney’s father, William, bowed his head. McK
inney barely glanced up.
“Matthew Shepard made a frail attempt to fight
back,” said prosecutor Cal Rerucha during open
ing statements Monday. “McKinney struck him as
hard as he could”
Defense attorneys countered that McKinney,
who faces the death penalty, didn’t intend to kill
Shepard when he and a friend accompanied Shep
ard from a Laramie bar after he asked McKinney
for a ride home.
The 21-year-old University of Wyoming fresh
man was driven to a remote area, pistol-whipped
and left overnight in near-freezing temperatures.
The defense portrayed McKinney as the vic
tim of sexual abuse who lashed out when approached
for a gay encounter. McKinney’s judgment that
night was affected by alcohol, methamphetamines
and “some sexually traumatic and confusing events
in his life,” defense attorney Jason Tangeman told
jurors.
Tangeman said McKinney, 22, was confused by
homosexual encounters when he was younger. In
one case, McKinney was forced into an oral sex
act with a neighborhood bully, Tangeman said.
“Did Matthew Shepard deserve to die? No,
that’s ridiculous. No manslaughter victim deserved
to die,” he said. “That’s what Aaron McKinney is
guilty of — manslaughter. ”
McKinney has been chaiged with first-degree
murder, kidnapping and robbery.
’The trial of the other man accused of the slay
ing that shocked the nation, Russell Henderson,
ended in April just before a jury was seated. Hen
derson pleaded guilty to felony murder and kid
napping and was sentenced to life in prison. The
plea allowed Henderson to avoid the death penal
ty
On Monday, prosecutors called their first three
witnesses: Aaron Kreifels, the college student who
found Shepard; Charles Dolan, the neighbor who
tried to help; and Albany County Deputy Reggie
Fluty, who said she told the barely breathing vic
tim, “Baby, I’m so sorry this happened.”
Kreifels and Dolan described efforts to free
Shepard from the fence, his hands tied to the bot
tom of a post. Fluty said it appeared that Shepard
had been crying. Shepard was taken to a hospital,
where he died five days later.
China arrests more protesters
on Tiananmen Square
by John Leichster
Associated Press
Bbjng—Chinese police detained dozens of Falun
Gopg ^riiitual movement members Tuesday, pulling
them into police vans after they staged a second
day of civil disobedience in Tiananmen Square to
protest a government ban on their group.
The low-key protest, which participants knew
assured their arrests, showed that the Communist
government's three-month crackdown ami its cam
paign of vilification against Falun Gong leaders has
yet to eradicate the popular movement.
A New Yoric-based spokeswoman for the group
claimed that police officers have arrested about
1,000 members over the past few days, a report
that couldn’t be independently verified
On Tuesday, police took at least 36 people from
the square, often in batches of six or more. They
included middle-aged or older women and a mid
dle-aged man who was forced into a van along with
seven women and teen-agers.
By gathering in clumps amid the throngs of
tourists on Tiananmen Square, the protesters hoped
to highlight their disapproval of a proposed law
against Falun Gong and other groups China’s com
munist leaders view as dangerous cults. The na
tional legislature is reviewing the law this week
at the Great Hall of the People beside Tiananmen
Square.
Fouce officers in street ciotnes aistmguisnea
the Falun Gong adherents from Chinese tourists in
the vast square by quietly asking people if they
came to protest Those who answered “yes” were
quickly detained
Gail Rachiin, the New York-based spokeswoman
for Falun Gong, said the protesters “just want to
have the government understand them.”
“All they want to do is meditate,” she said.
Falun Gong adherents were taken away after
similar acts at Tiananmen Square on Monday. A
Wfeb site run by the group said police beat and de
tained a dozen followers who unfurled a Rdun Gong
banner.
Rachlin said two members jumped to their dearlis
from a train after being detained in Beijing and tor
tured. One was still handcuffed, Rachlin said.
Without directly addressing the allegations of
mistreatment and mass arrests, Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue defended the
•crackdown on Falun Gong as lawful.
“It is an illegal organization that constitutes a
cult,” Zhang said. “The oiganization has upset
social order and has damaged the health of practi
tioners.”
President Jiang Zemin likened Falun Gong to
groups like the Branch Davidians in the United
States and Jean’s Aum Shinri Kyo. The Davidi
ans’ 51-day standoff with the FBI in 1993 ended
with the deaths of 81 sect members; Aum killed
12 people and sickened thousands with a 1995 poi
son gas attack on the Tokyo subway.
“No responsible government should let such
cult activities go unchecked,” Jiang, who is on a
two-week foreign tour, told the French newspaper
T /a Pi aum
Falun Gong was founded by a former govern
ment clerk who now lives in the United States. Its
blend of traditional meditation, slow-motion ex
ercises and Buddhist and Taoist ideas is said to pro
mote health and morality. It had a wide following
throughout much of China, particularly among re
tirees, the unemployed and others who have
trouble affording medical care.
Poll: Gore makes gains
against Bradley, Bush
Staff Reports ^
Associated Press
Washngton — Vice President A1 Gore widened^
his lead against Democratic presidential rival^
Bill Bradley and gained ground on Republican
front-runner Geoige W. Bush in a poll released
Monday.
