March 24 TENNESSEE: Court overturns death sentence in '86 Coffee slaying A federal court has overturned the death sentence of a drifter who used a shotgun to kill a female jogger in Coffee County 19 years ago after escaping from a Kentucky jail. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday said Wayne Lee Bates, now 46, a longtime resident on Tennessee's death row, is due a new sentencing phase of his trial. However, the appeals court in Cincinnati did not overturn Bates' conviction for the July 1986 murder of Julie Guida, a 28-year-old Utah engineer who was temporarily working at Arnold Engineering Development Center outside Tullahoma, Tenn., at the time of her death. According to the appellate court, prosecutors in the case prejudiced the jury when one of them referred to Bates as a "rabid dog" during the initial sentencing hearing. Guida's mother, Elaine Penrod of Ogden, Utah, said she was disappointed in the appellate ruling but was glad the conviction was not overturned. "I don't care if he dies. I care that he should stay in jail the rest of his life. I think that he needs to stay there and think about what he did. He's the same age as my daughter and he's had, what, 18 more years of life that she hasn't had," Penrod said. Guida was 1 of her 6 children. "She was a very worthwhile person, whereas I don't think he is." Bates escaped from jail guards in Kentucky while attending a church service in July 1986. He had been serving time for car theft before breaking into a home in Franklin County, Ky., and stealing a .410-gauge shotgun. Authorities said he used the weapon to kill Guida, in Manchester, Tenn., on July 23, 1986. She had gone for a jog near what was then a Holiday Inn, where she was staying while working on a research project at the Arnold Center, a major testing facility for the U.S. Air Force. The justices said then-District Attorney General Charles "Buck" Ramsey and his assistant, Kenneth Shelton, engaged in "highly improper" behavior during the sentencing hearing by inciting "the passions and prejudices of the jury," injecting their "personal beliefs and opinions into the record" and inappropriately criticizing Bates' counsel for objecting to their arguments. Several statements pointed to in the court record as being improper include: "There is an old saying out in the country that there is no cure for a rabid dog. Wayne Lee Bates is a rabid dog. There are dogs that become rabid that might be your favorite pet, and you might love them to death, but once they do become rabid, it's a fact that if they bite someone, the other animal or person is going to die." The court ruling does not identify who made the "rabid dog" statement, but newspaper accounts from the trial say Ramsey said it. Neither Shelton, who is still a prosecutor, nor Ramsey, who is retired, could be reached for comment. Sue Allison, spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the Courts, said the appellate ruling means Bates will be returned to Coffee County, where a new jury will be empaneled to hear only the sentencing phase of the trial. Meanwhile, Bates will remain in a maximum security unit at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, according to Amanda Sluss, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Correction. "He will remain a maximum security inmate. He will remain essentially where he is." Sluss said. (source: The Tennessean) ************************ Death penalty hearing no fault found by appeals court Finding no flaws in Circuit Judge Ben W. Hooper IIs handling of a week-long 2002 re-sentencing hearing in a 15-year-old murder case, a unanimous panel of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals recently upheld the death penalty of Jonathan Wesley Stephenson. The Talbott man's case has been moving up and down the Tennessee justice system since the shooting death of 26-year-old Lisa Stephenson in the Bruners Grove community of Cocke County in December 1989. The latest court decision - filed on March 9 - upholds the death penalty imposed against the 40-year-old defendant by a Cocke County criminal court jury on October 5, 2002. "We have considered the entire record and conclude that the sentence of death was not imposed arbitrarily, that the evidence supports the jurys finding of the [one] aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the evidence supports the jury's finding that the aggravating circumstance out-weighs the mitigating circumstances [presented by defense counsel] beyond a reasonable doubt," Appeals Court Judge David H. Welles wrote on behalf of a unanimous 3-judge appeals court panel. "In addition, we have reviewed the issues raised by the defendant and have found no reversible error. