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November 18, 2004
National World
Cops leave Miami-Dade students in shock
By TRACY L. SCOTT
BET.oom Staff Writer
What’s the punishment
for skipping class in
Miami-Dade? For one
12-year-old girl that mis
step resulted in 50,000
volts to her neck and
back. A week eatlier,
Miami-Dade Police used
a Taser gun to stun a 6-
year-old black boy.
In the case of the 6-
year-old, authorities and
school officials said
police used the Taser gun
Quiet man in gray suit is replacing lamboyant revolutionary
By ARTHUR MAX
Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM (AP) — Mah
moud Abbas could hardly be
more different from the man
he seeks to replace: unlike Yass
er Arafat, her?icm to work in the
shadows, shuns publicity, lis
tens to advisers, deplores vio
lence.
Hes the quiet man in the
business suit who stood for 40
ears by the side of the flam
fioyant revolutionary in mili-
Ery Fatiglt]les and checkered kcf—
e, whispering pragmatic
agvice into lt)hee a;g: o?t;%m stub
born ideologue.
But Abbas can be just as
tough as Arafat on the core
issues of the Palestinians’ future.
Abbas, 69, commonly called
Abu Mazen, was elected chief
of the Palestine Liberation
Organization on Thursday,
hours after Arafat died in a Pans
hospital. Officials say the unan
imous vote by the IXLO execu
tive put him on track to be
poplEa:ly elected president of
the Palestinian government
after a 60-day transition.
In 2003, when Arafat was
compelled under international
pressure to create a Palestinian
government, Abbas was his first
choice for prime minister.
Despite years of collaboration,
the two men quarreled over the
division of powers, and Abbas
walked out Fc?ur months later.
When in office or before,
Abbas n&erf tfiothered tl(-)l bléij_l:
a personal following. He
likgfi being interviewed in the
media, anng spoke with none of
Arafat’s passion and charisma.
Novwi?s“lackof popularity in
the street or cadre of loy:tfists
could hamper him in buildi
the support he needs to solidi
his firm grip on the fractious,
volatile E:]l;stinian organiza
tions and institutions.
h}l\ckl)sbas can be moodythand
0 es nst those
who olfe—:c?ijm.a%?}lhen he fell
out with Arafat, the two men
Number of people sentenced to death at 30-year low, government reports
By LAURA MECKLER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -
The number of people sen
tenced to death reached a
30-year low in 2003, when
the death row population
fell for the thircf) year in a
row, the government
reported Sunday.
Some 144 inmates in 25
states were given the death
penalty last year, 24 fewer
than in 2002 and less than
half the average of 297
between 1994 and 2000,
according to the Justice
Department.
Death penalty opponents
say the report shows how
wary the public is of execu
tions, heightened by con-
to subdue the child, who
was waving a shard of
glass to fend off school
security guards. Police
officials. say that officers
stunned the boy to keep
him from cutting his leg
with the glass.
“We know the child was
not harmed other than
the little tiny probe
pricks you get with the
Taser,” Police Director
Bobby Parker told the
Miami Herald. “What we
do not know is if the
child would or would not
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Mahmoud Abbas
did not speak until a reconcilia
tion when Arafat became fatal
ly ill earlier this month. He cut
off ties with one of his closest
friends, Israeli Arab legislator
Ahmed Tibi, for two years after
a gflrceived slight.
e has few friends. Unlike
Arafat who surrounded himself
with cronies, Abbas’ inner circle
is small and not particularly
intimate.
Also unlike his autocratic
predecessor, he prefers to listen
rather than talk, and is willing
to make collective decisions.
After Arafat became in i
tated, he formed an rsu}?logd&l
er-sharing ership wi
g?iwme MinisterpA“l?lmed &u.reia
to run Palestinian affairs.
He has had contacts with the
Israelis long before it became
acceptable to the Palestinians.
From behind the scenes, he
guided the secret ngotiations
in Norway that led to the
breakthrough Oslo accords in
cerns about whether the
unishment is administered
?airly and publicity about
those wrongly convicted.
Illinois emptied its death
row in 2003 after several
inmates were found to be
innocent.
“What we're seeing is hes
itation on the death penalty,
skepticism, reluctance,”
saicr Richard Dieter, execu
tive director of the Death
Penalty Information Cen
ter. “I do think there is
some concern about the
death penalty and its
reflected in death sentences
from juries.”
Opponents also point to
other possible reasons,
including continuing fall
out from Supreme Court
AUGUSTA FOCUS
have subsequently cut his
vein,” he said.
However, Parker did
not justify the use of the
Taser on the 12-year-old
gitl who fled from a
police officer who was
trying to return her to
school grounds. The
child skipped school on
Nov. 5.
" “Under the circum
stances, we thought that
(the officer) should not
have used the Taser. It’s
likely that discipline will
be forthcoming,” Parker
1993.
“There is toughness in him,”
said former Israeli Cabinet
minister Yossi Beilin, who held
many sessions with Abbas, usu
ally laced with humor and
good will. “I wouldn't say he’sa
moderate. He's "
Early on, Abgasn% read
ing about Israeli culture and
society, not only because he
wanted to “know the enemy,”
but also because it fascinated
him. He son;%lt out Arabic
translations of Hebrew books,
ignoring the derision of some
of his coll :
He tok?g:fin he had been
surprised to learn that hun
dreds of thousands of Israelis
originally came from Arab
countries, not from Europe. He
thought they could be afiidge
between Palestinians and Jews.
Many Palestinians distrusted
Abbas, and thought he was
E.dlible when dmhngfiv:ith the
raclis. He was the in the
decisions requiring that
juries be told that life in
prison without parole is an
alternative to death.
