Pensacola News Journal from Pensacola, Florida • 2

Pensacola News Journal Thursday, July 27,1995 NATION Experts split Defense couli as at finish today tack on at vl aco siege Of (I ti: I ft Associated Press UNION, S.C. Susan Smith's I brother took the stand Wednes-; day and protested sending "2,000 volts of electricity through her in the name of justice." The judge told the jury deciding Smith's fate to ignore the comment by Scotty Vaughan as the defense began arguing why she shouldn't be executed for drown-' ing her two young sons. The prosecution completed its portion of the sentencing hearing with grim photographs of the boys' bloated bodies after the car was recovered. The boys' faces were not shown. I Smith's 33-year-old brother, cry-lng at times, was the first defense -Jvitness called.

He said the family searches for to why "a good mother" jtilled her sons. "I get to a certain point and then 1 just give up," Vaughan said. "I don't think Susan knew what she was doing. The Susan I know was not at that lake that night." Smith, 23, was convicted of murder Saturday in the deaths of 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex. She lied for nine days about their disappearance, saying a black carjacker had driven away with them in her car.

After an intensive search and heavy media coverage, Smith con-fessed Nov. 3 to leaving the boys I inside the car when she sent it into John D. Long Lake. Prosecutors argued she should he executed because of the hei-nousness of the crime, which they say she committed to remove her children as obstacles to a love affair. Her lawyers say she is mentally ill and snapped under Other relatives are expected as witnesses to detail a life of emotional trauma, beginning with her father's suicide when she was 6.

Defense testimony was expected to end today. Unless all 12 jurors vote for execution, Smith will receive a life sentence. If they decide on death, she could choose the electric chair or lethal injection up to 14 days before her execution date. If she didn't choose, she would die by injection. Under questioning by defense lawyer David Bruck about how Susan Smith's family would be, affected by a death sentence, Vaughan said they had been "devastated already" and it could cause his mother, Linda Russell, to have a nervous breakdown.

Then Vaughan added, "To strap Susan in a chair and send 2,000 volts of electricity through her in the name of justice He was interrupted by prosecutor Tommy Pope's objection and Circuit Judge William Howard told the jury to ignore the comment. Emotion stopped Vaughan earlier, as he tearfully read a letter he wrote his sister in prison last January after she asled him about their father, Harry Vaughan, and his suicide. The letter recalled their parents' stormy marriage, their father's violent behavior and finally the night he shot himself. "I'll never forget the hurt, the pain I felt when she (their mother) told me Daddy was dead. Then I thought about you and how hurt you would be," Vaughan r' i Associated Press Susan Smith is escorted out of the county courthouse Wednesday in Union, S.C, at the end of the third day of the sentencing phase of her trial.

Smith could get the death penalty mounting emotional pressure. First lady's aide, Wiite House I and Firearms, also told of the the siege ended. officer give differing reports and Firearms, also told of the difficulty in negotiating with a man "who thought he was God." The siege ended 51 days after the shootout, after the FBI filled the compound with tear gas. A fire, which the government contends was started by Koresh and his followers, swept the compound. Koresh and 80 of his followers died in what investigators called a mass suicide.

Critics, including Uhlig, say the government was responsible for the deaths. Uhlig admitted he was not an expert on chemical warfare agents. The Democrats' witness, David Upshall, said he helped research the gas after it was first used in Northern Ireland. Upshall concluded that while the deaths at Waco saddened him, he believed "that the (tear) gas played no direct part in these deaths." FBI officials said they recommended using gas to try to end the siege because they did not believe David Koresh was on the verge of surrendering, as the sect leader's lawyer contended on Tuesday. The ATF's Cavanaugh said he watched in horror from a nearby house on Feb.

28, 1993, as an attempt to serve warrants turned into a raging gun battle that left four ATF agents and six Davidians dead. He also said Koresh had reneged on several offers to surrender and probably would not have come out, no matter how long the FBI waited before using gas. Reno approved the gassing plan, which was recommended by FBI agent Jeffrey Jamar, who com manded the federal agents when At the time of his suicide, Foster was working on a variety of personal legal matters for President and Mrs. Clinton, including tax matters involving the Whitewater real estate venture. O'Neill said he remained silent about what he saw until he was questioned by Whitewater prosecutors last spring.

