The Commercial Appeal from Memphis, Tennessee • 12

THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL MEMPHIS FRIDAY DECEMBERS 1993 B2 PAETRO AllD-SOUTH BRIEFS Sad holiday statistics return with warning: Drive safely seats and stay alert for erratic drivers Once again this year Tennessee Arkansas and Missis In Arkansas last Christmas holiday four people -were killed on the highways and there were three more deaths at New But during that time Arkansas officials conducted roadblocks and rijtfura-tion patrols that led to ltyjDUI arrests during the two-holidays "Well be doing thing this year stepping pp enforcement any way we said Trooper Paul In Mississippi a federal grant is enabling the state to pay for 108 additional troobers to patrol state roads and highways during the holidayJDur-ing the Christmas holidays in 1992 six people were killed on Mississippi roads and thetate police handed out 41 DUI citations and 2251 speeding pickets Six more died during the New Year's holiday weekend and the state cited 88 DlMand 3850 speeding violation understand celebration is part of the holiday Tennessee Safety Robert Lawson saidrThe Tennessee Highway Patrol will be out in force during the holiday period and if ygu are disobeying the law you will be caught" By Paula Wade Thu Commercial Appeal NaahvMt Bureau NASHVILLE It was less than a year ago that the editor of this newspaper was killed by a drunken driver He was driving home from work on New Eve He was sober and driving under the speed limit why this story an annual warning against excessive speed and drunken driving during the holiday season is harder to write this time Police said Lionel Linder could have done little to avoid the crash he was hit broadside by a car that had swerved across several lanes of traffic The other driver registered a 12 blood alcohol level 10 is considered legally drunk He is serving a four-year sentence for vehicular homicide But the advice given by the state highway patrols and local officials is still the same observe the speed limit avoid driving even if you've had only a little alcohol or any drugs wear your seatbelt keep your children in their car 'Eastbound leg of Nonconnah opens today The eastbound lane of the first section of Nonconnah Parkway one of the state's largest and most expensive road projects opens today from Interstate 240 to Ridgeway Road The westbound ians is expectin the next few weeks I ed to open in the next few weeks possibly by Jan IS The Tennessee Department of Transportation is expected to do additional work in the spring I such as installing noise walls minor paving on the shoulders and sealing concrete joints When the first section of the 'Nonconnah Parkway was award-led in 1990 for $447 million it was the largest single contract ever made on a state highway ject he parkway is a part of Gov 1 Ned road program and will provide a connector between 1-240 and Collierville A I second section from Ridgeway -to Riverdale is under constructed to be com-tipieted in 1995 at a cost of 1-S451 million Carlington ifTennCare plan gets US OK NASHVILLE The TennCare health care program for poor and uninsured Tennesseans received final federal approval Thursday Gov Ned McWherter announced Approval will allow the program for 1 million Medicaid recipients and up to 500000 uninsured Tennesseans to begin on schedule Jan 1 TennCare replaces the Med Ned McWherter icald Financing gran TennCare on Nov 18 when Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala approved a five-year demonstration plan with 35 conditions A team from HCFA visited Tennessee last week to confirm those conditions had been met Officials made random checks that included making sure doctors and hospitals listed as TennCare participants are really part of the program that TennCare computers are working and that pregnant women know they can i rf continue with their doctors McWherter said he learned of the approval in a brief letter from George Schieber acting director of the federal Health Care Financing Administration's office of research and demonstrations TennCare will rely on networks of managed care organizations paid a set rate by the state and in turn negotiate treatment fees with health care pro viders like doctors hospitals and pharmacists Suspect in child's death arraigned A 20-year-old man charged with murdering the 1-year-old son of his girlfriend and setting a fire to cover up the crime was arraigned in General Sessions Court Thursday Kerwln Lemont Walton of 5001 Larkwood is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated arson He is to return to court Thursday to determine whether he has a lawyer The child Raklm Lurry died Sunday of internal injuries after being punched in the stomach Walton is accused of starting a fire at the home Monday to cover up the death Conley Registration set for State Tech Registration for the spring semester at State Technical Institute at Memphis will be from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm Jan 5-6 in the Ferris Complex on State Tech's main campus 5983 Macon Cove Registration at the Whitehaven Center 