Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 21, 2004, edition 1 / Page 12
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12 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21, 2004 BOARD EDITORIALS INNOCENT CONVICT The state should take responsibility and compensate Darryl Hunt for the 18 years he spent in prison for a murder that he did not commit. For almost two decades, Darryl Eugene Hunt lived behind bars, sentenced to life in prison for a brutal rape and murder. The 1984 crime was shocking and heinous, an event that roiled Winston-Salem and enraged mem bers of the community. It was also a crime that Hunt did not commit. Last week, Gov. Mike Easley granted the former convict a pardon of innocence, a step that recognizes the state’s error in convicting Hunt and allows him to seek restitution for the time he spent in prison. A judge had overturned Hunt’s convection in February after DNA evidence indicated that he did not commit the crime and another man confessed to the killing. Easley’s decision was an obvious one, but he deserves commendation for issuing the pardon when some had advocated against it. The victim’s family members opposed both the pardon and Hunt’s release. Such wariness is under standable, considering that they have spent the past 19 years believing him to be the man who raped and murdered their daughter and wife. A governor fac ing re-election might have found it politically expe dient to bow to the family’s wishes and avoid a pos sible “soft on crime” label. Still, the DNA evidence and subsequent confes sion indisputably show that Hunt was wrongly con victed, and Easley was right to grant the pardon. In doing so, he clearly demonstrated the state’s respon sibility to own up to its mistakes. North Carolina vig ilantly must protect the innocent, even those who carry a certain stigma as convicts. Now, the state’s Industrial Commission must act in good conscience and award Hunt financial resti tution for the 18 years taken away from him. Hunt is eligible for almost $360,000 in compensation $20,000 for each year he was wrongly incarcerated. He deserves each cent, if only because of the COST OF CLEANING UP Orange County’s increased spending on recycling services requires that local residents pay the expense necessary to curb landfill use. Since 2000, Orange County residents have been enjoying recycling services that effectively have been free. But residents soon might be called upon to pay for these services. County officials have proposed a fee to help pay for the program, according to The (Raleigh) News & Observer. Commissioners might review the propos al in June. If the plan goes into effect, all Orange County property owners will have to pay a mandatory $36 base fee for recycling services. Chapel Hill and Carrboro property owners will be charged an extra $39 to offset the cost of their weekly curbside pick ups. Rural property owners will have to pay an addi tional sl6. That brings the total charge to $75 for town resi dents and $52 for rural residents. Town residents shouldn’t bemoan the fact that they would have to pay a higher fee, as their recycla ble materials are picked up twice as often as those of rural residents. While urban citizens get to clean out their recy cling bin every week, those people not living within town limits must let their soda cans and newspapers pile up for two weeks before the bi-monthly collec tions. No matter where they live, residents might decry the new fee, but it is a necessary evil. Recycling services are needed to prevent the county landfill from filling up too rapidly. More money is needed to ensure that residents continue using recycling services instead of creating large amounts of permanent waste. Orange County is the leading county in North Carolina in per capita garbage reduction: The N&O reported that the per capita amount of waste going to the landfill has gone down by 45 percent since 1991. EDITOR S NOTE: The above editorials are the opinions of solely The Daily Tar Heel Editorial Board, and were reached after open debate. The board consists of seven board members, the editorial page associate editor, the editorial page editor and the DTH editor. The 2003-04 DTH editor decided not to vote on the board and not to write board editorials. READERS' FORUM Weapons ban is ineffective in reducing gun violence TO THE EDITOR: On April 19, The Daily Tar Heel ran a letter advocating extension of the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994. To many, the ban is a shameful fraud and merely a piece of “feel good” legislation with no value in preventing crime. The weapons this ban covers are not the Uzis, AK-47s and other military weapons you see on CNN. Trite selective fire military weapons already were restricted by two prior laws. The weapons banned in 1994 