The Brattleboro Reformer from Brattleboro, Vermont • 2

Friday, December 1 2006 NEW ENGLAND www.reformer.com Full court to rule on gay marriages Page 2 iinittlftoro jKrformrc Sentence set in old N.H. killing CONCORD, N.H. (AP) Afraid of being found by an adoptive father whom she said raped and abused her, a 15-year-old Melanie Cooper turned to a friend at Hopkinton High School for help. It has been more than 20 years since that friend, Eric Wind-hurst, killed Danny Paquette with a single shot to the heart. Windhurst is in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in August.

On Friday, the case that went unresolved for two decades ends when Cooper faces a judge and admits she lied to police to protect Windhurst. Danny Paquette's family is looking forward to it. "All I can say is, you want to be in court tomorrow morning," Victor Paquette said Thursday morning. "My family has waited AP Massachusetts Deval Patrick speaks to reporters after his address to the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association in Boston, Thursday. Patrick chides paper editors for 'missing' campaign dynamic "They've done it repeatedly.

They've done it incessantly," he said. "It will persist if the court doesn't intervene." Under the constitution, the anti-gay marriage question needed the backing of just 50 of 200 lawmakers in the current two-year legislative session. It then would come up for a second vote in the new legislative session where it would also need the backing of 50 lawmakers. Opponents of the question, including powerful House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, D-Boston, feared they didn't have the 151 votes needed to kill the measure and instead called for a vote to recess the joint House-Senate session from Nov. 9 until Jan.

2. Lawmakers approved the recess vote by a majority of 109-87. The move was widely seen by both supporters and opponents of gay marriage as a way to kill the measure. Supporters of the proposed amendment say marriage is a fundamental building block of society, and voters not a single judge majority should decide whether to change the definition. Backers of gay marriage say minority civil rights should never be put to a popular vote.

Supporters of the amendment want the court to order Senate President Robert Travaglini to call for a vote. Failing that, Rom-ney's petition asks the court to order Secretary of State William Galvin to put the question on the 2008 ballot anyway. Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks said separation of powers and the court's own precedent indicate the court should not force the lawmakers to vote. Hanify conceded that asking the court to bypass the Legislature and put the question on the 2008 ballot would be "a more extraordinary remedy." Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which supports the measure, said such a move is needed to counter "the horror story of the last 20 years of this Legislature refusing to honor the citizen's right to BOSTON (AP) A justice of the state's highest court declined to rule Thursday on whether lawmakers should be forced to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, instead sending the issue to the full court to decide. Justice Judith Cowin moved the case to the seven-member Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court the same panel that ruled 4-3 in 2003 that the state could no longer deny marriage licenses to gay couples after hearing arguments on a request by Gov.

Mitt Romney and other opponents of gay marriage to force action on the proposed amendment. The court set a hearing for Dec. 20 to consider the case. Romney filed the motion with the court after lawmakers postponed action on the proposed ballot question until January. Backers of the question, which would define marriage in Massachusetts as the union of a man and a woman, gathered more than 170,000 signatures of people in support of the proposed amendment, which would ban future gay marriages in Massachusetts but leave existing same-sex marriages intact.

"Gov. Romney believes it is the court's responsibility to step in to protect the right of the people to petition for a constitutional amendment and to have it placed on the ballot for a vote," spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said. "The fact the full court has agreed to hear the matter on an expedited basis indicates they recognize the important issues involved." The attorney general's office declined comment. John Hanify, an attorney for Romney and others who support the measure, told Cowin during a hearing Thursday morning that the Legislature has a history of ignoring voter-initiated petitions. Lawmakers declined to vote on a similar question in 2002, and used similar tactics to block ballot referendums on a number of other controversial topics such as abortion and term limits for office holders.

as their respective spouses in an ongoing effort to build a productive working relationship. During a 15-minufe speech overlooking Boston Harbor from Anthony's Pier 4 restaurant, the governor-elect conceded his candidacy was endorsed by many of the newspapers represented, but nonetheless, "from safety of this side of the vote," he wanted to offer his analysis. Patrick portrayed himself as the victor against conventional wisdom that suggested "it was quixotic if not stupid" of him to run for governor in his first campaign for elective office. The former Clinton administration official also said some reporters "were openly contemptuous" of his campaign, and he suggested newsroom budget cuts have affected the quality of political reporting. "Whether it was skepticism, distraction or the cynicism so many of us try to pass off as sophistication, some of your reporters missed Patrick said.

"And 'it' is a bedrock democratic principle: To make any difference in our common reality, people must see their stake again in their neighbors' dreams and struggles, as well as their own. Massachusetts government cannot move forward without Massachusetts people." He said one surprise of his campaign was how little voters cared about the potential for single-party control of the Statehouse, which Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey the Republican nominee for governor warned would create problems should Patrick take office along with the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. BOSTON (AP) Deval Patrick told a group of newspaper publishers and editors Thursday that many of them "missed" the hopeful dynamic that propelled him to victory, and he asked them to rally the public to the new government's aid.

