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POLITICS
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Thursday, June 27, 2019 5A
JOE LEDFORD I Associated Press
Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., convicted of capital murder,
attempted murder and other charges, gestures as Johnson
County deputies remove Miller from the courtroom during
the sentencing phase of his trial, Nov. 10, 2015, at the
Johnson County District Court in Olathe, Kan.
Kansas abortion
ruling sparks new
death row debate
BY JOHN HANNA
Associated Press
TOPEKA — A recent
Kansas Supreme Court rul
ing declaring that the state
constitution protects access
to abortion opened the door
to a new legal attack on the
death penalty.
Attorneys for five of the 10
men on death row in Kansas
argue the abortion decision
means the state’s courts can
enforce the guarantees of
“life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness” in the Bill of
Rights in the Kansas Consti
tution. The lawyers contend
the convicted killers cannot
be executed because capital
punishment violates their
“inalienable” right to life.
They include Frazier
Glenn Miller Jr., a white
supremacist convicted of
killing three people at two
Jewish sites in the Kansas
City area in 2014, and Jona
than and Reginald Carr,
two brothers who, authori
ties said, forced five people
to remove money from
ATMs and have sex with one
another before killing four of
them in Wichita in 2000.
Defense attorneys
launched the new legal
attack on capital punish
ment in filings with the
state Supreme Court in
May, less than two weeks
after the abortion decision.
The justices took the claims
seriously enough to order
defense attorneys and prose
cutors to file additional writ
ten arguments, with the last
ones due in mid-November.
The Kansas Supreme
Court’s abortion ruling in
April was the latest in a
long list of decisions that
have angered conservative
Republicans in the GOP-
controlled Legislature. It
said the state’s Bill of Rights
grants a right to “personal
autonomy” that includes
access to abortion.
Four of the seven jus
tices were appointed by
Democratic Gov. Kathleen
Sebelius and two by mod
erate Republican Gov. Bill
Graves. The seventh, the
only dissenter in the abor
tion case, was appointed by
conservative GOP Gov. Sam
Brownback.
Past decisions in capital
murder cases also have
sparked anger. Kansas’ last
legal executions were in
1965, by hanging, and the
state enacted its current
death penalty law in 1994.
The court has yet to rule
in Miller’s case. In 2014, the
court overturned death sen
tences for the Carr broth
ers in two separate rulings.
Those decisions helped
fuel unsuccessful election
campaigns in 2014 and
2016 to oust all but Brown-
back’s appointee. The U.S.
Supreme Court overturned
the rulings, sending the
Carrs’ cases back to the
Kansas Supreme Court. The
cases are pending.
Republican Kansas Attor
ney General Derek Schmidt
told The Associated Press
this week the decision
“opened the door for a wide
range of new litigation.”
“There is a certain irony
that a case regarding abor
tion is now being urged by
some as a reason to upend
the death penalty in Kan
sas,” Schmidt said. “I think
that’s just the start, because
this holding was so sweep
ing. I think it’s not just going
to be abortion.”
Senior EPA official steps down
amid House ethics investigation
BY MICHAEL BIESECKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A top Environ
ment Protection Agency official who
helped lead the Trump administra
tion’s rollback of Obama-era restric
tions of carbon emissions is resigning
amid a congressional probe into
whether he improperly aided former
industry clients.
EPA Assistant Administrator Bill
Wehrum is expected to depart at
the end of June. EPA Administrator
Andrew Wheeler announced Weh-
rum’s resignation on Wednesday,
thanking him for his service and
friendship.
Ethics questions have dogged Weh
rum since his 2017 nomination by
President Donald Trump. He long rep
resented the fossil fuels and chemical
industries as a Washington lawyer.
Narrowly confirmed by the Senate,
Wehrum has helped lead EPA’s roll
backs of clean air and carbon emis
sions regulations that were opposed
by his former private-sector clients.
The Democratic-controlled House
Energy and Commerce Committee
opened an investigation in April fol
lowing media reports questioning
Wehrum’s compliance with ethics
rules barring political appointees
from acting on issues involving their
former employers for at least two
years.
Documents obtained through a pub
lic records request by the Sierra Club
showed Wehrum met with former
clients and industry lawyers from his
former firm without disclosing the
contacts on his official calendar. He
also gave a closed-door presentation
last year to the Cooler Heads Coali
tion, a conservative group that seeks
to raise doubts about mainstream cli
mate science.
Committee Chairman Frank Pal-
lone Jr. vowed to continue the investi
gations into Wehrum’s conduct.
“William Wehrum’s departure
comes as welcome news for all those
who value EPA’s mission of protecting
public health and the environment,”
said Pallone, a New Jersey Demo
crat. “While all of his proposed rules
are dangerous, it’s unlikely that any
of them will survive judicial review.
EPA should use this opportunity to hit
reset on its agenda and refocus on pro
tecting the health and environment of
the American people.”
Environmental groups cheered
news of Wehrum’s resignation.
“Wehrum did more damage to the
Clean Air Act than any other per
son in the last 40 years,” said Brett
Hartl, government affairs director at
the Center for Biological Diversity.
“His legacy will be more premature
deaths, more hospital visits and more
asthma attacks to our most vulnerable
citizens.”
Victims question Dem contender
Harris’ record on clergy sex abuse
BY MICHAEL REZENDES
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -
Joey Piscitelli was angry
when Kamala Harris
emerged as a contender for
the Democratic presidential
nomination. It brought back
the frustration he felt in the
2000s, when he was a newly
minted spokes
man for clergy sex
abuse victims and
Harris was San
Francisco’s district
attorney.
Piscitelli says
Harris never
responded to him
when he wrote to
tell her a priest
who had molested him was
still in ministry at a local
Catholic cathedral. And, he
says, she didn’t reply five
years later when he wrote
again, urging her to release
records on accused clergy
to help other alleged victims
filing lawsuits.
“She did nothing,” said
Piscitelli, the Northern Cali
fornia spokesman for SNAP,
the Survivors Network of
those Abused by Priests.
Survivors of clergy abuse
and their attorneys say that
Harris’ record on
fighting sex abuse
within the Catholic
Church is relevant
as the U.S. senator
from California
campaigns for the
presidency as a
tough-on-crime ex
prosecutor who got
her start prosecut
ing child sexual abuse cases.
They complain that Harris
was consistently silent on
the Catholic Church’s abuse
scandal — first as district
attorney in San Francisco
and later as California’s
attorney general.
In a statement to The
Associated Press, the Har
ris campaign underscored
her record of supporting
child sex abuse victims but
did not address her silence
regarding victims abused
by Catholic clerics.
“Kamala Harris has
been a staunch advocate on
behalf of sexual assault vic
tims, especially child sexual
assault victims,” the state
ment said, noting she “used
her position as District
Attorney to create the first
unit focused on child sexual
assault cases in the office’s
history.”
The statement said she
withheld documents regard
ing clergy sexual abuse
from attorneys and news
reporters to protect the
identities of victims.
Catholics make up large
voting blocs in the city
and the state, accounting
for roughly a quarter of
the population in both San
Francisco’s metro area and
across California.
“There’s a potential polit
ical risk if you move aggres
sively against the church,”
said Michael Meadows, a
Bay Area attorney who has
represented clergy abuse
victims. “I just don’t think
she was willing to take it.”
Before Harris was
elected district attorney in
2003, a U.S. Supreme Court
decision made it impossible
to pursue criminal prosecu
tions of child sexual abuse
cases after statutes of limita
tion had expired. For many
victims, that left lawsuits in
civil court as the only path
for seeking justice.
Harris
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