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment sentencing the defendant to death," the opinion concludes. Joining in the decision were judges David G. Hayes and Norma McGee Ogle. After a 4-hour hearing in April 2003, Judge Hooper overruled each of 42 grounds for appeal presented by defense attorney John E. Herbison, of Nashville. In its recent decision, the court of criminal appeals rejected - one by one - all 16 of those grounds which were presented to the high court on appeal. Among the grounds for appeal cited by the defense were allegations that Stephenson's life sentence for conspiracy to commit 1st-degree murder and his death sentence for 1st-degree murder is unlawful "double jeopardy" under the United States Constitution. The appeals court dismissed that contention by noting that the courts have held that conspiracy to commit an offense and the offense itself are separate crimes under the law. Other grounds cited by defense lawyers are whether Judge Hooper should have declared a mistrial when a witness mentioned that the defendant agreed to submit to a polygraph test; whether the jury was properly instructed concerning their consideration of the meaning of a life sentence under Tennessee law; whether it was proper for the prosecutor to suggest to the jury that the defendant had shown no remorse; whether Judge Hooper should have allowed a juror to travel with a court officer to a funeral home across the street from the courthouse during the trial, even though all parties agreed; and whether Stephensons death sentence is "disproportionate" in comparison with the life sentence received by his co-defendant in the case. "After review, this court finds no error of law requiring reversal," Judge Welles wrote. "Accordingly, we affirm the jurys imposition of the death sentence." The Stephenson case has a lengthy, sometimes complicated history. Stephenson was convicted in a jury trial in 1990 of killing his wife in December 1989. Co-defendant Ralph Thompson received a sentence of life in prison after his jury trial in Cocke County criminal court. After being sentenced to death as a result of a 1990 criminal court trial, Stephenson began the process of appealing the verdict and the sentence. Appeals courts have consistently upheld Stephensons convictions for 1st-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, which carried a 60-year prison term, but his sentences for the killing itself have twice been overturned. The Tennessee Supreme Court overturned Stephenson's 1st death penalty sentence in 1994 because jurors were given incorrect written instructions for their verdict. The justices found "a fundamental error" in the jury instructions and sent the case back to Cocke County Circuit Court for a retrial. On the eve of that retrial, Stephenson reached a plea-bargain with prosecutors which called for a sentence of life without parole consecutive to the 60-year sentence on a conviction for conspiracy to commit 1st-degree murder. Stephenson later appealed that sentence, and the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the sentence and again sent the case back to the trial court for further proceedings. The appeals court held that Stephenson was given an illegal sentence because a term of life without parole was not an option when the crime was committed in 1989. Stephenson and his attorneys - Carl R. Ogle, of Jefferson City; Tim Moore, of Newport; and Herbison - argued in 2002 for a life sentence, which could have resulted in parole after Stephenson served a 25-year sentence. But the jury listened to the evidence in the case and sentenced the defendant to death by lethal injection on Tennessees death row. Ogle and Moore are court-appointed counsel, and Herbison, a Nashville attorney who specializes in appellate work, was retained by the Stephenson family to represent the defendant on appeal. Stephenson was convicted in 1990 in connection with the shooting death of Lisa Stephenson in an isolated section of the Bruners Grove community the previous year. According to testimony during the trials of the 15-year-old case, the victim died as a result of a single gunshot wound to the head in what District Attorney General Schmutzer called "a murder for hire." By its verdict, the jury found that the prosecution's "aggravating factor" that the killing of Lisa Stephenson was a killing done for remuneration or the hope of remuneration "out-weighed the defenses evidence of "mitigating factors." Those factors, defense attorneys argued, included the defendant's lack of a previous criminal record, the life sentence received by co-defendant Ralph Thompson in the case, that the defendant has adjusted well to prison life and makes significant contributions to other inmates and the prison system itself, and the love and support of his family. Stephenson was convicted of recruiting Thompson to come with him to Cocke County and kill Lisa Stephenson after luring the victim to the Bruner's Grove community to receive some money Stephenson was supposedly owed. Although testimony indicated that the defendants came to Cocke County together, there was conflicting testimony as to which man actually fired the fatal shot. Concerning the jury which heard the case, defense counsel argued that Judge Hooper erred by allowing one juror to keep a cellular telephone