Dieter said 47 states now
offer a life-without-parole
sentence as an option for at
least some convictions,
compared with 30 in 1993.
Supporters doubt the
decline signifies a major
shift in public opinion
about the death penalty,
which is in effect in 38
states and the federal justice
system.
“I don't think the num
bers mean a lot quite
frankly,” said Dianne
Clements, president of the
victims advocacy group Jus
tice For All. “I don’t think it
said.
Although the Tasers are
considered safe to use on
individuals weighing 60
pounds or more, at least
one of the two children,
whose weights are
unknown, had an uncom
mon reaction. The 6-
year-old boy vomited
after the jolt, according
to witnesses. The cases
have attracted national
attention. k
Citizens groups are
questioning why Tasers
were used to control the
Palestinian leadership to
denounce the armed uprisi
against Israel, now in itsn(silf?ng
year, saying the violence was
counterproductive to their
goals of statehood.
He has been involved, either
activreal?' or from a distance, in
several peace initiatives with
moderate Israelis, m\;rlid\out
compromising on e con
sidcrg key issues: the right of
gfim to reclaim homes in
, adherence to the 1967
Mideast boundaries, the estab
lishment of part of Jerusalem as
the capital of an independent
Palestine. 4
As prime minister, he met
U, lgcsidcnt George W. Bush
twice and Israeli Pnme Minis
ter Ariel Sharon several times.
He hd[;p;d“l;ua?d) the US
sponso
pfn, and wodccdngpsecgzo:
cease-fire agreement with Pales
tinian militant groups.
But Sharon refused to help
Abbas build grassroots support
by releasing l%dessunmn prison
ers, and Arafat, jealously guard
ing his power, repeatedly
undermined his prime minis
ter.
Abbas was born in 1935 in
Safad, a Jewish holy city in the
R(;fi) which then had afil;fi;
population. His famu
fled to Syria during the 1948
war with the newly created state
of Israel. He studied law in
Damascus and earned a
doctorate in history in
Moscow.
Abbas helped found the
PLO in 1964 and joined
the PLO executive commit
tee in 1980, rising to the
No. 2 position as secretary
genera{). He also was a
member of the central com
mittee of Fatah,. Arafat’s
political movement, and of
the Palestinian legislature.
He is married and has two
sons, both businessmen.
means a change in death
penalty attitudes. I think it
means the numbers
change.”
At the end of last year,
3,374 prisoners awaiting
execution, 188 fewer than
in' 2002, according to the
Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Illinois accounted for 84
percent of the decline, the
result of then-Gov. George
Ryan’s decision to commute
the death sentences of 167
inmates to life in prison and
to pardon four others.
Nationally, 267 people
were removed from death
row last year. That was the
largest drop since 1976,
when the Supreme Court
reinstated the death penalty,
children. Police are re
examining their policies
on the weapon, which
temporarily immobilizes
assailants.
Carter hopes for new peace
talks in wake of Arafat's death
By DOUG GROSS
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP)- Former
President Jimmy Carter
called Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat “a powerful
human symbol” Thursday,
Nov. 11 and said he hopes
new leadership in that
region will create an oppor
tunity for renewed talk of
peace.
Arafat, 75, died Thursday
at a French military hospi
tal.
“Yasser Arafat’s death
marks the end of an era and
will no doubt be painfully
felt by Palestinians through
out the Middle East and
elsewhere in the world,”
Carter said in a statement
released by The Carter
Center in Atlanta.
More than twenty-five
years ago, Carter negotiated
with Israel and Egypt to
help produce their break
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Jimmy Carter
according to the report by
the Bureau of Justice Statis
tics. ,
Some 65 people, all men,
were executed last year.
Texas again was the leader,
with 24, followed by Okla
homa with 14 and North
Carolina with 7. No other
state had more than three.
All but one of those men
were killed by lethal injec
tion. The other was electro
cuted.
There are currently 66
death row inmates in Mis
sissippi, including 34 blacks
and 31 whites.
Since 1977, 885 inmates
were executed through
2003 by 32 states and the
Federal Bureau of Prisons.
However, Director
Parker told the Herald,
“That doesn’t mean we're
going to change it.”
through peace treaty.
Over 13 days in 1978 at
the presidential retreat at
Camp David, Carter helped
broker one of the Middle
Easts few lasting peace
accords between Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem
Begin and Egyptian Presi
dent Anwar Sadat.
His efforts helped earn
him the 2002 Nobel Peace
Prize, an honor Arafat was
awarded in 1994 — along
with Israeli leaders Yitzh,ak
Rabin and Shimon Peres —
for their peace efforts.
Carter said he hopes
Arafat’s death will spark
renewed peace efforts in the
region. Current Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon has condemned
Arafat as a terrorist, even
refusing to speak his name
in a statement Thursday.
“My hope is that an emerg
ing Palestinian leadership can
benefit from Arafats experi
ences, be welcomed to the
peace process by Prime Minis
ter Sharon and President Bush,
and be successful in helping to
forge a Palestinian state living
in harmony with their Israeli
neighbors,” Carter said.
Carter has urged the Bush
administration to push harder
for peace in the Middle East
and be more evenhanded in its
dealings with Israel and Pales
tinians.
He had also called on Arafat
to be more forceful in his con
demnation of attacks on
Israel by Hamas and other
groups.
Two-thirds of them were in
five states: Texas, Virginia,
Oklahoma, Missouri and
Florida.
The report also found:
—Of death row inmates,
56 percent. were white,
while 42 percent were
black. Hispanics, who can
be of any race, accounted
for 12 percent of inmates
whose ethnicity was known.
~States with the largest
number of death row
inmates were California
with 629, Texas with 453
and Florida with 364.
~Ten people died while
awaiting execution in 2003;
six from natural causes and
four from suicide.