Barry hints at possible return to politics
*
WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Mayor Marion S. Barry, Jr., said
Saturday he may run for a seat on the District of Columbia Council.
Barry, 67, attended two funerals Saturday
- one for a 14-year-old girl shoe after appar
ently witnessing a killing, and the other for
James Richardson. 17, who was gunned down
inside Ballou High School.
At Richardson's funeral, the crowd broke
into loud applause and cheers when current
Mayor Anthony A. Williams mentioned his
presence in the church. After the services, sev
eral mourners stopped Barry and urged him to
run for the Ward 8 council seat. He said with
comments like that, he has to at least consider
the idea. .
"I gotta think about it. I thought I retired," Barry said. "We need
better schools, better police, streets cleaned, jobs for people out
there," he said of Ward 8, in the district's southeast quadrant, which is
! one of the poorest parts of the city. Barry said he has lived there since
1992, and remains extremely popular. At a community meeting at
Ballou on Tuesday, he was met with repeated applau>e.
Barry turns 68 next month. He won an at-large seat on the first
elected D.C. Council in 1975, and three years later ousted Walter
Washington, to begin the first of three consecutive terms as mayor.
In 1990, FBI agents videotaped him smoking crack cocaine in a
downtown hotel. After serving time in jail, Barry won a council seat
in 1 992, then a fourth term as mayor in 1 994. He has diabetes and ane
mia, aqd survived prostate cancer.
The Ward 8 seat is currently held by Sandy Allen, who is in her
second term and up for re-election this year.
Students find noose dangling in courtyard
TAMPA, Fla. ( AP) - Students at the University of South Florida
found a rope fashioned into a noose dangling from a tree beside a dor
mitory, and officials are trying to determine who put it there.
The noose was discovered on Jan. 30, in a courtyard beside the
500-student Magnolia Apartments, a popular gathering spot for stu
dents. Police are looking for more evidence before deciding whether
to call it a hate crime.
"We have nothing but a rope in a tree right now," said USF police
spokesman Mike Klingebiel. "We want to know what someone was
thinking when they did this. Depending on what is found, the univer
sity might have the right to take action."
There are more than 4,000 black students at USF, and some said
they have no doubt about the intended message. More than 35,000
students are enrolled at the school.
"When somebody sees a noose in this part of the country, for a
black person, it reminds them of hangings and lynchings," said
Emmanuel Cofie, 20, a junior from Tallahassee. "It reminds blacks of
that past." ?
Barry
Nurse who excelled during Crimean
War named greatest black Briton
LONDON (AP) - A nurse who comforted dying soldiers during
the Crimean War topped the voting as the greatest black Briton, a
British Web site said Monday.
The work of Mary Seacole (1805-1881)
has long been overshadowed by the contribu
tion of her contemporary Florence Nightin
gale.
But she led the poll by the black heritage
Web site "Every Generation," designed to
celebrate the contribution of black Britons.
Some 100,000 responded to the online vote
between Oct. 1 and Jan. 1 .
"The popularity and success of the cam
paign highlights the fact that black history in
Britain is intertwined with British history,"
said "Every Generation" founder Patrick Ver
non.
"As a black Jamaican woman in the 19th century, Mary Seacole
stood up against the discrimination and prejudices she encountered.
"Against all odds Mary had an unshakable belief in the power of
nursing to make a difference."
Seacole traveled to the Crimea on her own after the government
rejected her offer of help.
She opened her British Hotel in 1855. where soldiers dubbed her
"Mother Seacole," and she was later awarded a Crimean medal for
her work.
Seacole
U.S. denies visa to Cuban minister
for black history visit to Mobile, Ala.
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - A Baptist minister from Cuba who wa5 '
expected to speak in Mobile in connection with Black History Month
said he was denied a travel visa by the U.S.
State Department
The Rev. Raul Suarez, pastor of Ebenezer
Baptist Church in Havana, has canceled his
planned visit.
Suarez has received visas to visit the Unit
ed States several times over the past decade,
nfcst recently in 1999, he said. ?
Suarez was invited to Alabama by the
Society Mobile-La Habana, a Mobile-based
sister cities group. The visit, set between Feb. ?
14-20, was to have included speeches to local
civic groups and sermons at area churches. Suarez
Suarez. who serves as director of the Mar
tin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in Havana, also was scheduled
to walk a portion of the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail
and to tour Montgomery sites of significance in the Civil Rights
Movement.
Jay Higginbotham. chairman of Society Mobile's board of direc
tors. said he was told that the visa application was denied because
Suarez is a deputy on Cuba's National Assembly, or parliament.
State Department officials declined to comment on Suarez's
application, citing confidentiality rules.
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every Thursday by Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co.
Inc., 617 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101 . Peri
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scription price is $30.72."'
POSTMASTER. Send address changes to:
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Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636
Black, brown juveniles are much
more likely to face death penalty
BY HAZEL TRICE EDNEY
NNPA CORRESPONDENT '
WASHINGTON (NNPA) -
Although, blafck and browii juve
niles represent 21 percent ofthe
16- to 17 year-olds in America,
they represent more than triple
that proportion (66 percent) of alt
death row inmates sentenced as
juveniles.
"Why is this?" David Elliott,
spokesman for the National Coali
tion to Abolish the Death Penalty
(NCADP), asks rhetorically. "It's
because the death penalty preys
upon the most vulnerable in our
society."