during the hearing and by allowing a juror to violate sequestration of the jury by going to a local funeral home during the hearing "to pay his respects to someone who was deceased. "Defendant understands that the court asked the defendant prior to doing this, and the defendant agreed," according to the defense motion which was denied by Judge Hooper in 2003. "However, it is insisted that this is something that cannot be waived in a capital case." In the appeals court decision, Judge Welles wrote that, "first, the defendant waived this issue by failing to object - and, in fact, consenting - to the jurors departure from court." But even if that issue had not been waived, "the court record reflects only that the court allowed the juror to be escorted to the funeral home in the presence of a court officer," the opinion continues. "The defendant does not allege, and the record contains nothing to support a finding, that the juror was ever outside the presence or control of the officer. We therefore conclude that the defendant has failed at the outset to establish jury separation....This issue is without merit." Stephenson's counsel also cited the comments of District Attorney General Al Schmutzer in his closing argument to the jury. The defendant alleges that the prosecutor's comments "appealed to vengeance by arguing that while the defendant's family asked the jury not to impose the death penalty, the victim's family did not get that opportunity." And the appeal argued that it was improper for Schmutzer to tell the jury that Stephenson had never shown remorse for the crime. "The prosecutors remarks essentially urged the jury not to be swayed by sympathy or emotion in response to the plea of the defendants family for a sentence other than death," Judge Welles wrote. "We find nothing improper in the prosecutors argument." Now that the decision of the court of criminal appeals has been issued, Stephenson may ask the Tennessee Supreme Court to consider his appeal. (source: The Newport Plain Talk) VIRGINIA: Conflicting DNA results still studied----Evidence that cleared man of rape, murder put state lab to the test The study of a controversial state crime laboratory test in the Earl Washington Jr. case is still in progress nearly six months after it was requested -- but may be completed soon. Gov. Mark R. Warner ordered the independent audit Sept. 30 to resolve conflicting findings of DNA tests conducted by different laboratories that would have been expected to produce the same results. Outside experts who compared the test results questioned the state's findings. The state test results were so unusual, said some, that they call into question the validity of other work performed by the state laboratory. The testing concerns the 1982 rape and murder of Rebecca Williams in Culpeper, for which Washington was convicted and sentenced to death. A DNA test performed by the Virginia Division of Forensic Science in 2000 on a slide made from a vaginal swab taken from the victim failed to find the DNA of Washington or that of Kenneth Tinsley, a rapist now in prison for an unrelated sexual assault, whose DNA was found a blanket at the crime scene. No DNA belonging to Washington was found, leading to a pardon by Gov. Jim Gilmore in 2000. However, Gilmore said the pardon did not necessarily mean Washington was not involved in the crime, and some law-enforcement officials have said Washington is still a suspect. The state's failure to find Tinsley's DNA in the slide made from the vaginal swab is apparently what allows Washington to be called a suspect. However, testing last year by a laboratory in California on a second slide -- said to have been made from the same vaginal swab at the same time the 1st slide was made -- identified DNA belonging to Tinsley. That prompted Warner to order the audit being conducted by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board. Ralph Keaton, executive director of the ASCLD/LAB, said yesterday that he anticipates the audit to be completed soon. "We are very close," he said. "Our intent is to have a report to the governor's office as soon as we feel like we've addressed everything." He could not, however, offer a date and said he could not give any details about the audit. Keaton said that it has taken longer than initially expected in part because of questions posed by the state laboratory and by Washington's lawyers. Ellen Qualls, spokeswoman for Warner, said that the audit will be sent to Ferrara and Robert Blue, Warner's chief counsel. She said it was uncertain whether the results would be made public. Keaton, however, said, "I have an idea the governor's office will release it. That's what we're anticipating." Paul B. Ferrara, director of the Division of Forensic Science, said Monday that he had no idea why the audit was taking so long. "I'm as anxious to see it as the next person," he said. But, he added, "they're not talking to me . . . I'm sort of at a loss to understand it." According to Ferrara, the auditors spent "20 man-days" at