European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 12, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes columns Tom Wicker Rehnquist ignores heart of death penalty plea chief Justice William Rehn quistas latest Call for limiting appeals by death Row inmates demonstrates again that even in capital cases he is More interested in speedy and a a orderly procedure than in fairness or full consideration of possible error. But the prevention of error when death May be its consequence ought to be a prime concern of the nations highest judicial officer. To Rehnquist however the question is not the pros and cons of the death penalty a which is rendered in state courts but often appealed in Federal court a a but the pros and cons of  the goal he said a must be to allow the states to carry out a lawful capital sentence while. Assuring the capital defendant meaningful review of the lawfulness of his  but a a lawful is not always a a fair since stale Legal procedures can and sometimes do result in Gross inequity and a a meaningful review is not necessarily fair or full review. Determining even in meaningful review that a death sentence is lawful can and sometimes does mean the execution of innocent people. More stringent limits on Federal review of state procedures will make that result More Likely. Experience in two states though it could be duplicated elsewhere demonstrates the Point. In Florida after two Brothers were sentenced to death for a murder they had not committed a Hareas Corpus petition in Federal court brought by Eleanor Jackson Piel of new York and her co counsel resulted in a stay of execution 16 hours before the switch was to be thrown and led to disclosure of exculpatory evidence suppressed by Law officers. A second such petition produced a new trial and a Federal judges condemnation of Florida for a callous and deliberate disregard for the fundamental principles of truth and  in Virginia a capital defendant cannot raise a claim in Post conviction appeals if it already has been raised and decided at trial or on direct Appeal. But there is a catch-22 the same defendant cannot make a new claim either because Virginia holds that he or she should have raised it at trial or on direct Appeal. The Rehnquist court already has sharply limited death Row  rest of them just Wear the of Nonal court Robes go 9 Csc in an opinion written by Rehnquist it held against precedent that a new i Docial ruling could not be applied so proactively to someone convicted under the old Legal understanding. If a death Row defendant was con. Evicted under a Law or procedure the courts subsequently invalidated he or she can not Appeal for a new trial under the new ruling. Rehnquist now Calls for passage of Federal legislation embodying proposals by a committee of Federal judges headed by retired Justice Lewis f. Powell or. He did not acknowledge however that the Powell report had been substantially repudiated by the Federal judicial conference the ranking policy Makina body of the Federal courts. 1 Rehnquist is chairman of the conference but despite his support for the Powell report the conference rejected two of its major provisions. One proposed that a capital defendant be entitled to Only one Federal Hareas Corpus petition except on the sole question of his guilt or innocence the conference expanded that to permit further claims about the appropriateness of the death penalty itself. The other Powell recommendation rejected by the conference called for the states to provide counsel for indigent defendants in state Hareas Corpus proceedings. The conference not Only extended the states obligation to trial and direct appeals but required state appointed counsel to meet a National Standard of competence. Rehnquist nevertheless supported legislation based on a the proposals of the Powell  he specifically opposed several other Bills including one to overturn the widely criticized retroactivity decision he himself wrote. This direct intervention in congressional business by the highest officer of the judicial Branch comes close to conflict of interest and a breach of the doctrine of separation of Powers. Even if there was nothing improper in Rehnquist supporting one piece of legislation while criticizing and rejecting others How does this kind of lobbying Square with conservative denunciations of a judicial legislation Quot does no to chief Justice Rehnquist argue when it suits him that judges should interpret the Law and not make it c new York time Scarl Rowan salaries of . Teachers still a crying shame the headline might As Well have come from the Hubble Telescope a teachers average salary tops $30,000.�?� it was after All a far out revelation of an earthshaking threshold overcome in this country a Long struggle to make teachers the human sandbags in americans Long efforts to build a Wall against the a rising tide of mediocrity in american education. Sarcasm aside let me say that no one ought to wonder Why the United states has a colossal Trade deficit and is monumentally indebted to Japan saudi Arabia West Germany and others when americans think paying the average teacher $31,153 is generous and great. Teachers who Are not necessarily the Best get $43,153 in Alaska and those who surely Are not the worst get $21,300 a year in South Dakota. All salaries Are relative in America. I recall that at age 12 i took my favorite teachers paycheck to the Bank every month a All of $60 a month. But in those depression Days that $60 made her one of the most affluent and respected Black people in Central Tennessee. Today at $30,000 a year no teacher can be affluent and the Only ones who Are genuinely respected Are those who help children out of love and an uncommon concern for the nations future. The role of a teacher in America has changed profoundly. I went to school hungry Many a morning but no teacher listened to belly rumbles or had the Means to give me and my classmates breakfast. Or lunch for that matter. In my time women weren to in the work Force to the extent that every teacher became a surrogate Parent in the morning urging children from families headed by a working female to Brush their Teeth and their hair a police person at lunchtime monitoring school corridors and playgrounds for drug paddlers or insane outbreaks of violence a spiritual Counselor in the afternoon telling a a Latchkey children not to go Home and succumb to the temptations of sex and drugs a medical adviser for children who did no to listen and thus need counselling about pregnancy and whether that Means dropping out or about gonorrhoea syphilis aids and other illnesses arising from stupidly unsafe sex. Somewhere within and around these new roles teachers Are still supposed to know How to teach Shakespeare James Weldon Johnson or. Jonas Salk Ohms Law the Magna Carta and Martin Luther Kings a letter from a Birmingham  when it comes to paying teachers most Amer ans especially obtuse politicians such As outgoing Texas gov. Bill Clements want something miraculous Tor next to nothing. A lot of Texas teachers Are bound o get Hurt because of Clements mindless opposition to an education Reform Bill that seeks to meet a Lexas supreme court mandate that the state spend As much to educate a child in a poor school District lacking in property taxes As is spent on a child in a District of Rich texans. Americans done to understand first of All the importance of Public education to defending our pm a. The world. They refuse to accept the idea of equalizes the funds spent on a ghetto child As against one living in a Rich suburb. They have refused to see that Leach Are honorable caring individuals who have an of children a destinies in their hands. We have got to find More Good and great and pay them much More in accordance with in contributions to this society. It will be suicidal in tonal terms for any of us to exult in a statistic say b that the people who Are so important to our Enna Are finally earning a shameful $30,000 a year. A North american Syndicate inc