St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 10

NOV 9 1993 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH NEWS ANALYSIS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1993 9B Court To Hear Prisoner Mights Case I if Blackmun, Nearly 85, Ponders Years, Future On High Court lif WASHINGTON (AP) SUPREME COURT JUSTICE Harry A. Blackmun's eyes widened in surprise, and he hurried to his desk to retrieve a chart of former justices. A quick scan confirmed that Blackmun, the author of the 1973 decision legalizing abortion, is the fourth-oldest person to serve on the nation's highest court. their pregnancies.

"I think it's now a settled issue with this court," Blackmun said. "There isn't the same emotional reaction there once was among the justices. We've weathered the storm." Ruth Bader Ginsburg, considered a strong supporter of a right to abortion, has joined the court since last year's ruling. And any successor to Blackmun chosen by President Bill Clinton is 3 He will become the third-oldest before the current court term ends in June. "Holy smokes.

I hadn't been aware of that," said Blackmun, who turns 85 on Friday. "I may have to start packing my things." But he turned serious before answering the next "I know how old I am. One is as old as he feels, and I feel pretty well. If HARRY BLACKMUN, Supreme Court justice likely to hold similar views. Blackmun, the court's senior member, has contemplated and talked about retiring.

Now his three daughters are lobbying him to leave the job he WASHINGTON (AP) THE SUPREME COURT will decide whether federal courthouse doors should be shut to some prisoners whose rights may have been violated in moves from one penal system to another. In a decision announced Monday, the justices agreed to study the case of an Indiana inmate who says he was wrongly denied a speedy trial after being transferred from federal custody. The high court has sharply reduced in recent years federal judges' power to second-guess state court convictions in habeas corpus cases those in which a defendant alleges a state prosecution was tainted by violations of federal constitutional rights. Indiana prison inmate Orrin Reed's case presents the court with its latest opportunity to look at federal court review of state court convictions. Reed, now 62, was serving a federal prison sentence in 1983 when Indiana authorities had him transferred to the state to stand trial on charges of defrauding $4,666 from an insurance company by falsely reporting a stolen truck.

His transfer was obtained through the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, a compact among 48 states and the federal government. The interstate agreement, subscribed to by all states except Mississippi and Louisiana, provides for transfers of people to trial in one state while in custody in another. The agreement also provides prisoners with certain rights including the right to be tried within 120 days of such a transfer. Reed was not tried within 120 days of his 1983 move to Indiana; he asked a state court to dismiss Indiana's charges against him, but his request was denied. Tried and convicted on the false-report charge, Reed was sentenced as a habitual criminal to 34 years in prison.

The Indiana Supreme Court upheld his conviction, ruling that Reed ap Supreme Court Justice Harry A. mun in a 1992 file photo. judge for a decade, Blackmun was considered a staunch conservative in his early days as a justice. Today, he is considered to be the court's most liberal justice, but he has told friends the court's politics have changed more than his own. He said the term that began last month was shaping up as one with a significant number of close cases.

But Blackmun doesn't see "any blockbuster bloodletting" on the horizon. Meanwhile, there's an 85th birthday to celebrate. About 90 of the justice's friends, many of them former law clerks, are planning to take him and his wife, Dottie Blackmun, to a suburban Washington polka barn described by one of the party givers as "very Minnesota, very German, -very quirky." has held since 1970 and move to Florida. Blackmun acknowledged that Byron R. White, a mere 75, "beat me to the punch" by retiring in June.

Blackmun returns each summer to Rochester, where he served as general counsel in the 1950s, for a physical examination at the Mayo Clinic. "These days," Blackmun said, "the final report always begins, 'Well, considering your age Oliver Wendell Holmes didn't retire until he was 90, in 1932. Chief Justice Roger Taney died in office in 1864 at 87. Justice Hugo Black, with whom Blackmun served one term, retired at 85 years and six months a milestone Blackmun will pass in the spring. A lifelong Republican and a federal appellate question: Is this term Blackmun's last? "I prefer not to comment on that yet," he said in an interview.

"I know how old I am. One is as old as he feels, and I feel pretty well." Blackmun was born in Nashville, 111., in 1908 but moved as a young child. He usually is listed as being from Minnesota. He is best known for the abortion decision, Roe vs. Wade, and for his role in subsequent abortion rulings.

It has made him one of the most vilified Supreme Court members in history, the recipient of more than 60,000 pieces of hate mail in the past two decades. For years, the court appeared on the verge of overturning Roe vs. Wade and letting states outlaw abortion once again. But a ruling last year reaffirmed women's constitutional right to end Other federal appeals courts have reached conflicting conclusions about the availability of such federal court review. In other action Monday, the court: Refused to let two religious schools in Hawaii hire only Protestants as teachers.

