Newspaper Page Text
Page 36
r—Griffin Daily News Thursday, October 6, 1977
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Jane Doe identified
The body of a girl found badly beaten and dying near a
roadside in Chicago suburban Schiller Park, DI., on Sept. 6
has been identified as Debra Rosencrans, 16, of Chicago,
above left. Friends who identified her said they hadn’t
recognized published pictures (above right) of the bat
tered girl as their friend. The girl died last month without
regaining consciousness. (AP)
Female
in Albany
runoff
ALBANY, Ga. (AP) - After
three years of lawsuits, appeals
and court-ordered redistricting,
a 34-year-old black woman has
battled her way into a runoff
election against the white in
cumbent mayor of this south
west Georgia city.
Mary Young, an attorney and
one of Albany’s two black city
commissioners, will face Mayor
James Gray Sr., a 61-year-old
publisher and broadcast execu
tive, Oct. 18. They defeated four
other candidates for mayor in
Tuesday’s Democratic pri
mary.
Although Gray outpolled her
by only 59 votes, Mrs. Young’s
chances in the runoff appear to
be slim.
Roughly 60 per cent of Alba
ny’s 90,000 residents are white.
That racial mix led Mrs. Young
and several other Albany blacks
to file suit in 1974, challenging
the city’s at-large method of
electing city commissioners.
Mrs. Young and the others
argued unsucessfully in federal
court that the at-large system
made it almost impossible for
minority voters to win repre
sentation.
After a number of court or
ders and cross appeals, the
city’s voting lines were redrawn
to include six wards from which
individual commissioners were
elected. The office of mayor
pro-tem was abolished and was
replaced by the new,
predominantly black sixth
ward.
Although Mrs. Young argues
that the mayor is in effect a
seventh city commissioner, the
election for that position re
mains at large.
In Tuesday’s primary, Gray
received 3,893 votes to Mrs.
Young’s 3,824. About 3,000
votes, however, were dis
tributed among four other white
mayoral candidates.
In addition, election officials
report a heavy black turnout —
estimated at about 70 per cent
— while figures for white pre
cincts indicated a turnout of
about 30 per cent for the pri
mary.
A general election is not an
ticipated following the runoff
since there is no announced Re
publican candidate.
Mrs. Young, who would retain
her seat on the city commission
in the event of a defeat, says she
thinks she can capture the
majority of votes cast for the
four losing white candidates
because those votes were an
expression of dissatisfaction
with the incumbent.
“White folks want to know
why we have high utilities and
11 percent unemployment,” she
says.
Gray, a candidate for Georgia
governor in 1966 and a former
state Democratic Party
chairman, said Tuesday’s
“large black bloc vote” worries
him.
“This bloc voting business not
only is detrimental to the city,
but is detrimental to the whole
political process,” he said. “I
don’t want to see my city
polarized.”
Gray, a one-time ally of for
mer governor Lester Maddox,
said he intends to solicit support
from local black leaders with
the argument that “a town
divided cannot progress.”
Justice Department trying to bar oldest judge
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -
The U.S. Justice Department is
seeking to bar the nation’s old
est chief federal judge from
hearing its cases.
The department accused
Judge Willis W. Ritter, 78, of
U.S. District Court with ignor
ing correct judicial procedure,
rendering decisions with “arbi
trary and erratic authority,”
insulting U.S. attorneys and
bringing the federal courts into
disrespect.
In a writ filed Wednesday, the
government accused Ritter,
among other things, of referring
to a U.S. Appeals Court as
“those fellows up there that sit
around and chew their finger
nails and fiddle around about
some damn thing.”
Because of Ritter’s alleged
abuses, the writ said, there is no
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What the
Well-Dressed
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And as any shoplifter knows, they're not re
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lot of time on your hands.
GRIFFIN
functioning federal court in
Utah for civil cases, tax sum
mons enforcement, mis
demeanors and “in a very real
sense, no functioning court for
felony cases.”
Ritter, who has been a federal
judge in Utah since 1949, could
not be reached for comment.
Utah officials said they would
file similar action seeking to
exclude cases involving the
state from the jurisdiction of
Ritter, who has been criticized
by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals and the U.S. Supreme
Court.
The judge also is unpopular
with the Utah Bar, which has
tried unsuccessfully to have
him censured and stripped of
his title as chief judge.
The writ of mandamus was
filed in the 10th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in Denver by
U.S. Atty. Ramon Child. The
action was approved by the U.S.
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SALT LAKE CITY-U. S.
District Court Chief Judge
Willis W. Ritter, above, faces a
Justice Department effort to
remove him from all cases in
which the federal government is
a party. Ritter, 78, is the oldest
active chief judge in the United
States. (AP)
solicitor general.
The writ seeks to prevent Rit
ter from hearing pending or fu
ture criminal cases involving
the federal government and to
bar him from future civil cases
in which the government is a
party.
Warren G. Harding
replaces Jesse James
AUSTIN, Tex. (AP) - War
ren G. Harding is replacing
Jesse James as state treasurer
of Texas.
Gov. Dolph Briscoe appointed
Harding to replace James as
state treasurer.
James, 73, died of a heart at
tack last week. He had won
elections as administrator of
the state’s money for 36 years
Child, one of Ritter’s bitterest
critics in his 2% years as a fed
eral attorney for Utah, was once
characterized by the judge as
“the worst United States dis
trict attorney they ever had in
this courtroom,” the writ said.
In Denver, Chief Judge David
despite his infamous name.
Harding, 56, has been treas
urer of Dallas County since
1950. He ran a close second to
James in 1956 and reportedly
had been considering running
again.
His appointed tenure lasts un
til 1978 when he will have to run
for election if he wants to keep
the job.
T. Lewis said the appeals court
would take some time to weigh
the matter and “can’t be hur
ried in any way.”
♦*y
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