his laboratory and were still asking for information as recently as 2 weeks ago. "When you get these auditors involved, one thing leads to another, leads to another, and these things get very, very complicated," said Ferrara. Peter Neufeld, a DNA expert and one of Washington's lawyers, agreed. "Although one would have hoped that the audit could be completed by now, what happens sometimes is you discover certain things and that leads you to expand your investigation," he said. Ferrara said, "I know it gets into a lot technical minutia. I'm thinking to myself, 'How in the hell is a governor, or a governor's chief counsel [going to] want to read or understand all this technical jargon?'" (source: Richmond Times-Dispatch) USA: Death defiant----Sister of 'Dead Man Walking' fame remains devoted to abolishing capital punishment Sister Helen Prejean said a prayer after the convicted murderer was executed. "Into your hands, O God, I commend Dobie Gillis Williams." She borrowed the words from Jesus, who said them as he was put to death on a day that would become Good Friday. The Roman Catholic nun from New Orleans has witnessed the execution of six men. Her journey has produced two books, "Dead Man Walking," which was made into an Oscar-winning movie, and her new work, "The Death of Innocents." Her experiences also have cemented her bedrock conviction that capital punishment is not only morally wrong, but that the U.S. justice system is allowing innocent people to be executed. Prejean (pronounced pray-zhawn) believes that Dobie Williams, a Louisiana man with an IQ of 65, and Joseph O'Dell, a Virginia man whose evidence was never tested for DNA, were two of them. "Sometimes people ask me, 'Look, haven't you lost your faith in God? You've accompanied six men to their death,'" said the 65-year-old Prejean, who is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille. "I say, 'Look, this is not God's problem. This is in our hands. This is a human decision, which causes a human suffering. So we have to awaken to it and take our responsibility for changing it.'" "I say, 'Look, this is not God's problem. This is in our hands. This is a human decision, which causes a human suffering. So we have to awaken to it and take our responsibility for changing it.'" She spoke the words simply and straightforward, like the clothes she wore for this interview earlier this month - black slacks, a loose-fitting white blouse and sensible shoes. Prejean, who was in San Diego to speak at the Catholic-affiliated University of San Diego, is aware that most Americans favor capital punishment. But her rebuttal sounds like something else Jesus said on Good Friday: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Those poll answers are more emotional than rational, Prejean insists. "If you just change the question to life without parole, already you can see it changing," she said. When it posed that kind of question, a Gallup Poll last year found that 44 percent would prefer a sentence that guaranteed life without parole with restrictions, while 41 % still preferred the death penalty. "Most people will choose life if you give them half a chance," said Prejean. "They don't want to have the government kill people." Prejean feels a shift coming. She's buoyed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' new campaign to abolish the death penalty. The campaign, unfurled Monday, touts statistics showing a "dramatic rise" in Catholic opposition to executions. The Supreme Court decision to halt the execution of juvenile offenders also was a step in the right direction, according to Prejean. She is encouraged that life without parole will someday replace lethal injections and gas chambers. "Look, we have in place a way to keep ourselves safe as a society without killing people, and we're making mistakes besides." Yes, there are Bible verses that favor capital punishment - "an eye for an eye" being one of them. But she doesn't think they speak for Jesus. Forgiveness. Mercy. Love. Not revenge. That's her gospel, which she spreads in lectures across the country to like-minded people of faith and conscience. "I used to pray that God would intervene and change things, and now I realize that things that are in our hands are up to us," she said. "Now, I pray for the grace and the strength and the wisdom to do what I need to do." Jane Alexander isn't swayed by Prejean's pleas. "I think she's a bleeding-heart liberal," Alexander said from her home in Marin County, where she is co-founder of Citizens Against Homicide. Alexander also is Catholic - "an old traditionalist." She also is a relative of a murder victim - her 88-year-old aunt was raped and killed. The attacker went to prison for 25 years to life, but Alexander would rather he had been executed. "It's not over for me," she said. "He will have a parole date of 2007. It's constantly there. It's not going away until he goes away." Prejean argues that families of victims aren't healed by the taking of another life. Alexander doesn't buy