3851 Neely Road will be Jan 4 from 10 am to 7 pm Late registration at the main campus is scheduled for Jan 7 and Jan 10 from 8:30 am to 7 JO pm Classes are scheduled to begin Jan 8 at all State Tech locations Santa joins ranks of blood donors Before at the homes and girls Santa Claus is giving blood at the Lifeblood Center at 3068 Covington Pike at 1 pm to- lifeblood officials Sandy Heiss and Evan Qulnley said in a prepared statement that Santa knows the holiday season is a tough time and wanted to help patients needing transfusions around Christmas Most healthy people 17 and older who weigh at least 110 pounds can be blood donors For Murderer on death jail was 'mama and VI A of CHATTANOOGA (AP) At age 8 Wayne Bates told a psychiatrist that he could kill a parson like a I am a little kid and telling a doctor that I can kill Bates told The Chattanooga Times in an interview from his death row jail cell in Nashville I don't want to kill people afraid of people They hurt me" mother Helen said she noticed her anti-social behavior he was couldn't even play with his siblings or the children next Ms Bates said in a telephone interview from her home in West Virginia hurt them He chirnge he just got bigger" She said the psychiatrist told her Bates stopped growing emo- tionally when he was about 4 tionally Jears old control his eelings any more than a she said But Bates said his early home life and prison 1 experiences taught him how to use his violent temper He remembered when he was From Page B1 Bates dered a hearing on whether Bates was mentally competent to fire his lawyers and delayed the execution until at least Feb 28 If Bates was deemed competent to drop the appeals Gov Ned McWherter would have been the decision-maker responsible for execution No one has died in electric chair in 33 years why some are calling for the elimination of the death penalty said Bill Redick direc more Information call 529-6350 Garlington Barnes takes oath as federal judge EL DORADO Ark Harry Barnes is Arkansas's newest federal judge Barnes of Camden was sworn in Wednesday as U5 District Judge for the western District of Arkansas US Dist Judge Franklin Waters chief judge in the district gave Barnes the oath Barnes has some large shoes to fill and I mean Judge (Oren) Harris's Waters said Harris served as a federal judge in El Dorado for 27 years before retiring Before becoming a judge Harris served 25 years in the US House of Representatives President Clinton nominated Barnes in October -AP Groundbreaking set for casino PHILADELPHIA Miss The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians will hold the formal groundbreaking for the casino on Tuesday says chief Phillip Martin The site is along Miss 16 in Neshoba County on the Choctaw Reservation and west of Philadelphia The ceremony is at 10 am The casinoportion of an eventual $50 million resort complex is expected to open by July 4 tribal officials have said Plans are for a 300-room hotel a 100-acre manmade lake a golf course and health club The Choctaws will regulate their casino like other Indian casinos operating in the United States but tribal officials said they will meet regularly with the Mississippi Gaming Commission to share Information about the development -AP TODAY GETTING THERE: Work crews block portions of 3800 Flier 2655 RJverport 1404 RozaNo 586 Meaoowood Drive Airways and Shelby Drive 3638 Air Park 700 Edith (Ongoing street blockages are shown in a map in The Commercial Appeal every Monday) Tha Commercial Appeal Hit slgfriflcant events and public activities to nalp you plan your day or simply bo better Informed Listings are sublect to editorial discretion Sand written Hams one weak In advance to TODAY The Commercial Appeal Box 134 Memphis 3101 or leave a recorded massage at S2MSW has come to be identified to many with the hugely successful Rush Idmbaugh is being credited with adding a new dimension to American politics President Clinton used it in his cam- en and the newstalk format risen to the third most programmed format in radio according to Billboard magazine Muhammad said talk radio gave him a platform to push issues such as the election rather than the appointment of the lieutenant governor in Tennessee WLOK owner Art Gilliam said news director Rick Taylor would succeed Muhammad who he said had many loyal listeners Muhammad said must be saying something that the people wanted to St Mark Church of God in Christ 1519 Gaither 5 am St Mary Catholic Church 257 Third 10 am St Episcopal Cathedral 692 Poplar 10 am St Peter Catholic Church Third and Adams 11 am St Stephen Baptist Church 508 Third 7 am St Therese The Little Flower 1644 Jackson 10:30 am Springdale Baptist Church 1193 Springdale 8 am Trinity Lutheran Church 210 Washington 10 am guilty for I was there I know every move he The memo also said that Wright and a "Mr O'Neil of the State Surety Bonding were interviewed presenting authorities with a tape recording of an unspecified nature that "O'Neil had in his possession on January 30 1969 concerning the same A 1969 Memphis city directory shows the general manager of a cate and