The justices, with Man Denies Rape Of Wife Before She Mutilated Him Husband On Trial Now; Wife's Hearing Later out comment, rejected the schools' argument that they qualify for a fed- eral job-bias law's exemption for religious schools. Let Minnesota continue impos-? ing a graduated tax on the money charity groups take in from legalized gambling. -v: ney, stressed what he called inconsistencies between her testimony and Retiring Tricky For Couples With Two Careers, Timing Is Crucial By Tamar Lewin 1993, New York Times News Service NEW YORK JOHN SYNAL, a suburban New York school superintendent, was 56, burned out and bored when he told his wife he was going to retire. But Jean Synal, at 49, was just reaching the peak of her professional life. "He was adamant he was going to retire," said Jean Synal, who reared three children before becoming a teacher and then a principal.

"I wasn't too thrilled, because I wondered what he would do with himself. But I never had any doubt that I was going to go on working, because I was in my prime." So Jean Synal worked full time for six years after her husband retired and even after she joined him in retirement, she initially felt so restless that she did part-time consulting for several years. The Synals, like other couples of their generation, took it for granted that women would stay home to care for babies and that wives would move to follow their husband's jobs. But with the advent of the women's movement, economic necessity and the opening of job opportunities, many wives joined the labor force. And with both husband and wife working, the decision about who should retire, and when, has become a complicated one.

If the issue of the 1980s was how two-career couples would handle child -rearing, the issue of the 1990s may be how two-career couples will handle retirement. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, half of all men are out of the labor force at age 62. Women's retirement patterns are less clear, because it is only recently that large numbers of women have been in the work force. So while the bureau's surveys show that in 1992, half of all women were out of the work force at age 60, it is unclear how many had retired and how many had never worked. A study last year by the bureau found that the number of working women nearing retirement had increased to 6.2 million in 1989 from 5 million in 1968.

But, it said, "while the retirement behavior of women is becoming an increasingly important issue, little is known about their retirement decisions." One study of retirement decisions found that among couples in which both husband and wife had retired, about a quarter of the women did so the same year as their husbands. The study was based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women, a survey of women who were 30 to 44 when the study began in 1967, and 52 to 66 when last surveyed in 1989. It also found that 44 percent retired before their husbands and 30 percent retired after. Data on the larger group of couples in which either husband or wife was still working in 1989 are not yet available, and the authors of the study caution that the couples who retired early may not be fully representative. For many working couples, the stereotyped image of retirement the husband who leaves his job, joins his wife at home, to travel, play golf or move to a retirement community no longer reflects reality.

And even if women, on average, continue to retire at slightly younger ages than men, many will be working after their husbands' retirements, since most men are several years older than their wives. In many cases, husbands and wives find themselves out of sync as they approach retirement age. Husbands who have worked for 40 years may be eager to leave their job pressures behind, while wives who entered the work force late find those same pressures exhilarating. Financially, women who took jobs after rearing a family may also be reluctant to drop out before they accrue substantial pension and social security benefits. For whatever the emotional calculus, retirement is also an economic decision.

IC" 7 1 ft t-i pi I lilll I 1 Lsiv had not made his pretrial objection plain enough. Reed then turned to the federal courts for help. A federal judge rejected Reed's argument that his Indiana trial had violated the interstate agreement. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Reed's conviction last malicious wounding for severing her husband's penis in the early morning hours of June 23.

She says the act was provoked not only by an attack that night but also by years of abuse. The Bobbitts face 20 years in prison each if convicted of their respective crimes. "There are two different stories that can be told, both of them consistent with the severed penis," said Pamela Karlan, a law professor at the University of Virginia. "A lot of what the jury decides depends on which of the two stories they believe." Virginia's spousal rape law, under which John Bobbitt is being tried, took effect seven years ago and has been used only sporadically. According to legal scholars, winning a conviction on such a charge is often difficult because some juries will not accept that sexual consent could be absent within marriage.

The Bobbitt case is especially challenging for Ebert because of the sensational act that followed the alleged assault. The prosecutor will try to use that act as evidence of John Bobbitt's continuing abuse of his wife. According to statements that Ebert has made in several preliminary hearings, he will iA.iri-1 rr-'i? -yf. T-t O.J 8 '1? 't Compiled From News Services MANASSAS, Va. FOR ALL THE lurid details and the almost voyeuristic interest that surrounds it, the trial that began Monday for John Wayne Bob-bitt will be much like any other case of marital sexual assault.

And that means that it will be tough to win a conviction, legal scholars say. Bobbitt's wife, Lorena Bobbitt, has accused him of raping and assaulting her the night she made headlines by cutting off his The defense to portray Bobbitt as a who was angry of a pending and his wife, Lorena Bobbitt (right photo), arrive in court Monday cut off his penis with a kitchen knife. She said he had raped her, is expected Lorena jealous wife when told divorce. January without reaching the merits of his arguments. "Unless a state fails to entertain and resolve claims" under the interstate agreement, federal court review is not available, the 7th Circuit court ruled in a decision binding in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.

John Wayne Bobbitt (left photo) in Manassas, Va. Bobbitt's wife try to convince the jury that something horrible must have happened to drive Lorena Bobbitt to commit such a heinous act. But Ebert says that discussing the severed penis could backfire, because jurors may decide that John Bobbitt has already paid for any crime against his wife. As for the defense, attorney Greg Murphy will argue that Lorena Bobbitt falsely accused her husband of rape to justify her crime. He could try to introduce evidence including allegations that Lorena Bobbitt embezzled money from a manicure salon where she works that suggests she is dishonest.