that. "They have a great relief," she said. "The constant anguish is gone." Alexander has pages of quotations from theologians and other religious leaders in defense of capital punishment. Among them is a statement by Charles Colson, who went to jail for his role in the Watergate scandal and then founded Prison Fellowship, an evangelical Christian ministry to inmates. "Society should execute capital offenders to balance the scales of moral judgment," Colson wrote. Generally, conservative religious groups support the death penalty - including the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the National Association of Evangelicals. Liberal religious groups tend to be abolitionists - including the National Council of Churches, which has opposed the death penalty since 1968. "The ultimate sanction continues to fall more heavily on minorities and those who cannot afford extensive legal defense," it declared back then. And then there are those groups who don't object to the death penalty on theological grounds, but have called for a moratorium in this country because of the number of cases of prisoners sent to death row who were later released because new evidence exonerated them. Traditional Judaism supports capital punishment "when it's administered fairly and accurately," said Nathan Diament, director of the Institute for Public Affairs for the Orthodox Union, which represents Orthodox Jewish congregations. "The rationale for our supporting the moratorium is that enough questions were raised in recent years as to whether, in the United States today, that is in fact the case." Alexander, meanwhile, doesn't see this issue solely in religious terms. After all, she said, executions are the law of the land in most states, including California. Just last week, a California court made use of the sentence when Scott Peterson was condemned to death for murdering his wife and their unborn son. Peterson's former father-in-law told reporters he got what he deserved. Alexander echoes that. "Why should he be able to live out the next 30 or 40 years of his life after what he did to his wife and son?" In a packed theater at USD March 11, Prejean delivered an 80-minute talk for the annual social issues conference. She began with how she got involved in social justice issues in the late '70s and early '80s, moving to a housing project in New Orleans and then writing to a death-row inmate. After a while, she started to visit Patrick Sonnier in prison. She met the families of the two teenagers Sonnier murdered and then accompanied him to his execution. A new ministry had begun. "The path is made by walking," she told the students. Prejean called capital punishment "legalized hatred" and said that having victims' families witness the executions is "nothing but vengeance." She asked students and others in the audience whether killing someone is the best way to honor and respect another person's legacy? "We can't handle death," she said. "It's too big for us. We need to choose life." Prejean spoke of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, the actor-actress couple who made "Dead Man Walking." Robbins has written a play version, which some schools already are performing. Prejean hopes USD will perform it next year. She received a standing ovation from an approving crowd. Jason Astarita, a 20-year-old sophomore, is against the death penalty. "It's just not part of my values that people should die," he said. Kevin McBride, another sophomore who is 19, also opposes executions. "I'd rather just see people rot in jail. I think that's more of a punishment," he said. Sylvia Cortez, a 37-year-old administrator at Point Loma Nazarene University, thinks she's against it - but then she shook her head, hinting at the doubt many still feel. "I haven't thought it through enough," Cortez said. "I'm definitely more on the side of rehabilitation, because I definitely believe in rehabilitation. But I just know that sometimes things are a lot more complex than just a flat yes or no." Prejean is back on the road. Next week, it's Colorado. Then Michigan, Connecticut, New York. Meanwhile, she's the spiritual counselor to more death-row prisoners - a man in Louisiana and a woman in Texas. She believes she is following an example set by Jesus on what would become Good Friday. "Why didn't he call on his disciples to avenge his death?" she asked. "He did not do that." By the numbers 59 - Inmates who were executed in the United States in 2004 38 - States that allow the death penalty 644 - Men and women who are awaiting lethal injection in California as of March 15 (includes Scott Peterson) 118 - Prisoners who have been released from death row since 1978 after new evidence emerged that cleared them 66 - Percentage of people who support the death penalty (sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Associated Press, Amnesty International, Gallup Poll) (source: The San Diego Union-Tribune) ********************** Proving intent proves difficult in death penalty cases----Prosecutors