are semi-automatic pistols and sporting rifles that have mili tary-style cosmetic features but function identically to many com mon firearms. The differences between the banned firearms and legal ones are entirely cosmetic, having no effect on lethality or rate of fire. The rhetoric that these weapons are used only by terrorists, drug dealers and armed gangs is also false. The 19 weapons banned in 1994 account for about 0.2 percent of all violent crimes and about 1 percent of gun crimes. In 1995, President Clinton’s administration completed a study finding that less than 1 percent of state and federal inmates used broadly defined “military-type” weapons for crimes that took place prior to the 1994 ban. money’s symbolic value. To lock up a person for a crime he or she did not commit is a failure of the state’s judicial system. Hunt spent a substantial portion of his life in jail. During the course of those 18 years, he was denied the ability to live with loved ones or pursue a pro fession. The state is responsible for the denying Hunt the basic freedoms that all U.S. citizens come to expect, and the state must pay. When considering the enormity of North Carolina’s malfeasance, the $20,000 figure for each year of imprisonment seems distressingly insuffi cient. Concerns over earning power are certainly rele vant, and it is entirely possible that such a monetary figure comes close to what the average innocent con vict would make. However, the state’s obligation exceeds simple reimbursement. Anyone who has suffered to the degree that Hunt has deserves reparation, and the state should pay a considerable amount of punitive damages. Even more troubling are the ramifications for the rest of North Carolina’s judicial system. Hunt is the first person in recent memory to be pardoned for murder, the one crime in the state that can lead to the most absolute of punishments. Hunt’s conviction easily could have garnered a death sentence, perhaps with a different jury or a more aggressive prosecutor. Such a chilling mistake was obviously possible therefore, Easley and the N.C. General Assembly should revisit the possibility of imposing a morato rium on capital punishment. Such a move would be a fitting tribute to a man who has been wronged so egregiously by the state. If this mistake prompts judicial reform, the years that Darryl Hunt lost to the state can translate into anew emphasis on truth and justice for all innocent North Carolinians. However, the target is to reduce contributions to the landfill by 61 percent. The county still has a long way to go. The county’s recycling program previously was paid for through “tipping fees.” A tipping fee is the price of dumping at the landfill for commercial and town garbage collectors. That small revenue source is no longer enough to cover the costs of countywide recycling. Considering the fiscal crises that have plagued municipalities across the state, an additional recycling tax is rea sonable, The new fee will allow the county to expand its recycling efforts and continue to provide the servic es from which its residents benefit. It is important that Orange County develop facil ities and methods of dealing with a higher volume of recyclable material. As more people and businesses move to this part of North Carolina, an infrastructure that can handle the increased flow of garbage and recyclables must be maintained and upgraded constantly. It would be foolish to take for granted this area’s success in terms of per capita garbage reduction. Orange County will fall behind and not be able to tout its progress in waste management if it fails to take further steps. The county has made impressive strides in cutting down waste that ends up in the landfill. This is espe cially laudable considering the large number of stu dents living in the county. But the reduction target of 61 percent has not been met yet. Using the additional funds provided by the new fee, the county can continue to be envi ronmentally conscientious. This additional money will allow Orange County to continue making progress in ensuring that resi dents do not run out of room for their waste. In 1997, a similar survey of fed eral inmates showed no reduction in crimes committed with the banned “assault rifles.” Clearly, this does not constitute an imminent threat to public safety. The fact that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold broke 19 laws prior to entering Columbine High School, including production of unlawful destructive and explosive devices, underscores why the Assault Weapons Ban is critically flawed. It emphasizes restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens instead of punishing those who break the law. How effective can legislation like the Assault Weapons Ban be when criminals rarely use military style