She was never charged with a crime, and she agreed to return the money to her employer. Murphy is expected to describe Lorena Bobbitt as an abusive and jealous wife who went over the edge when her husband told her that he intended to divorce her. "The story of their relationship and work in the afternoon, and "tech prep" career programs that combine the last two years of high school with a year or two of community college. Russ McCampbell, assistant to the Missouri commissioner of education, predicted that methods to teach all students advanced mathematics and science in the workplace would be the "real cutting edge in the next 10 years." Fran Beauman, a spokeswoman for the Illinois department of adult vocational education, said her state's application would list strengths and weaknesses. The strengths, she said, include four tech-prep programs that began last year.

The state is evaluating applications this week for eight more such programs next year. Reich said the bill would require all school-to-work programs to have certain key elements: Classes at school where teens would learn general workplace skills. 1 ui prior statements about the multila- tion. Lorena Bobbitt appeared to give-i -conflicting statements about her husband used his feet or his 't hands to remove her clothes and how i vr he held her down. "I don't know, I don't she said as Murphy read her statements aloud.

In his opening statement, Murpfiy'-U-j' told jurors that Lorena Bobbitt came upset after seeing her husband 'j rV talking to another woman a few before the multilation. "This is about her relationship her husband, her said. Murphy also alleged that Lorena Bobbitt and some of her friends chiefly concerned with making mon- ey from the case. Ebert, the prosecutor, told the jury-of nine women and three men that'. 'I Bobbitt frequently had forced his wife to have sex.

e-, penis with a kitchen knife. John Bobbitt, 26, a former Marine, has denied that he attacked his wife. "It's going to come down to whom you believe," said Paul B. Ebert, chief prosecutor for Prince William County in suburban Washington. "It's not easy to prove a case when it's one person's word against another's." Still, as much of the world knows, the Bobbitts' situation is far from usual.

John Bobbitt's trial is something of a scene-setter for the trial later this month in which Lorena Bobbitt, 24, will be defendant, not victim. Lorena Bobbitt is charged with has not been told," he said last week. "And I assure you that parts of it will be told." Although more than 30 witnesses have been subpoenaed, both sides agree that the case will be won or lost on the testimony of John and Lorena Bobbitt. In testimony Monday, Lorena Bobbitt sobbed as she told the jury that John Bobbitt pinned her to the bed and raped her. Lorena Bobbitt said that she objected several times but that her husband said her objections did not matter.

She said that after intercourse, she was angry, grabbed a knife, returned to the bedroom and severed his penis after he fell asleep. Police found the penis on a grassy corner where Lorena Bobbitt had thrown it from a car. The organ was packed on ice and taken to Prince William Hospital, where it was reattached in a nine-hour operation. In his cross examination of Lorena Bobbitt, Murphy, the defense attor- Paying jobs, where teens would apply their school lessons under a mentor. A curriculum emphasizing measurable standards, to be developed by representatives of employers, labor and educators.

A certificate for graduates showing they had acquired the skills set by employers and unions in their chosen field. A commitment from schools to make such classes and job opportunities available to all students, without "tracking" or sorting students by ability and without closing off the option of college. Unlike European employers who foot the entire bill for apprenticeship programs, U.S. employers would spend little more than they do for training now, Reich said. Participating schools would get money to develop curriculum and coordinate between the workplace and School-To-Work Bill Favors Apprenticeships Vr 4 Jf By Virginia Baldwin Hick Of the Post-Dispatch Staff PICTURE THIS: students learning trigonometry on the construction site or geography skills at the airport, then getting real jobs-with-a-future when they leave school.

That's the aim of the School-to-Work Opportunities bill, which offers incentives to states to start statewide apprenticeship and other job training programs for 16- to 21-year-olds. Sponsored by Sen. Paul Simon, (D-111), the bill sets guidelines that would standardize current programs and streamline the establishment of new ones. U.S. Labor Secretary Robert B.

Reich began campaigning this week for the bill, which passed out of committees in both houses last week. In a telephone interview Monday, Reich noted that only one in four college-age people got a degree. Although the United States has one of the best college and university systems in the world, he said, it has one of the worst programs for training students for jobs that do not require a degree. "It's dangerous for a society to have a class system of the sort we're developing, in which the 25 percent who graduate from college are on the high road, and the 75 percent who don't are on the downward path," Reich said. "No society can stay peaceful when there is such a sharp division." Last month, Congress appropriated $15 million in start-up grants to states through current job-training programs.

Missouri is scheduled to get Illinois would get $460,000. Representatives from both states said they were examining a variety of school-work combinations, including apprenticeship programs, co-op programs in which students attend school in the morning Robert B. Reich "It's dangerous for a society' the classroom, Reich said. Other- wise, the students in these programs-already are the responsibility of high schools and community colleges, he. said..