"Put your cynicism down. Don't trivialize optimism and hope. It built this country. It built my life," Patrick told about 75 people attending the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. "Don't glorify the naysayers when the yeasayers have been at the center of progress since the beginning of recorded time," he added.

The remarks followed a pattern Patrick established during his 19-month campaign, which took him from political neophyte to the first Democrat elected governor in 20 years. He takes office on Jan. 4. As he did on Labor Day when he told a group of union members they had to respect business owners, he challenged his association audience with unexpectedly pointed criticism. The remarks were greeted by silence and most of the follow-up questions asked after prodding by Patrick himself focused on his support for a media shield law, as well as his defense of closed-door meetings with legislative leaders after pledging to run an open administration.

In the process, the governor-elect revealed that he and his wife, Diane, are having dinner this weekend with House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and Senate President Robert Travaglini as well 21 years and 20 days to see his killers in court." Victor Paquette said he's never seen proof his brother abused Melanie, although her mother once told a judge Danny posed a violent threat to Melanie and her sisters. Court documents indicate Windhurst was driven to kill Paquette in part because of revelations of sexual abuse accusations in his own family, and Melanie's story of abuse at Danny Paquette's hands touched a nerve. Victor Paquette says he hasn't seen his niece since 1984, when Melanie returned to New Hampshire from Alaska, where her mother had taken her daughters after divorcing Danny Paquette. Melanie was still fairly new to Hopkinton High when she accompanied Windhurst to Hook-sett to murder Paquette on Nov. 9, 1985.

Authorities agree Cooper was nearby when Windhurst then 17 and a skilled hunter and shooter shot him from a distance. Though Windhurst and Cooper confided in friends and family about the murder over the years, authorities couldn't make an arrest until December 2005, more than a year after New Hampshire state police tracked Cooper down out west and convinced her to cooperate. At his sentencing hearing, Windhurst's apology to Paquette's family was met by jeers. On Friday, it will be Cooper's turn. The 36-year-old mother, now living in Evanston, is expected to plead guilty to one count of hindering apprehension, which carries a prison sentence of 3 12 to seven years.

The charge relates to a 1992 police survey in which Cooper lied to authorities about Windhurst's involvement in the murder. Lottery THURSDAY Tri-State Pick 3 Pick 4 Day: 9-2-3, 4-4-3-7 Evening: 9-1-4-1 Cash WinfaU: 8-16-21-24-26-42 Episcopal leaders make concessions to avoid possible split tion called a "primatial vicar." The vicar would work with conservative dioceses, performing functions that normally fall to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jef-ferts Schori, including consecrating local bishops. A representative of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, would have a role on a panel of church leaders supervising the appointee. However, the vicar would ultimately be under the authority of Jefferts Schori. The Episcopal Church is the U.S.

wing of the 77 million-member Anglican family. Virginia Bishop Peter Lee, a leader in developing the propos- NEW YORK (AP) Episcopal leaders offered conservatives more independence from the national church Thursday, just ahead of a California diocese's vote on whether it should split from the denomination. A "yes" vote by the Diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno, would put it on the brink of leaving The Episcopal Church in its feud over the Bible and sexuality. Church leadership supports same-gender relationships and installed an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire three years ago. However, traditionalists believe gay partnerships violate Scripture.

The church's new proposal would create a leadership posi al, said the group that worked on the idea was "conscious of the need to respond quickly to the needs of parishes and dioceses." The Diocese of San Joaquin is scheduled to hold its balloting Saturday. Six other conservative dioceses have also rejected Jefferts Schori's authority, but have stopped short of a full break. Canon Kendall Harmon, a conservative leader from the Diocese of South Carolina, said he was encouraged that Lee and others acknowledged the urgency of the situation. But he said the proposal failed to address underlying theological differences and their impact on the church. "It's as if at the last minute they pulled a feather out of their hat and said, Harmon said.

The plan was finalized during a meeting Monday of Jefferts Schori and a small group of bishops. Five conservative bishops who had been invited did not attend. Forth Worth Bishop Jack Iker and Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, two of the conservative invitees, said in a statement Monday that relations with national leaders have deteriorated so much that they have been advised to bring attorneys to any future talks. Supporters of ordaining gays believe the Bible's social justice teachings take precedence over its view of sexuality. However, most overseas Anglicans believe gay relationships are barred by Scripture and they are distancing themselves from the U.S.

church. Within the Episcopal Church, some individual parishes have broken away. The 2.2 million-member denomination estimates that nearly 115,000 people left the church between 2003 and 2005, and at least one-third of that decrease stemmed from parish conflicts over the consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson. But no entire diocese has broken away.

Next month, two of the most historically significant parishes in Lee's Virginia diocese Truro Church and The Falls Church will vote whether to leave. San Joaquin, which includes 48 congregations in central California, will vote "on its ties with the denomination during a diocesan convention. San Joaquin is one of three Episcopal dioceses that opposes ordaining women. Any break would be finalized in a vote at another convention next year. If delegates approve a split, a protracted legal battle is expected over the diocese's assets, which are worth millions of dollars.

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