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2A 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 3 4 2 AR 3 . o ?:‘{,, = ‘ “r S iy e 3 : e e A : e ke aghal ok ST g>o Bl B . @ "3‘, ," 2 ?, t\s ‘ .& i r 5 ,h» £ T ‘; Py Sy U RSEM, 4 - g ‘\- R e B L ] »g's;m Wi j 4 o R 7 B ¢ £d o A | t : fi 4 e Y 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 TR .‘ » 3 T Bb S { w,’, 3 ! b o i P b ‘t %jrf, i g %t 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.