Gerry Cohen
81 Years Of Editorial Freedom
Opinions of The Daily Tar Heel are expressed on its editorial page. All
unsigned editorials are the opinion of the editor. Letters and columns
represent only the opinions of the individual contributors.
Susan Miller, Editor
ffso mi
The Supreme Court has changed
from a stronghold of personal right
versus the government's to a more
casual and weak stance on these civil
liberties.
One of the most significant Bill of
Rights is the Fourth Amendment
protecting citizens from
unreasonable search and seizure
without probable cause. It is the
Fourth Amendment that is the basis
for basic rights of privacy, including
wiretapping.
Court rules against wiretapping,
particularly the 1972 ruling that
outlawed bugging in more severe
terms than before, have generally
given the government less freedom
to wiretap than before.
Yet Tuesday the Supreme Court
ruled that grand juries may use
illegally obtained evidence as a basis
for questioning witnesses without
violating their constitutional rights.
The court wrote a significant
exception into the "exclusionary
rule," the principle that the courts
will not admit in a criminal trial
evidence that the prosecution
obtained by a warrantless search or
some other illegal method. The
effect of the ruling is to allow
evidence that cannot be used in
court to be the basis for indictment.
One of the reasons for the
exclusionary rule in the first place
was to discourage improper searches
by law enforcement officers. Yet
somehow, as appropriately pointed
out by the dissenting judges, the
Letters to the editor
To the editor:
A well written story contains information
on ALL basic facts relating to the story.
WHO: Coed
WHAT: Attack
WHERE: Kenan Stadium
WHEN: Friday Night, 14 December,
between 1:00 and 2:00 A.M.
WHY: Alone
HOW MUCH: Raped.
The Daily Tar Heel did not carry this
story, having ceased publication in early
December with resumption of publication
on January 9th coincident with beginning of
Spring Semester.
Very few students were still on campus on
PilMPi SELTZER
the " rnosninq rftek " pju.
V
January 14, 1974
1 wight
majority judges didn't see or want to
see that allowing grand juries to use
such evidence would encourgage,
not discourage, use by police of
illegal search and seizure, not to
mention arrest.
In the most severe case of
rationalizing in court decisions ' of
recent years, the majority ruled that
once the illegal search is over, grand
jury use of such evidence does not
involve government invasion of
privacy.
Certainly to allow the grand jury
to use illegally obtained evidence
will encourage police to break the
law through unreasonable search
and seizure, because it will have a
use in the grand jury. To say, as the
majority did, "Questions based on
illegally obtained evidence are only a
derivative use of the product of a
past unlawful search and seizure" so
they work no new Fourth
Amendment wrong is senseless and
illogical.
In fact, if this is the basis of this
ruling, the court might as well claim
the Fourth Amendment is there not
to be abided by but to be worked
around. It is in essence condoning
the illegal actions that provide the
evidence.
It appears that the Supreme Court
has taken a wrong turn towards
ignoring the rights of the individual .
and increasing the rights of the
government over the individual,
contrary to the aims of the
Constitution.
eader claims
15 December, to have received news of the
attack via any other news media. However,
this issue of DTH will be read by many
students, concerned parents. University
employees, trustees, etc.; and the Editor does
a grave disservice to create in the minds of
DTH readers a simplistic approach to
control of crime via lighting and low
shrubbery, when the highly complex human
mind must be considered.
Anyone female or male walking alone
at 1:30 A.M. on an almost deserted campus
(comparable to a ghost town) has to have
rejected as invalid the urgings by University
administrators and student leaders. There is
no way an individual can be protected from
' r nm. I XX I
A new
Last week was my first confrontation with
a jury, but it wasn't as a lawyer or defendant.
In late December, I had received a notice to
report for jury duty for the week of January
eighth.
I arrived in Hillsborough Tuesday
morning for "civil term" (court wil sit for a
week at a time hearing criminal cases, then in
other weeks "civil, or private, cases will be
heard) so no murder cases were in store for
my jury.
1 hadn't really thought that they would call
a law student or an elected official, but my
notice said in big letters, "THE RE WILL BE
NO OCCUPATIONAL DEFERMENTS.
So 1 went, and sat in the courtroom with the
other 63 jurors for the week.
Tuesday was quite boring. The only case
for the day was postponed, because of the
illness of one of the attorneys, and the judge
announced only one case remained, a
commitment to Umstead Hospital in Butner.
He let 32 of the jurors go, and the other 31
of us were to return Wednesday. Since my
Tar Heel's
herhis willful optimism or willful
obstinancy.
The DTH can make a more positive
contribution by printing the full story on
Page 1 and, thus, provide readers of the
Editorial Page with very necessary
information.
Sylvia King
Route 3, Box 285
Chapel Hill
(Editor's note: The editorial of Jan. 9 did
not pretend to claim that low shrubbery and
better lighting will end rapes on campus, but
that such measures will improve the
situation.)
University now
upholds contract
To the editor:
This letter concerns the refund of room
rent deposit.