rifles? How effective can gun control be when criminals like Klebold and Harris steal, manufacture or ille gally obtain their weapons? Jonathan Reich Junior Political Science Geography might play part in who develops disorders TO THE EDITOR: While cm a cruise of the western Caribbean, I took note of how many of the young females on board were extremely thin. Two different appearances dom inated the ship. There were the Opinion skinny females and the average bodied females. After meeting and conversing with the women of both profiles, I realized that the pre dominately thin sect was com posed of southerners while the less thin, average-looking group con sisted of northern women. This phenomenon encouraged me to focus on the pressures that might prompt women living in warmer climates to be more con scious about their physical appear ances. After all, warm weather equates with form-fitting tank tops, short shorts, and bathing suits; women from cold climates do not face physical exposure as regularly as us southern girls. A study conducted at Temple University examined whether or not living in a warm weather cli mate contributes to eating disor ders. It found an alarming rela tionship between geographic loca tion and the body mass index of college females aged 19 to 24. Nineteen percent of southeast ern females had a BMI ofless than 19 which is considered under weight whereas only 1 percent of northeastern females had a BMI of less than 19. The study concluded that women from the southeastern United States are more likely to have eating disorders, weigh less and preoccupy themselves with their body images compared to northern women. ON THE DAY’S NEWS “It is better that ten guilty men go free than one innocent suffer.” WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, BRITISH JURIST EDITORIAL CARTOON COMMENTARY People should treasure every minute in North Carolina My grandfather once told me that there wasn’t a better place to live than North Carolina. He’d traveled the world over, but I’m pretty sure he was always ready to return to the place he’d called home his entire life. Like that wise man, I too have lived here since birth. It’s a fine place, the Old North State. And I’ve never had a reason to leave. However, after being here for 22 years, and with nothing hold ing me back, it’s time to check out somewhere new. But before I go, I must cele brate the rich culture and all the fine offerings of this expansive state, the things that bring people here, keep people here and will likely bring me back here. Asa product of urban and rural areas, I’ve felt both shape me in immeasurable ways. Let’s start where I started, in the small town of Selma, south east of Raleigh. My roots are in rural North Carolina, replete with Piggly Wiggly, the corner mom and-pop pharmacy and a commu nity newspaper shop that didn't seem quite as big at 20 as it did when you were a little tyke bang ing on an old typewriter. Country came to town in the mid-1980s, when Charlotte became home. It was pretty spe cial being able to grow and change just as the Queen City shot up in its own right. It was easy to get caught up in the big city excitement. The Charlotte Hornets once buzzed around town, and that same civic pride carried over when the Carolina Panthers entered some years later. But you’ve really got to get out of your hometown to figure out what this state is all about. WRAL recently did a segment on eating disorders on local college campuses and reported that one out of four female college students suffers from an eating disorder. In light of such alarming statis tics, UNC women must be proac tive and make themselves aware of eating disorder risk factors. Pressures associated with college, daily demands and the warm N.C. climate place us at risk. Acknowledgement of these facts gives us a heads up, helping to pre vent the occurrence of eating dis orders. Erin Caudle Senior Nursing High attendance is best way to attract famous acts TO THE EDITOR: For my past two years with the Carolina Union Activities Board, I’ve heard a lot of talk about “big concerts.” “Why don’t you do big con certs?” people ask. “How come other campuses have them and we don’t?” Well, wonder no longer, Carolina: Nas will be in the Smith Center on April 22 at 8 p.m. The thing is, putting on a concert of this magnitude takes more work than you can possibly imagine (trust me). And if students actually want to see a big-name artist in concert MICHAEL DAVIS COUNTRY FEEDBACK After all, we have lots of geo graphic and cultural diversity packed into more than 53,000 square miles. We have a lot of class, and little crass. Maybe I’ve been brain washed by living here my entire life, but I can’t think of all that much that turns me off. How can you not like a state where you can pick a sand burr out of your