Newspapers / The Carolina Times (Durham, … / Jan. 31, 1976, edition 1 / Page 11
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Saturday, January 31, 1976 Cfag CflKflffig Section B a "- 1 : V ""Vv ''"-4 YOUNG KIDNEY TRANSPLANT PATIENT BROOKLYN,, N.Y.: Three-month-old, Alexander Kelly wails his discontent after receiving two kidneys from an infant donor which were flown by Navy jet from Virginia. Doctors at Downstate Medical Center performed the transplant operation. Dr. Donald Noel said his six-pound three-ounce patient was-one of the smallest and youngest persons ever to receive a transplant Alexander, whose prognosis before the operation was zero, was reported doing fine. (UPl) f Passage Of Senate Sill I Seen As Set Back To Civil Rights Gains With the second session of the 94 th Congress underway, we wish to sound the alarm to the Black community concerning Senate Bill 1 -the Criminal Justice Reform Act - now pending in the U. S. Senate. We are facing the possibility of a vote and passage of S. I in 1976. We feel its enactment would be a monumental set-back to the civil rights gains of the last 20 years, and a disaster to the rights of all Americans. WE BELIEVE S. I PROVIDES THE LEGISLATIVE BASIS FOR A POLICE STATE IN AMERICA. Yet most people know nothing about the repressive provisions of S. I. This is a dangerous situation. There must be a strong, organized outcry against attempts to pass this bill. We are calling on Black leaders and organizations, and all groups concerned with justice, to work now for defeat of S. I. All work for civil rights and justice is imperilled by this bill. We in the South especially sense its dangers. S. I would outlaw many of the methods of mass, nonviolent protest of the 1960's. It would encourage government harassment such as that directed against the late Dr. Martin Luther King by the FBI. S. I would silence press exposure of government secrets, and would turn concepts of criminal justice upside down. Black and minority people especially would lose by this bill's passage. We would face an ominous series of repressive laws in today's struggles: for justice if S. I were law. S. I was drafted -and introduced in its original form by the Nixon Administration. It would enshrine into law many of the repressive policies of that administration. S. I is now supported by President Ford, Senate Democratic leadej .Mike Mansfield and Republican leader Hugh Scott. Senate Bill I is the most dangerous legislative threat to the rights of all Americans perhaps ever to come before the U. S. Congress. Some feel its repressive sections can be taken out by amendment. We feel S. I is so filled with the repressive taint of the Nixon policies that amendments cannot save it. It must be killed in entirety. S. I's provisions on civil rights enforcement are better than current law. But it is not possible to buy good civil rights sections with a police state law. F urther, its mandatory death penalty, harsh prison terms and excessive sentences have no place in civilized law. PROVISIONS-. Under S. I, organizers and participants in protest demonstrations could be charged under "riot" provisions, charged with ' ' o bstruction of government functions" or even "instigating overthrow or destruction of government." Numerous sections infringing on rights to assembly and protest include 1 1 1 1, 1 1 12, 1 1 15, 1116, 1302, 1328, 1334, 1861, 1863, 1831, 1103, 1002, and 1003, 1833 and 1834. Under St. I, vast amounts of wiretapping would be authorized against the citizenry, under broad authority (Chapter 31). Wider lattitude for use of entrapment activities by government agents is provided (Sec. 551), as well as increased "contempt" penalties and use of "immunity" statutes frequently used against political dissidents (Sees. 1333,3111). S. I provides an "official secrets" sections which would allow the government to prosecute news media members, government workers and publishers who publicize secrets embarrassing to the government (Sec. 1121, 1 1 22, 1123, 1 124). "Official misstatement of law" and "public duty' sections would insulate public officials and government servants from prosecution for illegal activities, such as some of those involved in Watergate (Sees. 542, 544, 552). S. I provides for a MANDATORY DEATH PENALTY (Chapt. 24). The death penalty has always fallen hardest on poor, Black and minority people. This is especially so in the South - as the disproportionate share of Black and minority people on death row in North Carolina today shows. This is "cruel and unusual'' punishment for a select group of people, and it is inherently racist S. I provides mandatory, long
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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Jan. 31, 1976, edition 1
11
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