If you cancelled your reservation for a
room before December 14, 1973 you are
entitled to a full refund of your deposit.
University housing was previously refunding
only $10 of the $25 deposit. This was in
violation of the room deposit contract which
stated, that the full amount of deposit would
be refunded.
The University has henceforth made
amends and you are now supposed to get the
full deposit, if you cancelled before Dec. 14,
1973.
David W. Flagler
321 W. Cameron Ave.
GOPs shall stay
in White House
To the editor:
Four years and eleven months ago the
Republican Party brought forth upon this
continent a new administration dedicated to
the proposition that all men should be
Republican. Now we are engaged in a great
court hearing testing whether this
administration or any administration so
conceived and elected can long. endure. We
are meeting in a great courtroom for this
hearing.
I have come to dedicate a portion of my
tapes, as a final concession for those
constituents who gave their public lives that
this administration might live. It is
altogether fitting and proper that we do this.
But in a larger sense, 1 cannot concede to. I
fieV, IS ThAT
( De? Hall? )
experience, county jury duty
whole week was already ruined. 1 chose to
come back Wednesday.
Wednesday, my name was called, and I
nervously sat in the jury box. with a motley
selection of Orange Countians. There was
one student from Louisburg College on the
jury with me. but the plaintiff sent him away
(each side gets to challenge a certain number
of jurors it doesn't like, w ithout any cause.)
There were a lot of young people at the
beginning of the week. Of the 63 original
jurors, there were six UNC students and one
from Louisburg. There were eleven blacks,
but only 22 women. Our jury had a white
woman, and three black men.
The case seemed simple. Should a 29 year
old be required to be committed for
psychiatric treatment at Butner?
Unfortunately, the defendant was a real
person. (The State of North Carolina was the
plaintiff in this civil case at the request of the
defendant's brother.)
The defendant had a long history of
mental problems beginning with
60
f It Us MuRPHcy!)
rape editorial misinformed.
cannot give in to, I cannot abide by the
Watergate Committee. Mr. Dean, who
struggled had conceded far more than we can
add or detract. The world will long note and
long remember what he said there, but it can
never forget what I say perfectly clear here.
It is for my new prosecutor rather than
Mr. Cox to be dedicated to the unfinished
work of solving this case that Sam Ervin and
Howard Baker have so thoroughly and
expensively fought to solve. It is rather for us
to solve the great task lying before us, that
Haldeman and Ehrlichman had not died in
vain. That this nation under God shall have a
new era of peace with honor, and that
government of Republicans, by
Republicans, and for Republicans shall not
be ousted from the White House.
Kurt Nelson
630 Ehringhaus
David Strickland
628 Ehringhaus
Reston really
wants shortages
To the editor:
James Reston stared over his typewriter,
looking out the window of his elegant
apartment at the lights on the Potomac. In
an hour, he must be at a cocktail party with
the rest of the beautiful people. But now he
has another assignment from the New York
Times News Service. Write an article dealing
with the energy crisis.
Reston could convince Eskimos that the
North Pole had become a tropical paradise.
He could convince Raquel Welch that she
had become anemic. If he could sell his latest
idea, he could sell anything.
As he shoved a piece of paper into his
I.B.M. Selectric, he felt a slight chill. He
turned the thermostat up to a toasty seventy
five degrees and then began to type:
"Washington. The craziest notion that has
hit this country in a long while and we've
had quite a few nutty notions lately is that
shortages of gas, beef and a lot of other
things are bad for the American people.
"What America really needs is more
shortages. It is not our shortages but our
surpluses that are hurting us. Too much gas,
too much booze, too much money, talk,
noise and fire me tomorrow! too much
newsprint are our problem ..."
That's right, you read it correctly. James
Reston of the New York Times says that
what we need are more shortages. That is the
new line of the Establishment in 1974. Of
course, all the Reston's are living well. And
they intend to do .so. thank you. But they
hallucinations at the age of 16 that he was a
rock and roll singer (doesn't every 16 year
old?? 1 had seen "American Gra!itti two
nights before).
After four subsequent involuntary
commitments, his life was in a mess, and his
wife had left him. We heard three hours of
testimony from the brother, a psychiatrist,
and the defendant. It was a muddle. The
brother, it was alleged, had also been in the
hospital, and defendant denied his brother's
claims that he had threatened to both
commit suicide and kill most of his family.
The psychiatrist told us that the defendant
would not accept voluntary treatment, and
not to believe defendant's promise.
At three o'clock, the judge, an elder gray
haired scholar, informed us exactly what
role we were to play. The legislature in 1973
had determined that juries must henceforth
rule on all of these cases. The prosecutor told
us we were the first such case in this county,
and apparently only the second in the state.
We were to decide if defendant was
Staff art by Daw Shores
expect you to take a meat cleaver to your
own budget.
What caused the current shortages; the
shortages that worry James Reston so much?
