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Open Meetings Lawsuit Against UNC to Head to Court
By Jessica Joye
Staff Writer
A student who applied for in state res
ident status is alleging a University com
mittee shut the doors to her case illegally,
and now the battle will go to court in two
weeks.
Junior Tait Davidson has filed a law
suit against UNC’s Residence Status
Committee, alleging it did not adhere to
the North Carolina Open Meetings Law
in a November ruling.
Tar Heels, Vols to Duel in Texas
Tennessee's Black,
Haywood Exchange
Shots Through Press
By Brian Murphy
Senior Writer
AUSTIN, Texas - If Tennessee’s CJ. Black is as good on
the court as he is at a press conference, North Carolina might
be in trouble.
Black, a 6-foot-8 center, brought his “A” game to
Thursday’s pregame press conference
for Friday’s South Regional and gave
warning to UNC’s Brendan Haywood.
“I can play inside or outside,” Black
said. “He’s going to have to respect me.
I’m going to test his quickness out on the
floor. He will have to respect me fully. If
he doesn’t respect my jumper, I’m going
to have a career night."
Black, averaging 9.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game,
didn’t wait until he arrived in Austin to disparage Haywood.
In Wednesday’s edition of The (Nashville) Tennessean, Black
questioned Haywood’s heart.
Haywood, who had seen Black’s
comments, said he thought they
were a joke. But then Tar Heel for
wardjulius Peppers printed them off
the Internet.
“I read it. If that’s what he feels, fine. We’ll see Friday,”
Haywood said. “They like to talk a lot. If they get a little layup,
they’re jumping around and getting hype.”
But Haywood, who said Black’s comments would make it
to the Tar Heel bulletin board, wouldn’t get into a war of
words with Black.
“Coach Guthridge is not going to let us put anything like
that in the paper,” he said.
The verbal jousting adds to what should be the most impor
tant matchup in tonight’s game. Haywood and the rest of UNC’s
imposing frontline present a challenge for the smaller Volunteers.
Black will be primarily responsible for guarding Haywood.
But he will get plenty of help from Tennessee’s guards cheat
ing down and from reserves, like the 6-11 Charles Hathaway
and 6-10 Marcus Haislip.
“We might double down,” Black said. “We just want to
make it tough for him.”
Tennessee does have experience guarding big men, such as
Auburn’s Mamadou N’diaye and Jamaal Magloire of
Kentucky. But the Tar Heels, with 6-11 Kris lang at power for-
See MEN'S BASKETBALL, Page 2
Death Row
Survivor
Shares Tale
Former Death Row inmate
Darby Tillis spent nine years
in an Illinois prison before
he was cleared and released.
By Kate Macek
Staff Writer
Imagine being wrongly accused of
murder, tried, convicted and sentenced
to death. After spending nine years in
prison, freedom is finally awarded but
without compensation.
This is Darby Tillis’ reality.
He spent more than four years on
death row and was finally released in
1987. Now at age 57, he has learned to
funnel his frustration into a productive
fight against capital punishment.
Tillis shared his experiences with
Davidson applied for in state status
for the fall 1999 term and was denied
this request for unspecified reasons by
the Residence Status Committee, which
holds its meetings under the N.C. Open
Meetings Law of 1971.
According to that statute, any public
body hearing, deliberation or action must
be conducted openly.
A 1997 Senate bill amended the law,
saying that committees are required to
“keep a general account of the closed ses
sion so that a person not in attendance
Coach Guthridge
Deals With Loss
Of His Mother
See Page 9
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Greg Pettis, a member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, leads
a chant of "They say death row, we say hell no! * Thursday night.
UNC students, faculty and community
members Thursday night in a program
sponsored by the Campaign to End the
Death Penalty.
Still charged over the injustice he suf
fered, Tillis told the Manning Hall audi
ence of the racism and corruption he
said penetrated the judicial system and
the institution of the death penalty.
“In my first television interview, 1
Winning isn't the most important thing. It's the only thing.
Red Saunders
would have a reasonable understanding
of what transpired.”
The Residence Status Committee’s
Nov. 22 meeting was permissibly closed
to the public, although Davidson and her
attorney, Brad lamb, were present along
with the three committee members.
But after 55 minutes of discussion and
presentation of evidence, Davidson and
Lamb were asked to leave as the com
mittee reviewed the evidence, lamb said.
The committee then sent a letter Nov.
23 communicating that Davidson’s
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DTH/MILLER PEARSALL
North Carolina fon/vard Kris Lang, center, vies for a rebound against Missouri forward Kareem Rush (21) and
center Tajudeen Soyoye during the Tar Heels' first-round victory. Lang has 21 points in two tournament games.
was asked five times if I was angry. 1
wasn’t angry,” Tillis said. “But after 13
years of watching the same thing hap
pen to other men, I’m angry as hell.”
Prior to Tillis’ speech, death row
inmate Stanley Howard joined the pro
gram from Chicago via telephone.
Howard is a member of the Death Row
See TILLIS, Page 2
Friday, March 24, 2000
Volume 108, Issue 18
request had been denied by a two-to-one
vote. Lamb said. The only record the
letter provided of what happened in
Davidson and lamb's absence was that
the committee “reviewed the evidence
and decided the appellant had not met
the requirements for in state status.”
Lamb said both he and his client felt
this letter provided an inaccurate descrip
tion of the closed part of the meeting.
“We didn’t have a grasp on why they
decided against us,” Lamb said.
