The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 19, 2003, Page 7, Image 7
Hark
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Schunter’s sentiment.
“Everyone I’ve talked to thought
it was ridiculous”’ said Eisel, who
appears on Hark’s Web site.
And Sen. Bill Vigen, who also ap
pears on the Web site, expressed a
desire to be done with the matter.
“I wish we can get over this,”.
Vigen said.
After the meeting adjourned,
Hark said he was upset that he
couldn’t speak before the Senate.
“The big issue here is that does
Hazel Matthews realize that peo
1 pie can disagree?” Hark said.
For her part, Matthews said
the senate’s response was
disheartening.
“I seriously feel that the senate
does not understand what I’m try
ing to say,” Matthews said after the
meeting. She said Hark behaves
like he’s not afraid of anything.
“He feels that he’s invincible,”
sh§ said, and added, “He said he’d
abide by the Carolinian Creed, and
he’s not doing that.”
But Hark said the Carolina
Creed is what protects his rights to
own and operate a private Web site.
Comments on this story?E-mail
gamecockudesk@hotmail.com
1 intended to kill them all,’ Malvo said
on taoe: Muhammad awaits sentencing
■ I
BY SONJA BARISIC
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHESAPEAKE, VA. - In a chill
ing audiotape played for the jury
Tuesday, a soft-spoken Lee Boyd
Malvo told police he pulled the
trigger in all of the sniper attacks
that terrified the Washington area
last fall.
“I intended to kill them all,”
said Malvo, then 17.
In nearby Virginia Beach,
meanwhile, a jury heard more ev
idence Tuesday on whether John
Allen Muhammad should get the
death penalty for masterminding
the attacks. Muhammad was con
victed Monday in the murder of
Dean Harold Meyers, killed as he
filled his tank at a gas station.
Malvo, now 18, is on trial on
charges of murdering FBI analyst
Linda Franklin, who was cut
down by a bullet outside a Home
Depot. He could get the death
penalty if convicted. Ten people
died and three were wounded dur
ing the three-week sniper spree
in Washington, Maryland and
Virginia.
A little more than an hour of
the tape was played for jurors,
who were given transcripts be
cause the sound was poor and
Malvo’s voice was soft. Several
times, Malvo’s interrogator,
Samuel Walker, a detective with
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tllv 1 1 111V/C
William County
police depart
ment, is heard
asking Malvo to
speak up.
When the offi
cer asked Malvo
whether he
saueezed the trie
ger in all the shootings, Malvo
first responded, “Basically, yeah.”
Asked to clarify, Malvo said,
“In all of them.”
Walker focused on the Meyers
slaying, eliciting through a series
of questions that Malvo shot
Meyers in the head because
Meyers was standing sideways.
“His body twisted this way, so I
couldn’t get a body shot,” Malvo
said.
Walker testified Tuesday that
he questioned Malvo on Nov. 7,
Malvo, who could get
the death penalty if
convicted, told police
he pulled the trigger in
all of the Washington,
D.C., sniper attacks.
2002—two weeks after Malvo and
Muhammad were arrested — and
“marveled at how intelligent he
was.”
He also said that Malvo was
candid and cooperative and never
appeared to be out of contact with
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the conversa
tion, which
lasted an hour
and 40 min
utes.
Malvo’s
lawyers con
tend Malvo is
innocent bv
reason of insanity because he was
brainwashed by Muhammad.
Under cross-examination by
defense attorney Craig Cooley,
Walker acknowledged that Malvo
made some mistakes in his con
fession to the Meyers shooting,
getting the color and size of
Meyers’ car and the location of
the head wound wrong.
On the tape, Malvo said that
the shootings were done for mon
- ey, but that he and Muhammad
were not desperate. Authorities
have said the shootings were in
tended to terrorize the nation’s
capital area and extort $10 million
from the government.
At one point, Malvo said there
was no reason to cooperate be
cause “the only thing I would
want is my time, my freedom.” He
also said at one point: “I’m never
going to be set free.”
In the penalty phase of
Muhammad’s trial, a rabbi from
Tacoma, Wash., testified about
how his synagogue was shot up
during Saturday services in May
2002. Prosecutors say Muhammad
and Malvo committed the shoot
ing.