Well, let's look again at the Establishment
for the answer. In August of 1971. President
Richard the Millstone Nixon imposed on
our economy "Wage and Price controls."
Prices were frozen on fuel oil when its price
was at a seasonal low. During the winter of
1971-1972, fuel oil prices were still frozen.
Producers could not raise their prices to keep
up with the increased cost of refining
transporting their fuel oil on the world
markets where the prices were thirty-three
per cent higher. The result, no oil for
Americans except those industrious enough
to find a place still selling the stuff.
Wage and price controls have been tried
all through history and have failed. They
have always created shortages. When prices
are frozen, the economy stagnates. People
find that their dollars will buy more so they
begin hoarding food. gas. clothes and other
commodities. As the supply is used up and
those producing these items lose their
incentive to produce (the "evil" profit
motive) shortages are the inevitable end
product. That's a very old lesson of economics that
I think everyone should keep in mind as the
'74 elections approach. When the demand is
up. you must allow the prices to go up or the
supply will go down.
Douglas Joy
213 Everett Dorm
Tar Heel dorm
delivery blasted
To the editor:
Whereas I believe that the Daily Tar Heel
as a student function and benefit should be
funded by student fees, as it is under student
influence (i.e. election of the editor). 1 do not
feel that students should have to support a
decrepid institution. By this I mean that if
the Tar Heel says that it delivers to the
dorms, it should do so with a minimum of
faultiness. Last year, delivery was almost
always prompt and never missed, but this
year there has been an average of one to two
errors a week. Either it does not arrive at
Granville until very late in the day, like 10:30
or so, or it does not come at all. I have been
patient because you have stated that you
have had problems with student graphics
and delivery personnel, but you did say the
problems would be ironed out shortly If an
"gravelv disabled." Not guilt. Not innocence.
Not if the man was sick. But only if he was so
"gravely disabled by mental illness as to be
unable to take care of his welfare. Sounds
simple? It isn't. The judge conveniently left a
blank for the foreman to w rite in a "yes" or a
"no" verdict.
We trooped up the stairs to the jury room,
for what was to be eventually 90 minutes of
wrangling. The foremen announced we had
an easy job just decide yes or no. 1 decided
he was being facetious.
There were obviously three factions. Five
jurors seemed to feel he needed to be
committed (the verdict had to be
unanimous). Four more were undecided,
and three, including myself, said the man
was sick, but was not "gravely disabled."
since he apparently could hold a job. and his
only conflicts were with his family. Yet they
were serious conflicts. I suggested we buy
him a bus ticket.
We voted. Nine voted "yes" and the three
of us still voted "no." The three of us began
talking to the four jurors who were listening
closest. Earlier, several jurors said that since
I was a law student. I must know what to do.
1 told them I knew nothing more than they
did. since the judge had explained the law on
this point to them in his "charge" to the jury.
We were to find the facts, not the law.
The four evolved the theory which was to
decide the case. It was obviously in the man's
best interest that he submit to
hospitalization, and he apparently would
not take voluntary treatment (he had
checked out the day after he got the previous
commitment changed from involuntary to
voluntary).
But if he did not realie that his primary
need was to have psychiatric treatment, he
obviously was not able to provide for his
welfare. 1 swallowed hard when I heard this.
The man obviously needed help, away from
his own impulses. Yet we were told by the
judge to obey the law. What is welfare? The
judge had given the illustrations of food,
clothing, and shelter. The jury in this
borderline case had decided to amend the
law. After thirty minutes of discussion on
this point, the three of us gave in. convinced.
A sad case. But it is good that a man or
woman is protected. To be committed, a jury
of twelve of his peers must unanimously
agree.
Now that the law lowering jury age to 18
has taken full effect, many UNC students
will be serving on juries this semester.
I hope all students called will avail
themselves to the accommodations on
making up class work that the
administration is going to make. I w ould like
to urge students not to try to ev ade jury duty
and take advantage of a most unique
experience with the law.
entire semester is not enough, something is
terribly wrong.
If you cannot make deliveries to the
dorms, at least tell us so. so we can expect to
have to go to the union to pick up a paper,
and so that you will not have to live a lie and
lose student faith and your credibility.
We have not received a Tar Heel in the last
two days that I am aware of. and it is not here
yet today, now at 9:30 a.m.
Bill Strickland
President
Granville West
Plant struggling
for life in sink
To the editor:
The will to surv ive is the unifying factor of
all living things. Since the formation of the
first protoplasm 3 billion years ago life has
been struggling for its existence. Recently
my fellow suitemates and I have been rooting
the plant fighting for life in the overflow
drain of our bathroom sink.
Best of luck, plant!
William Lee Bell
213 Morrison
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(Ear Hrrl
Susan Miller, Editor
Vinston Cavin, Managing Editor
Bill Welch, News Editor
David Eskridge, Associate Editor
Seth Effron, Associate Editor
Kevin McCarthy, Features Editor
Elliott Warnock, Sports Editor
Tad Stewart, Photo Editor
Ernie Pitt, Might Editor