Williams was equally forceful in denying she removed documents that night. "I took nothing from Vince's office," she testified. rTTi if. investigating Foster's suicide were allowed into his office on July 22, she was summoned by then-White House counsel Bernard Nuss-baum to pick up the files and turn them over to the Clintons' personal lawyer. Williams said she stored the files in a closet at the White House for several days before they were turned over to the lawyer.

Republicans asked her repeatedly to explain that. Williams, saying suspicion was unfounded, said the delay was due rv' i it1 Associated Press WASHINGTON The Senate Whitewater Committee grappled Wednesday with irreconcilable accounts of a search of Vincent Foster's office the night of his death. A Secret Service officer testified Hillary Rodham Clinton's top aide removed documents. She insisted she did not. "That night was not about documents," testified Margaret Williams, the first lady's chief of staff.

She disputed the recollections of Secret Service officer Henry P. AROUND Associated Press WASHINGTON The government's use of tear gas at Waco was sharply debated Wednesday, with one chemist suggesting the gas attack may have killed children inside the Branch Davidian compound and another scientist concluding it did no harm. In written testimony submitted to two congressional subcommittees investigating the events at Waco, George F. Uhlig, a professor of chemistry at the College of Eastern Utah, said a chemical used to carry the gas into the compound "would have suffocated the children early on." He also wrote that a poorly ventilated area of the house "could have been turned into an area similar to one of the gas chambers used by the Nazis at Auschwitz." Under questioning by Republicans who arranged his testimony, however, Uhlig said there was a 60 percent chance that the chemical used with the gas "could" have killed children. The Justice Department immediately attacked Uhlig's findings and a witness called by Democrats said he and his partner found no evidence that the gas caused any harm.

Questioning of the scientists marked one of the sharpest disputes in the six days of hearings so far. Earlier in the day, a federal agent tearfully testified that he has no doubt the Davidians shot first when officers tried to serve warrants at the compound on Feb. 28, 1993. The agent, Jim Cavanaugh of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco to fatigue, the emotional distress over Foster's death and the fact that she was about to travel to Arkansas for Foster's funeral. Sen.

Connie Mack, asked about phone logs showing that Susan Thomases, a close friend of Hillary Clinton, placed 13 calls to Williams and others in the time shortly after Foster's death. Republicans have questioned whether Thomases could have influenced the handling of Foster's papers, including restricting police access to them. 4 an inspiration to all your fellow Americans," Clinton said. Hanks, who played Lovell in the movie, also teamed up with the astronaut in a speech earlier in the day at which Lovell confided that Kevin Costner actually had been his first choice to portray him in the movie dramatizing the near-fatal 1970 flight to the moon. "I apologize Tom, I really made a mistake when I thought Kevin Costner could do the job." "There," Lovell said, pointing to Hanks, "is a closet astronaut.

At the Oval Office ceremony, Hanks stood to the side with his 17-year-old son, Colin, while Clinton presented the medal to Lovell. "I was told not to step on the carpet," Hanks joked. Cm, -(, 'J 1 1m I I I' Prosecutors argue Salvi is sane M- St IP 1 ml v5 read. O'Neill that she had carried a stack of papers from the office. Though at times appearing nervous or confused, O'Neill testified with equal certainty: "I'm not in any doubt about it." To bolster Williams' testimony, the White House released the results of a 1994 lie detector test in which she denied removing documents from Foster's office the night of July 20, 1993.

She passed that test and another one administered by Whitewater prosecutors, her lawyer, Edward THE NATION "Are you suggesting that Pat Robertson might be delusional?" Hinkle asked defense expert Dr. Ronald Schouten, a psychiatrist. "No, I am not suggesting that," said Schouten, director of law and psychiatric services at Massachusetts General Hospital. Under questioning, Schouten admitted that some of Salvi's beliefs were logical, including his conviction that Catholics would increase their political power if they banded together. year-oWs death Torres, a 28-year-old unemployed laborer from New York City, was arrested Tuesday night after his daughter Jennifer's body was found in her blood-soaked bed with knife wounds to the chest.

Investigators said he showed no remorse. At his arraignment in county court Wednesday, he pleaded innocent to murder and was jailed without bond. Torres and the girl's mother, Caroline Mendez, had been divorced for five years. as an innovative car executive. A Mormon long active in church affairs, Romney became the first president of the Mormon church's Detroit stake in 1952, a post he held until 1963.