Wright were unsuccessful Dist Atty Gen John Pierotti said he first became aware of the 1969 memo last week Pierotti said his staff has since located a three-page statement that Spates gave at the District Office two days after the initial memo In her statement Spates said Wright aggressively sought to get a statement from her and an unidentified sister of hers who Muhammad yields WLOK form sippi are joining in the nationwide effort to try to reduce the numbers of holiday traffic fatalities The highway patrols or state police in all three states plan to Increase the number of patrols on state roads and numerous local law agencies are planning roadblocks and extra enforcement to check for Inebriated drivers throughout the holiday The 1993 Christmas holiday began at 6 pm Thursday and ends at midnight Sunday The New holiday begins at 6 pm Dec 30 and continues until midnight Jan 2 Both are 78- hour holiday periods officials measure them differently according to what days of the week are Involved In Tennessee last year 19 people were killed in crashes during the 102-hour Christmas holiday period Nine of those fatalities were alcohol-related The 102-hour New Year's holiday cost five lives and four of the five of the New deaths were related to alcohol Linder's was one of those 4 watching his mother shoot his father who survived the attack but died of a drug overdose only weeks later Ms Bates moved her family from Lamont 111 to Baltimore where Bates Wayne Bates had his first run-ins with authorities When he was 10 Bates was confined to a Maryland juvenile detention center for burglary Police arrested him for armed robbery five days after his 18th birthday he said and a string of similar convictions kept him locked up throughout most of his adult taught me how to hate They taught me how to steal They taught me how to fight how to kill The jallhouse is my mama and my When Bates escaped from a Scottsville Ky prison on July 20 1986 Julie Guida was tempo- similar convictions 1 locked up throughoui his adulthood tor of the Capital Case Resource Center which represents death row inmates His staff has been wat going sumes time resources and effort and nobody gets anything for Redick said Thursday need to eliminate it altogether a sheer But one capital punishment supporter says dragging such cases through the courts is a way for anti-death penalty groups to have the practice abolished of this has very little to do with the legal status of the case Joe Mosby a commission spokesman said the two birds belonged to a flock of seven trumpeter swans and a tundra swan that had nested temporarily at Lake Magness an oxbow lake of the Little Red River east of Heber Springs The trumpeter swan is the largest waterfowl indigenous to North America It often achieves a wingspan ot 8 feet Trumpeter swans are fairly plentiful in Alaska but only 177 are known to exist in the lower 48 states Mosby said names appear among the 1969 documents said they recall the claim saying they irous tips never panned out Carlisle the former investigator who wrote the Feb 10 1969 memo declined to comment that bunch of The ABC television news program PrimeTtme Live last week named Spates as prospective witness who allegedly will testify she saw Jowers near the back door with a rifle moments after the But Spates this week declined-to discuss the new allegations widow Juanita said this week that her husband always contended others were involved in King's assassination But she said her husband never had specific names of others and would not have paid money for such information a blatant lie" Mrs Abernathy said of the 1969 statement have never heard of such an idiotic thing" row sas daddy? rarily working at the Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center near TullahOma Utah engineer three days later as she was jogging near the Holiday Inn off of Interstate 24 at Manchester Tenn After tying her up he shot her in thgback of the head and stole her rental car didn't beg meyJ5r anything She know1 she was going to die I didn't know I hate pain She didn't hurt afill She died instantly" Bates covered the body with able to sleep he took a bath and bandaged his blistered Idet Bates left Manchester1 in Ms rental car and traveled back to Manland sphere he was arrested for drunken driving on July 26 1986 'Subconsciously I wanted to get he said Bates pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and Wha sentenced during a May 1987 hearing to die in the electric chair VO or the actual law itself Most of this is a political actiph to do away with the death penalty by the court system Instead of the legislature said Dist Atty Gen Joe Baugh There are currently more than 100 people awaiting death by electrocution in Tennessee Bates said he would still prefer to die in the electric chav but want to wait for Jhe state to make up its mind confessed to the murder I led guilty to the murdfir and I my appeals and they kill me! What do I need to do kill pled gui dropped still woi From Page B1 Assist clothing donated during a recent drive Crutcher said outpouring this year has been outstanding