European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 06, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday february 1994 . The stars and stripes Page 5 supremacist convicted of killing Evers Jackson miss. A after 30years and three trials White supremacist Byron de la Beckwith was convicted saturday and sentenced to life in prison for murdering civil rights Leader Medgar Evers in 1963. Beckwith was tried twice before All White juries in 1964. Both times the juries deadlocked and mistrial were declared. The jury that convicted him was composed of eight Blacks and four Whites. Beckwith was indicted a third time in 1991 after new witnesses came Forward today they had heard him claim responsibility for Eversz death. Those witnesses along with circumstantial evidence from 1963, icy med the Core of the pros Ccu Tion Case. During the we Klong trial prosecutors argued that Beckwith a former fertilizer Salesman had staked out Evers Home and fired a single shot through his Back As the rights activist got out of his car shortly after Midnight on june 12,1963. Beckwith 73, who did not testify has steadfastly maintained that he did not Kil levers an organizer for the National association for the advancement of col ored people but has never hidden his satisfaction that Evers died. His court appointed lawyers argued that he was in his Hometown of Greenwood 90 Miles from Jackson when Evers was killed. The trial was held in the same court room As Beckwith s first two trials in 1964, and provided daily reminders of How much has changed in Mississippi in the intervening years. Beckwith was considered something of a Folk hero in Mississippi when he was first tried. Gov. Ross Barnett was among the Well wishers who came to a 1964 trial to support him. Group says faces Colorado Springs Colo. A Tony Harding must face disciplinary proceedings for her alleged role in the attack on rival skater Nancy Kerri Gan the . Figure skating association announced saturday. William Hybl chairman of the five member Sosa panel investigating Harding announced that its decision was unanimous. The decision does not immediately Stop Hardin from skating in the olympics which will Start sat urday in Lillehammer Norway. The United states olympic committee As they sit As the game s administrative panel has the final authority As far As american athletes Are concerned Hybl said. He said Harding has 30 Days in which to respond to the Ussa and if there is no response the disciplinary hearing will be held without her. We be tried to be very fair i think we be Benkover backwards to give Tonya the Benefit of the doubt but we had to Deal with the evidence that was before us said Sharon Watson a member of the  was clubbed in the right knee Jan. 6 in Detroit in an attack that knocked her out of the .figure skating championships. Four men including Harding s sex husband Jeff Gillooly have implicated themselves in the attack. Harding has not been charged but Gillooly has told authorities that she was deeply involved and gave the go ahead for the attack. Harding won a spot on the us. Olympic team an Kerrigan also was named to the team. Hybl said the Ussa the sport s governing body was powerless to take action against Harding before the Lillehammer games because of the requirement that allows Harding 30 Days to respond. On Friday a prominent member of the International olympic committee said the soc should allow Harding to skate in the Lillehammer olympics unless she is convicted in a . Court of conspiring to attack Kerrigan or confesses to a role in the attack. In Boston Kerrigan pronounced herself ready for the olympics after performing flawlessly during a exhibition Friday night that attracted former champions her family and More than 4,500 supporters. I m ready to go. I can t wait to get there Kerri Gan told the crowd at Matthews Arena on Northeast Ern University Campus. Thank you All for  she landed every move that tested her rejuvenated right leg from an opening triple jump to a number of sit spins. Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan acknowledges the applause Friday at northeastern University s Matthews Arena in Boston. Disney reportedly has Edge for to movie about Kerrigan los Angeles a an agreement for a to movie on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is expected to be reached soon with the Walt Disney co. And producer Steve Tisch the favourites for the sought after Deal. The package is said to include a tie in with the Disney them Parks daily variety said Friday. A separate exercise video also is being discussed the entertainment Trade paper said. An announcement is Likely soon according to a source who re Quested anonymity. Abc which pursued the Kerrigan project along with other net works is Likely to air the Disney Tisch movie variety said. Dozens of film producers have contacted Kerrigan s representative the sports marketing firm Proser since a Jan. 6 assault aimed at knocking her out of olympic Competition. Brother of olympic skater held in dad s killing Sheffield Lake Ohio a the father of olympic ice dancer Eliza Beth Punsalan was stabbed to death and his son was in custody police said sat urday. Or. Earnesto Punsalan s body was found in his Home. The doctor s son Rickey Punsalan 20, was in police custody and was expected to be charged monday with aggravated murder police chief Thomas Schmidt said. Punsalan was apprehended when police arrived at the House. A Kitchen knife believed to be the weapon also was recovered Schmidt said. Elizabeth Punsalan and her husband Jerod Swallow Are scheduled to skate for the United states in the ice dancing com petition at the Winter olympics the month in Lillehammer Norway. Punsalan and Swallow were still in the United states on saturday. The . Olympic committee said they were due to arrive in Oslo with the rest of the ice dancers and pairs figure skaters today and it was not known if their travel plans would change. Punsalan and Swallow were married in september. On Jan. 7, they won the ice dancing Competition at the . Figure skating championships in Detroit follow ing the withdrawal of defending champions Rende Roca and Gorsha sur. This time Beckwith Drew support from his family and a few friends from the White supremacist movement but the overwhelming majority of those  were sympathizers of Evers and his widow Myrlie who hugged her son an daughter As circuit judge l. Breland Hil Burn imposed the sentence. Then shecried./.-, r.  the defense relied primarily on three Alibi witnesses police officers who said they had seen Beckwith in Greenwood Between 11 45 . And 1 05 . The night of the slaying. Evers was killed at. About 12 30 .satellite woes prompt Nasa to stall release by discovery space Center Houston a Nasa delayed the release of a disk shaped experimental satellite from the space shuttle discovery on saturday be cause of a bad Battery and other prob lems. Mission control told the Crew it would try again today providing the trouble could be solved by then. I think that s an excellent plan said commander Charles Boldenjr. Astronaut Ronald Sega and ground controllers spent much of the morning struggling with the five status lights an two transmitters on the satellite called the Wake shield facility. The lights kept going off after being turned on they Are supposed to indicate the status of electricity and computer sys tems on the Craft no sooner had Mission control traced that problem to a bad Bat Tery and switched to a backup than the satellite transmitters went out. As the problems mounted Nas passed on the second release Opportunity and then the third and final Opportunity of the Day. The trouble began shortly after Astro naut Jan Davis used the 50-foot shuttle Crane to Latch onto the 12-foot stainless steel satellite Early saturday in preparation for its release. The spacecraft dangled from the Side of discovery on the end of the robot armas Nasa scrambled to understand All the problems. Once deployed the $13.5 million disk was to be backed away from discovery by a tiny nitrogen thruster. It is supposed to hurtle through space about 46 Miles behind the shuttle for two Days before cosmonaut Sergei Kri Kalev the first russian to. Fly aboard a .spaceship, recaptures it with the 50-foot robot . Y-1�-�. The 3,800-Pound satellite would soar through space on its Edge scientists hop its Wake would create an Ultra pure vacuum that allows the growth of a High qual Ity semiconductor film a key component in computer chips. Even in Low Earth orbit atomic oxygen contaminates the space vacuum. Re searchers theorize that the shield would protect the growing films front those Par Alicles and create a vacuum up to 10,000 times purer than those now possible i laboratories. If All goes Well seven semiconductor films would be grown on the satellite backside. Sega an Engineer and physicist who worked on Wake shield while teaching at the University of Houston is supposed to Monitor Progress through data and videos beamed Back to the shuttle. The eight Day flight is set to end with Kennedy space Center Landing Friday