Gore has stretched his lead over Bradley, a f
former New Jersey senator, to 25 points — 57 ’
percent to 32 percent in the CNN/USA To
day/Gallup poll.
Bradley had narrowed the national margin
in that same poll to 12 points earlier this
month.
He has been running even with Gore in re
cent state polls in key locations like Iowa, New
Hampshire and New York.
Gore, who last month moved his campaign
from Washington to Nashville, Tenn., and shook
up his campaign staff, also closed the gap on Bush,
the poll showed.
Gore narrowed a head-to-head matchup from
16 points behind Bush earlier this month to 9
points down — 52 percent to 43 percent. Bush
was 15 points ahead of Bradley, 54 percent to 39
percent.
If Pat Buchanan is included in the mix as a
Reform Party candidate, Gore trails Bush by 6
percentage points, 48 percent to 42 percent.
Buchanan would get 5 percent of the vote in that
hypothetical race.
Buchanan made his switch to the Reform Par
ty official Monday.
.T.T-T.T.1
i
By a 3-1 maigin, Republicans and those lean
ing Republican said his Reform candidacy would
hurt the GOP rather than help them, 37 percent
to 12 percent.
The poll asked whether people would prefer
to see Pat Buchanan or businessman Donald Trump
win the Reform Party nomination and, by a wide
maigin, Americans want Buchanan to get the nod,
48 percent to 29 percent.
When the question is asked only of Reform
Party supporters, Buchanan gets an even wider
maigin of support.
Bush had a wide lead over his Republican
rivals for the nomination, 66 percent to 11 per
cent for Sen. John McCain of Arizona and 7 per
cent for businessman Steve Forbes.
The remaining candidates were in the low
single digits.
The telephone survey of 1,005 Americans
was taken Oct. 21 -24 and has an error maigin of
plus or minus 3 percentage points, higher for sub
groups.
Nation Briefs
■ Explosive device
injures three at MIT
Cambridge, Mass. (AP)—An explo
sive device blew up in the hand of a stu
dent dressed as the Grim Reaper in a lec
ture hall at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology on Tuesday, injuring him
and two other people.
The explosion apparently was a prank
gone awry, MIT spokesman Bob Sales
said. The student was part of a group from
the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity who
had been promoting a Halloween party.
As they walked through the aisle of
the lecture hall during an engineering
class, the device exploded in the 18-year
old student’s hand. It was intended to have
been simply a flash of light, school offi
cials said.
The student, whose name wasn’t
released, was hospitalized in fair condi
tion. Two others were treated at the MIT
infirmary.
The building was evacuated and the
police bomb squad called in.
■ Seventy hurt in
school bus accident
Sullivan, I no, (AP)—A semi-trailer rig
slammed into a school bus at a railroad
crossing today, shoving it into the bus in
front of it and seriously injuring at least
three people. Dozens of others had bumps
and bruises.
The accident happened about 8 a.m.
about 25 miles south of Terre Haute in
the southern part of the state.
Two buses were carrying about 60
Vincennes Lincoln High School students,
most of them special education students
in grades 9 to 12, said Tom Mandon, busi
ness manager for Vincennes schools. There
were also two teachers and as many as 10
chaperones on board, as well as the bus
es’ drivers, he said.
The buses were stopped, one be
hind the other at a railroad crossing, when
the truck struck the rear of the second
bus, driving it into the first bus, Man
don said.
All of the people involved in the
accident were taken to hospitals, Lt Mark
Hartman of the Indiana State Police said.
He said at least three of roughly 70 peo
ple were seriously hurt and the others on
board suffered bumps and bruises.
The buses were carrying the students
on an outing at the Children’s Museum
in Indianapolis.
■ Two dead
in San Jose police
helicopter crash
San Jose, Caur (AP) — A police
man was hailed as a hero after he appar
ently steered his spinning helicopter to
the only vacant spot in a heavily con
gested area, dying in the crash along with
his passenger, an aircraft mechanic.
“The pilot purposely pushed the [he
licopter] into the ground because it was
his only choice to avoid the inhabitants,”
said Police Chief Bill Lansdowne. The
copter came to rest Monday near on
ramps to busy 1-880.
Neither the pilot nor the mechanic
were identified by police, pending noti
fication of their relatives.
Witnesses said the police heli
copter, which was grounded over the
weekend, was spinning before it crashed.
Others said it appeared to be smoking at
the back as people on the ground ran
for cover.
“We heard a noise, a popping
sound. It looked like it lost its rear ro
tor,” witness Robert Mannia said.
Lansdowne said he didn’t know why
the 5-year-old helicopter had been ground
ed over the weekend.
rfl ■*
Mitsubishi Motors to cut more than 9,000 jobs
by Yuri Kageya m a
Associated Press
TOKYO—Its profits slashed by slumping sales, Mit
subishi Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will cut 9,900
more jobs in the next five years, trimming its work
force by 11 percent from last year.
The announcement from the ailing Japanese
automaker comes amid restructuring among other
top Japanese companies, including Nissan Motor
Co., now 37 percent owned by France’s Renault
SA. Mitsubishi’s announcement didn’t specify what
-m--* m m
types of workers will be cut or ffonj where.