IS About 250 volunteers for the Metropolitan at 910 Vance will distribute meals to homebound seniors on Christmas Day The volunteers will gather at headquarters at ft30 am and fan out across the city delivering meals and goody bags The bags were donated' by local schools church congregations and individuals said Dianne Polly director of MIFA Meals The meals are sponsored by the Memphis RestauraiftAssoci-ation and Valley Foodsr Valley Foods employees also? volun teered to help distributgjneals MIFA an ecumenicaljervlce organization provides food clothing and shelter fft about 8000 people a day By Nate Hobbs The Commercial Appeal Dr Talib-Karim Muhammad has signed off at WLOK adding another ripple to the waves rolling through talk-show radio Muhammad had hosted an issue-oriented program from 3 to fr yp weekdays on the AM station for two years His departure comes less than two weeks after another talk-show star Janis Fullilove announced she was moving from WDIA-AM 1070 to WMCAM79 Muhammad said Thursday he to devote more time to his four children and to a possible run for City Council in 1995 He had occupied the time slot From Page B1 Church Christmas Day All Saints' Episcopal Church 1508 White Station 10 am Calvary Episcopal Church 102 Second 11 am Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception 1695 Central 8 and 10 am Christ United Methodist Church 4488 Poplar 5 JO pm Church of the Holy Spirit 2300 Culprit in swan killing sought by game officials gn ti once held by Rev Bill Adkins who gained attention for his advocacy of black empowerment Muhammad whose last day on the air was Wednesday said he saw his show as -a continuation of and im- Talib-Karim Muhammad his efforts to change prove government He cited his role in lawsuits that led the City Council and the Shelby County Commission to approve redis-trlcting plans to bolster the percentage of blacks on both bodies The talk-radio format which Hickory Crest Dr 8 and 10 am Gateway Church of God in Christ 2201 Ketchum 5:30 am Grace-St Luke's Episcopal dy 10 am Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church Church 1720 Peabody 491 McLemore 10 am Sacred Heart Catholic Church 1324 Jefferson 10 am St Anne Catholic Church 706 Highland 6:45 8 9:30 11 am St Episcopal Church 322 Greer 10 am St Louis Catholic Church 203 White Station 9 and 10:30 am noon plicating Jowers in the nation According to the memo a bail bondsman by the name of James Alexander Wright approached authorities claiming Spates had told him new details behind the assassination Wright said he met Spates while making bail for a relative of hers the memo said According to the memo Wright said Spates told him that on the day of the assassination boss man at the restaurant (Jowers) was out at the backyard no one there except him that he was the only one that could have killed King That her boss man was the one who found the gun" The memo went on to say that when police questioned Jowers on the day of the assassination was lying to them all at the same According to the memo Spates also had seen Ray that day walking to and from shops in the area claiming Ray is not JR 7- From Page B1 King HEBER SPRINGS Ark AP) Officials are trying to find out who killed at least one and probably two rare trumpeter swans The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said a poacher shot and killed the bird near Heber Springs A second swan is missing and presumed killed by the same person State and federal wildlife officers are investigating the shooting A $2000 reward is being offered for Information leading to the successful prosecution of the person who killed the bird also worked at Grill wanted to ask my mother for permission for me to get on a recorder and say who I believed killed Spates said in the statement At one point Spates said: say 1 will give you $5000 if you will say that you didn't believe that Ray killed And I told him my life i worth more than Spates said in the statement he told me nothing happen to me because Rev Abernathy and them didn't believe Ray killed King and they wanted somebody that scared to get up and say so" When pressed Spates said she had no Information on assassination never claimed Jowers found a rifle and never said Jowers could have killed King Pierotti said he has not located any tape recordings or other information regarding the investigation of the 1969 claim Former prosecutors James Beasley and Robert Dwyer whose cently uncovered one of the documents said Kenneth Herman a Memphis private investigator IS I I 4i IM Trial of James Earl Ray which ired last spring on cable television Ray is serving a 99-year sentence for the assassination but repeatedly has proclaimed his innocence since pleading guilty to the crime in 1969 1 Herman said he had talked with Spates in recent years about a possible conspiracy but said Spates finally told him the full details behind the new conspiracy allegation in November 1992 when Herman located a record in the assassination files What Herman found was a Feb 10 1969 memo from district attorney investigator John Carlisle which outlined a tip im.