foot and hike a moun tain trail all in the same weekend if you really wanted? Don’t rush yourself, though we North Carolinians like it laid back. So laid back that we don’t real ly trouble ourselves when it snows. It’s always fun getting giddy over forecasts for one or two inches of the white stuff, knowing full well that’s enough snow to shut down civilization. I wish that excitement on everyone we all need a fun day off. And when it all melts away, get in the car and go get some of the best pork barbecue around. Easterners, with their vinegar affinity, and Westerners, with the tomato base, will forever argue about who has the best. You decide doesn’t make any difference to me, as long as I’ve got some sweet tea so I can wash it all down. Bridges Barbecue in Shelby, Kings in Kinston and Jimmy’s Barbecue in Lexington are good places to start on your ’cue tour. on campus each year, their atten dance is the best way to show that to the people who can make such shows happen. This concert is somewhat of an experiment for us all: It will be the first time for hip-hop in the Smith Center and the first major concert for CUAB in a while. But it could be the start of a suc cessful tradition if we get the atten dance to make it worth our while. It’s impossible to find someone that everybody likes and who’s affordable. But we’ve done our best the rest is up to you. There are plenty of tickets, at both UNC student ($10) and gen eral public ($25) prices, still avail able. We’ll see you Thursday at the Smith Center. I Chris Lamb President CUAB TO SUBMIT A LETTER: The Daily Tar Heel welcomes reader comments. Letters to the editor should be no longer than 300 words and must be typed, double-spaced, dated and signed by no more than two people. Students should include their year, major and phone number. Faculty and staff should include their title, department and phone num ber. The DTH reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity and vulgarity. Publication is not guaranteed. Bring let ters to the DTH office at Suite 104, Carolina Union, mail them to P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515 or e-mail them to editdesk@unc.edu. (Tit? Sattg (Bar NM Want more top-notch cuisine? After a long afternoon lolling on the sand, eat some fried shrimp and tell me isn’t that the best thing you’ve ever tasted. And be sure to save some hush puppies and go feed the sea gulls after dinner. Despite my musings, my Tar Heel curriculum has been more than beaches and barbecue. I can thank this state for a solid education since I was five. The school systems get a fair amount of grief, but those teachers are working too many hours, and for very little pay, simply to enlighten us. And despite tuition hikes, our fantastic system of colleges and universities allows students to learn in any of the state’s various environments for quite a bargain. Taxpayers are backing a hefty portion because here, we see a college degree as a boost to socie ty. In this state, everyone pitches in to do his part. Maybe it’s just an extension of our hospitality. I’ll gladly tolerate sticky summer nights and pesky mosquitoes for that collective spirit. In North Carolina, you can get the best of both worlds. Put your feet up and rest in rural realms, or dabble in the city life. The options are endless and keep things interesting. We live in a great place. Relish every minute of your time here, whether it’s a quick four years or the rest of your life. This state has given me so much— all with flavors I couldn’t sample anywhere else. Thanks for everything, North Carolina. I’ll see you later. Contact Michael Davis at davismt@email.unc.edu. Established 1893 111 years of editorial freedom (Eljp Sattg ®ar MM www.daUytaxheel.com ELYSE ASHBURN EDITOR, 962-4086 OFFICE HOURS 2.15-3:15 PM MON., WED. DANIEL THIGPEN MANAGING EDITOR, 962-0750 JENNIFER SAMUELS PROJECTS MANAGING EDITOR, 962-0750 NATHAN DENNY EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR, 962-0750 BROOK R. CORWIN UNIVERSITY EDITOR, 962-0372 EMMA BURGIN CITY EDITOR, 962-4209 CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR. STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR. 962-4103 BRIAN MACPHERSON SPORTS EDITOR, 962-4710 MICHELLE JARBOE FEATURES EDITOR, 962-4214 NICK PARKER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, 962-4214 ALEX OBREGON COPY EDITOR, 962-4103 BRIAN CASSELLA PHOTO EDITOR, 962-0750 MICHELLE KUTTNER DESIGN EDITOR, 962-0750 KRISTEN OLIVER ONLINE EDITOR, 962-0750 JOHN FRANK PROJECTS TEAM LEADER, 962-0246 ERIC GAUTSCHI OMBUDSMAN If you have any concerns or comments about our coverage, please contact Ombudsman Eric Gautschi at gautschi@email.unc.edu or 918-1311.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 21, 2004, edition 1
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