He said the committee’s failure to accu
Local Bars Gear Up
For Game-Time Suds
By Jenny Rosser
Staff Writer
With the North Carolina men’s bas
ketball team’s unexpected showing in
tonight’s game, local watering holes are
preparing for the influx of fans into
every place with a television and beer.
Harold Baines, an employee of
Goodfellows, located at 149-1/2 E.
Franklin St., said the bar was well-pre
pared for the expected crowds looking
for a place to watch the UNC-Tennessee
NCAA matchup.
“The (Budweiser) guys are on stand
by if we win,” Baines said.
He said the bar would have normal
hours tonight, but that Sunday hours
could change depending on the game.
Jim Couch, manager of BW-3
Restaurant, located at 206 W. Franklin
St., said game time influenced the
amount of business generated.
He said earlier games were often bet
ter for business because people who
ratelv record minutes was in violation of
the law and affected Davidson’s know!
edge of whether to pursue future appeals.
Davidson’s lawsuit asks the Orange
County Superior Court to declare the
decision null and void, to provide her
with anew hearing and for the commit
tee to be ordered to comply with the
record keeping requirements of the
Open Meetings Act.
Davidson could not be reached for
comment Thursday.
Lamb filed the petition Jan. 6. It was
Teasley Leaves
Postseason Foes
In Her Tracks
Point guard Nikki Teasley amassed six points
and four assists in her nine possessions,
using a play UNC called the "Baseline."
By T. Nolan Hayes
Sports Editor
OXNARD, Calif. - Playing good defense against most
teams allows you to force them to rush up a low-percentage
shot as the shot clock expires.
That leads to success.
But playing good defense against North Carolina often
earns you a one-on-one matchup with
Nikki Teasley.
That leads to embarrassment.
When the Tar Heels cycle through
one of their halfcourt sets and fail to get
a good shot from it, Teasley goes to get
the ball. She waves her four teammates
away, and they line up on the baseline in
a 1-4 alignment with about 10 seconds
left on the shot clock.
Then the show begins.
Teasley goes to work on her defender - or defenders -and
either sets up a teammate for an open shot or creates-one for
herself. The play, which the Tar Heels call “Baseline,” is suc
cessful more often than not and serves as a get-out-of-jail-free
card during times when UNC struggles to get a good shot.
“It’s been said throughout the country that nobody can guard
me one-on-one,” said Teasley, whose ankle-breaking cross-over
dribble has made some defenders trip and fall on the floor this
year. “Not being cocky or anything, but I have a lot of confi
dence in myself, and I believe in that So when I’ve got the ball,
I just score whichever way I can.
“Now, people are bringing two and three guards up to help,
and that’s just leaving people open, so that’s fine with me. I’ve
got confidence in my teammates that they’ll knock the shots
dowm, and that’s just racking up assists for me.”
The decision of how to guard Teasley, who celebrated her 21st
birthday Wednesday, is a difficult one for UNC’s opponents. Rice
tried a little bit of everything in its 83-50 NCAA second-round
loss to the far Heels and failed miserably much of the time.
In the nine times Teasley ran “Baseline” against the Owls,
UNC came away with 18 points. Teasley tallied six points, four
assists and one turnover in those possessions.
Rice played her straight up in the first half. Teasley got her
defender back on her heels and swished a triple in her face on
one possession and completed a three-point play after being
hacked shooting a floater on another.
See TEASLEY, Page 2
watched the game also ordered dinner.
But Couch said tonight’s game should
prove to be profitable because the
restaurant would most likely be at full
capacity by 8 p.m. “People who try to
get here for the game won’t have much
luck getting in,” he said.
Jerry West, manager of Woody’s Tar
Heel Tavern and Grill, located at 175 E.
Franklin St., said the sports bar was
stocked with extra beer and food.
“You have to order extra food to soak
up all of the alcohol," he said.
West advised fans who planned to
watch the game at Woody’s to be at the
bar by 6 p.m. if they w anted to get in.
Siera Ciocci, a bartender at Linda’s
Bar and Grill, located at 203 E. Franklin
St., said that although game nights often
got hectic, this year’s crowds had been
tamer than those in the past.
Ciocci said she was not working
tonight but that she planned to watch
Sec BARS, Page 2
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Chapel Hill, North Carolina
© 2000 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved.
then delayed byJanuary’s snow and a fur
ther postponement requested by UNC.
UNC has filed a motion to dismiss the
case, which will be heard April 10. I.amb
said he anticipated the trial would begin
May 15. lamb said he hoped to get the
case settled soon.
“A university for the people should
protect the rights of the people, but in this
case, I think they see it differently.”
The University Editor can be reached
at udesk@unc.edu.
i > -* *• i
I 2000 NCAA. A
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Friday
Students Plug UNC
The Student Ambassador Program, a
student-government organized group,
will make its first visit to N.C. high
schools this weekend. The program,
which began this year, aims to make
high schoolers more familiar with
UNC and clear up questions about the
University’s complex admission and
financial aid processes. See Page 5.
The Pen Is Mightier ...
Take the helm and lead The Daily Tar
Heel into the next millennium. Apply to
be the next editor.
Applications are available in the DTH
front office and are due by noon Friday.
For more information, contact Editor
Rob Nelson at 962-4086 or at
rnelson@email.unc.edu.
Today’s Weather
Sunny;
Low 70s.
Saturday: Sunny;
Upper 70s.