Analysts said the job reductions were neces
sary to ensure Mitsubishi’s comeback.
“Mitsubishi is undergoing restructuring at home
and in the unprofitable operations abroad, so job
cuts were definitely inevitable,” said Noriyuki Mat
sushima, auto analyst for Nikko Salomon Smith
Barney in Tokyo.
Faced with poor sales in Japan and the rest of
Asia, Mitsubishi posted its first-ever earnings loss
in the fiscal year ending March 31,1998. The com
pany then began restructuring, and Mitsubishi re
bounded to a slight profit the following fiscal year.
The job cuts are part of that restructuring plan.
By March 2004, Mitsubishi Motors’ total work
force will be reduced to 78,900 employees from
88,800 last year. In fiscal 1998, the company cut
2,500jobs. The reductions will be achieved main
ly through attrition, including hiring fewer peo
ple and encouraging early retirement.
Earlier this month, Mitsubishi Motors announced
it was forging an alliance with Sweden’s Volvo AB
in an effort to strengthen its truck business. In
that agreement, Volvo will buy a 5 percent stake
in Mitsubishi, while Mitsubishi will buy up to 5
percent of Volvo by the end of 2002.
The deal is part of a wave of increasing foreign
involvement in Japan’s auto sector, which is
striving to become more globally competitive.
Nissan has said it will trim 21,000 employees
worldwide, or 14 percent of its work force, although
it has also promised not to resort to massive lay
offs. ^
Mass layoffs, typical in Western-style corpo
rate restructuring, are extremely rare in Japan.
-t •*
Illinois governor says Luban embargo snould go
by Anita Snow
Associated Press
Havana — Illinois Gov. George Ryan
says he favors an end to U.S. economic
sanctions against communist Cuba, but
that doesn’t mean he supports Fidel Cas
tro’s government.
. “Forty years of communist rule has
left its mark,” Ryan said after meeting
Monday with Cuban dissidents.
He said opposition leaders told him
that “the problem with Cuba is Fidel Cas
tro.”
Just as the Cuban government sure
ly welcomed Ryan’s call for an end to the
embargo, his meeting with Cuba’s bet
ter-known dissidents and public criticism
of the communist system were certain to
sting.
Cuba’s state-controlled media de
picted Ryan’s five-day trip — the first by
a U.S. governor since the 1959 revolu
tion — as a reflection of growing U.S.
opposition to the trade embaigo. Cuban
officials have increasingly reached out to
American officials who have no con
nection to Miami and Washington — the
two U.S. places where resistance to end
ing the sanctions is strongest.
“The dissidents we met with told us
that lifting the embaigo was the right way
to go,” Ryan said.
The governor said that four ambas
sadors told him during a separate meet
ing that “the embaigo should be lifted,
not only for the harm it does to the Cuban
people but because it gives an excuse for
Fidel Castro.”
Critics of the sanctions have long said
Castro uses the embaigo as a scapegoat
to deflect blame for Cuba’s economic ills.
However, the embaigo, imposed in
1962 to punish Castro’s government, has
strong support in the United States
from a politically influential faction of
Miami’s Cuban exile community.
Ryan received criticism from some
Cuban Americans for making the trip to
Cuba.
Ryan, a first-term Republican, stressed
that his visit was simply to “build bridges”
with the Cuban people.
The Cuban government has placed
much importance on the visit.
As of Thesday, Ryan hadn’t met with
the Cuban president, but it was expect
ed that he would before returning home
today.
Ryan on Monday met with the am
bassadors from Canada, Switzerland, Cos
ta Rica and Germany at the gated home
of the new chief of the U.S. mission to
Cuba, Vicki Huddleston.
Also at the residence, he met sepa
rately with some of Cuba’s most promi
nent dissidents, including Hizando Sanchez,
Jesus Yanez and Osvaldo Paya.
“We want change with or without
the embargo/’ Sanchez said later during
a rare public meeting of dissidents with
foreign reporters at a Havana restau
rant.
Sanchez, a longtime human rights ac
tivist, welcomed Ryan’s trip because it
promoted the idea of “a normal rela
tion between the two countries instead
of this Cold War mentality.”
Ryan also visited a children’s hospi
tal Monday, where he presented a do
nation of medical supplies.
His delegation was delivering more
than $1 million in humanitarian aid dur
ing its five-day visit.
Today’s schedule called for a visit to
an agricultural cooperative. v
Ryan described the children’s hospi
tal as “pretty stark, pretty bad.”
“They cannot do the surgeries they
need to do because they don’t have the
equipment they need, the drugs,” the gov
ernor said.
“We are here to help the children and
people of Cuba. They should not be used
as a diplomatic weapon.”
Special to The Gamecock
Left to right, Illinois Gov. George Ryan, Illinois Agriculture Secretary
Joe Hampton and Cuban Agriculture Minister Alfredo Jordan Morales
tour the countryside near Havana on Tuesday. Ending the trade
embargo against Cuba would benefit Americans as much as it would
benefit Cubans, Ryan said.