Earl Lee Dancy of Tacoma,
Wash., who let Muhammad and
Malvo stay at his home, testified
that Muhammad often made anti
Semitic statements.
“He said Jewish people were
dirty people,” Dancy testified.
While the two watched a TV pro
gram on the Holocaust,
Muhammad told Dancy that “he
actually respected Hitler in a way
because he basically tried to elim
inate them.”
Massachusetts court rules ban on
gay marriage is unconstitutional
BY JENNIFER PETER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOSTON - In the nation’s most
far-reaching decision of its kind,
Massachusetts’ highest court de
clared Tuesday that the state con
stitution guarantees gay couples
the right to marry — a ruling cel
ebrated with a popping of cham
pagne corks and the planning of
spring weddings.
“Without a doubt, this is the
happiest day of our lives,” said
Gloria Bailey, who with her part
ner of 32 years was among the sev
en gay couples who had sued the
state in 2001 for refusing to issue
them marriage licenses.
In its 4-3 decision, the Supreme
Judicial Court gave the
Legislature six months to rewrite
the state’s marriage laws for the
benefit of gay couples.
Although courts in other states
have issued similar rulings, some
legal experts said this one goes fur
ther in its emphatic language and
appears to suggest that gay cou
ples should be offered nothing less
than marriage itself, not just a
lesser alternative such as civil
unions, which are available in
Vormnnt
The ruling was another mile
stone in a year that has seen a sig
nificant expansion of gay rights
around the world, including a
U.S. Supreme Court decision in
June striking a Texas ban on gay
sex. Canadian courts also legal
ized gay marriage over the sum
mer.
“We declare that barring an in
dividual from the protections,
benefits, and obligations of civil
marriage solely because that per
son would marry a person of the
same sex violates the
Massachusetts Constitution,”
Chief Justice Margaret Marshall
wrote.
The dissenting justices argued
that the court was treading on law
makers’ territory. “Today, the
court has transformed its role as
protector of rights into the role of
creator of rights, and I respectfully
dissent,” Justice Francis Spina
wrote.
The decision prompted complex
legal questions about the next step
and about when the nation’s first
gay marriage licenses will be is
sued, if ever.
Republican Gbv. Mitt Romney
denounced the ruling but said
there is little the state could do be
yond pursuing a constitutional
amendment.
“I agree with 3,000 years of
recorded history. I disagree with
the Supreme Judicial Court of
Massachusetts,” he said.
“Marriage is an institution be
tween a man and a woman... and
our constitution and laws should
reflect that.”
But the soonest a constitutional
amendment could be put on the
ballot is 2006, potentially opening a
window of a few years in which
gay marriage licenses could be
granted.
Vermont’s high court issued a
similar decision in 1999 but told
the Legislature that it could al
low gay couples to marry or cre
ate a similar institution that con
fers all the rights and benefits of
marriage. Lawmakers chose the
second route, leading to the ap
proval of civil unions in that
state.
The Massachusetts decision
makes no mention of such an al
ternative and instead points to a
recent decision in Canada that
changed the common-law defini
tion of marriage to include same
sex couples and led to marriage li
censes being issued there.
The state “has failed to identi
fy any constitutionally adequate
reason for denying civil marriage
to same-sex couples,” the court
wrote, adding that denying gays
the right to marry deprives them
“of membership in one of our com
munity’s most rewarding and
cherished institutions.”
Still, legal experts pointed out
that the wording leaves it unclear
whether the court would accept an
alternative to marriage.
“It’s poorly drafted in that they
are going to create all of this con
troversy about what they meant,”
said Paul Martinek, editor of
Lawyers Weekly USA.
Massachusetts Rep. Barney
Frank, who is openly gay, said the
decision “will enhance the lives
of probably thousands, maybe
tens of thousands, of
Massachusetts citizens and will
have no negative effects on any
one else.”
House Speaker Thomas
Finneran, a Boston Democrat op
posed to gay marriages, said he
would reserve comment on the de
cision until after reviewing it.
Finneran is perhaps the most
powerful politician in the state,
and he could set the course for the
debate.
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