The question of whether 16
and 17-year-olds should receive
the death penalty is receiving
increased scrutiny now that the
U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to
hear a Missouri case - Simmons
v. Roper - challenging the pend
ing execution of a man who was
17 at the time of his crime.
If the decision is overturned
later this year, it could spare the
lives of 34 African- Americans (45
percent); 24 whites (32
percent); 14 Latinos
(19 percent); and two
Asians (2 percent) cur
rently on death row for
crimes (committed
when they were juve
niles, according to the
Death Penalty Informa
tion Center, based in
Washington, D.C.
The number of 16
and 17-year-old juve- KO
niles of color in the
United States totals 2.6 million,
less than half of the 5.5 million
whites in same age category. Yet,
the percentage of juveniles .of
color on death row stands at 66
percent while the percentage of
white juveniles is less than half of
that - 32 percent. Whites ?pre
sent 43.4 percent of
the 16- and 17-year
old population in the
United States.
"You already start
off having a racial dis
parity with the people
on death row (gener
ally of all ages) being
55 percent people of
color," said David
Elliott, spokesman for
the National Coali
tion to Abolish the Death Penalty.
"Then, when you look at the mar
ginalized groups - the mentally
retarded, juveniles - you find
increased evidence of racial bias."
Across the country, anti-death
penalty organizations have been
energized by the Supreme Court's
decision to hear an appeal of a
Missouri Supreme Court ruling.
The defendant, Christopher Sim
mons. now 27. was 17 when he
murdered a woman who recog
nized him when he and a 15-year
old companion burglarized her
house.
The Missouri Supreme Court
ruled 4-3 to overturn his death
sentence because of his age, not
ing that file executions of "juve
niles have become so rare that
they constitute cruel and unusual
punishment, a violation of the 8th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitu
tion.
' ' Individuals under the age of
18 cannot voce, cannot serve in
the military ithout their parents'
permission, cannot purchase
liquor, and. in the state of
Louisiana, they cannot witness an
execution unless they are the on?
being put to death." said William
F. Schulz. executive director of
Amnesty International USA.
"Society recognizes the dimin
ished accountability of those
under the age of 18 in (every)
aspect of civil life but this one."
Society traditionally does not
kill the young Because the general
belief is that they may not know
the difference between right and
wrong. In 1988, the Supreme
Court ruled it illegal to execute
anyone under the age of 16. In
See Juveniles on A4
Officer who slammed teen off the hook
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES - After
two trials that ended in hung
juries, prosecutors dropped
brutality charges Friday
Jgainst a former police officer
who was
video
taped
slam
ming a
h a n d -
cuffed
teenager
onto a
patrol
car.
PfOSr
Jackson e c u t o r s
said they
did not believe they could get
a unanimous verdict in a third
trial for former "inglewood
Officer Jeremy Morse.
Superior Court Judge
William Hollingsworth Jr.
agreed.
"I'm convinced that the
chances of reaching a unani
mous decision either way is
virtually nil. The case is dis
missed," Hollingsworth said.
Last
week, a
jury
dead
locked 6
6. In July,
jurors in
the first
trial
dead
locked 7
5 in favor
Morse of con
viction.
Morse, 26, who is white,
was seen on the tape slamming
a black teen, Donovan Jack
son, onto the trunk of a police
car and punching him in the
face at a gas station in 2002.
The videotape was shot by
a bystander. Although race
was never mentioned in the
trials, the image of-^a WBile
officer roughing "dp a blacE
youth touched off aasry
protests in Inglewood.
Morse was later fired. It
was not immediately known
whether he would seek rein
statement.
Morse's attorney, John
Barnett. said the key to the
case was testimony from vari
INDEX
OPINION. .A6
SPORTS. Bl
RELIGION. 85
CLASSIFIEDS B8
HEALTH. C3
ENTERTAINMENT.. ,.C7
CAUNDAR. C9
ous law enforcement officials
that the use of force was justi
fied.
"All of those people spoJ;e
with one voice and said the
actions were appropriate,"
Barnett said. "My client is
relieved, as am 1, that there
won't be further prosecution."
The confrontation occurred
after Jackson's father was
pulled over by Los Angeles
County sheriff!s deputies for
driving a car with expired
tags.
Jackson's family said the
teenager, then 16, may have
responded slowly to officers'
orders because he has a learn
ing disability.
Morse's attorney argued
that his client had to make a
quick decision about how
much force was needed to sub
due a suspect who had already
fought with other officers.
IV furls T ? c s 1 S-i IS T < > f IT rest f^fo iisl
I' in ("ess i ( ? i) ;i I \ lic:if ic ( ompnny
I lie North Carolina Black Repcrfon C0.1
PRKSt V I >
l?OI?\ ( . W. BUOH\
and (lie
IILiCK JIOItAYIW*
Written. Produced. Directed, and Starring
Larnf Lean Hamlin
"A Tribute fo flic Original Black Moravians
and
Sainf Philips Moravian Church"
February 20 & 21 8:00 pm
February 22 3:00 pm
Arfs Corj'Wfj Theatre
610 CoIfSSurn flf rive
Adults ?$ \ 5,00
Children/Sr, r'lfizens $10,00
Call (336) 723-2266
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