Romney was the epitome of "all that is good in business, church and family," said Gordon B. Hinckley, president of the Mormon Church. The former American Motors Corp. president was elected governor in 1962 and served seven years. for drowning her two young sons.

Dennis, testified. (Senate Republicans are exploring whether presidential aides tried to hide sensitive documents in Foster's office from the investigating police a charge repeatedly denied by the White House. Williams also was questioned about her now well-known role in removing files, including documents about the Clintons' Whitewater investment and other financial matters, from Foster's office two days after the death. She explained that after police House bill cuts funds for police More money for domestic violence Associated Press f' WASHINGTON The House came up with more money Wednesday for domestic violence programs but rejected an attempt to resurrect crime prevention programs advocated by the administration. The bill also would end funding for President Clinton's program to help communities hire thousands more police.

In what Rep. Nita Lowey, described as "one of the rare victories" for Democrats, the Republican leadership agreed Wednesday to assign $50 million for domestic violence programs from a $2 billion law enforcement block grant fund. Added to the original $75 million budgeted and $40 millign to be set aside from the crime trust fund, the money nearly equaled the $175 million authorized under the Violence Against Women Act passed last year. Lowey said Republicans had joined in a unanimous vote to pass that act, and "clearly they didn't want to debate this issue with us on the floor." But the House rejected, 296-128, an amendment by Rep. Cleo Fields, to transfer $200 mil-' lion from the block grant to prevention programs that were part of the crime bill passed under a Democratic-controlled Congress last year.

The House on Tuesday night defeated, by a mainly party-line 232-184 vote, a Democratic attempt to restore funding to 'Clinton's cops-on-the-beat program that would put 100,000 new police officers on the street. Clinton has threatened to use his veto power to fight unwarranted spending cuts. DEDHAM, Mass. A prosecutor compared a man accused of shooting at two women's health clinics to Pat Robertson to try to prove the man is competent to stand trial for murder. Prosecutor Marianne Hinkle held up the religious broadcaster's 1991 book "The New World Order," and said some references made by John C.

Salvi III were similar to Robertson's. Hinkle said Robertson's book makes reference to economic conspiracies, and said Salvi believes in economic conspiracies. Father arrested in YAPHANK, N.Y. A father said he was roughhousing with his 4-year-old daughter when she accidentally fell against his hunting knife. So to end her suffering, he decided to kill her.

Authorities said Mauricio Torres made that admission Wednesday. They didn't say whether they believed him. "That's his version," said Assistant District Attorney Christopher Powers. "He says that he saw her suffering and he wanted ioend it." Associated Press President Clinton poses with actor Tom Hanks, left, and former astronaut James Lovell in the Oval Office of the White House Wednesday, after presenting Lovell with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Hanks joined in after portraying Lovell in the recently released movie "Apollo 13." Real-life Apollo astronaut wins medal iEx-Michigan governor dead at 88 Associated Press WASHINGTON A quarter century after he brought his crippled spacecraft home, Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell collected a medal Wednesday at the White House.

He shared the spotlight with his movie stand-in actor Tom Hanks. With Hanks looking on, President Clinton draped the Congressional Space Medal of Honor around Lovell's neck in an Oval Office ceremony and congratulated him on an "extraordinary mission" that he said was made even more vivid by the recent "Apollo 13" film. "What you did up there and what you have accomplished in 'your life 1 back here on Earth continues to be "Everyone connected with thfi mission understood that it was imperative to work together and. remain diligent in the face of enor-u mous odds," Clinton said at ceremony attended by other astro nauts and members of Congress1 active in the space program. "While you may have lost the-' moon you gained something that is far more important per haps: the abiding respect and'grat itude of the American people? Clinton said.

-1 Lovell thanked his crew mates, and the NASA team that enabled' "Apollo 13 to come back to the" earth." LANSING, Mich. George -W. Romney, a pioneering car executive and former Michigan -governor whose White House Ibid failed after he said he was 'brainwashed into supporting the Vietnam War, died Wednesday. IHe was 88. 1 1 Romney, who pursued a vigorous exercise routine, collapsed On his treadmill in his Hills home.

"While Romney was perhaps Best known for his brainwashing -remark, he earned a reputation 1.