in Tyrone Williams' smuggling case faced an uphill fight, experts say Federal prosecutors found out Wednesday how difficult it is to win a death sentence in human-smuggling cases. The U.S. Justice Department has had nearly 70 cases in which it could have sought the death penalty under an 11-year-old law, but used that power for the 1st time against truck driver Tyrone Williams. Several lawyers with expertise in death-penalty cases said prosecutors shied away from seeking the ultimate penalty in other cases because it is difficult to convince a jury to deliver a death sentence for immigrant smuggling. "Because people who smuggle aliens don't intend to kill them, they are not a typical death penalty case," said attorney Kevin McNally of Frankfort, Ky. Williams, accused in the deaths of 19 people who were among at least 75 illegal immigrants packed into his trailer in May 2003, was prosecuted under a federal immigrant-smuggling law enacted in 1994. A jury convicted him on 38 counts Wednesday, but couldn't agree on the issues that would have allowed prosecutors to seek a death sentence. "Typically, in Harris County, it's always been easy for the government or the state to get a death penalty conviction," Houston lawyer Kent Schaefer said. "But usually, that's when somebody commits a conventional murder. This is a case where, probably, things got out of hand." To get a jury to assess a death sentence, prosecutors have the daunting task of proving that the defendant acted with reckless disregard, said Houston attorney Richard Burr, an expert on federal death penalty law. "I think the government has a mountain to climb - a very steep mountain - to show that he acted with reckless disregard," said Burr, an attorney for the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel Project. "It's not hard to convict somebody, but it's very hard to meet the penalty requirements," he said, noting that showing carelessness or negligence isn't good enough. "In the law, it's virtually intending to kill somebody," he said. McNally, also an attorney for the Resource Counsel Project, said: "They need to show such a high level of moral culpability, even beyond reckless conduct, and that type of mental state doesn't fit alien smuggling cases." (source: Houston Chronicle) ALABAMA: Bishops join anti-death penalty campaign Catholic bishops in Birmingham and Mobile are leading outreach and education efforts in Alabama - the state with the largest per capita Death Row - in support of a campaign launched this week by U.S. Catholic bishops to end the death penalty. The bishops said stopping state-sanctioned executions is consistent with the church's sanctity-of-life teachings, and that a rise in exonerations of the innocent has cemented their beliefs. The church wants to counter the "culture of death," said Bishop David E. Foley of Birmingham. "We have a culture of death in the United states that is growing and growing and growing," Foley said. "Killing somebody who has killed somebody adds to the violence that goes on." Historically, the Catholic Church's teachings permit taking a life only to preserve your own. States can execute to protect society. However, today's maximum-security prisons protect just as well, they say. Quoting the pope, Foley said, "The cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare if not practically nonexistent." Foley added, "To take someone's life is not necessary because he can be incarcerated for life, and there have a chance to do penance and redeem himself." Catholic leaders say their position against capital punishment is consistent with pro-life stances against contraception and abortion. Holy Week was chosen for the launch of the campaign because it is the week when Christians commemorate the execution of Jesus. Alabama's bishops have their work cut out for them. As in many Southern states, Alabama's prosecutors frequently seek the death penalty, giving the state the seventh-largest death row in the country and the largest per capita. About 195 people are on Alabama's death row, a number that will soon drop as a result of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision barring the execution of people who committed crimes as juveniles. In the most recent state poll, 63 percent of Alabamians said they supported capital punishment, and 25 percent opposed it. That was in 2000. Foley said he is not daunted. "The South may be conservative, but it's just. I have found that when you talk to people, it's not that people have a closed mind, they haven't heard the message." Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb of Mobile was officiating at a funeral Wednesday and unavailable for comment. He has in the past appealed to governors on behalf of inmates, asking for clemency. Catholic DA's stance: The church's position places some Catholic prosecutors and judges in the state at odds with church teaching. Doug Valeska, district attorney for Houston and Henry counties and a practicing Catholic, has sent more people to Death Row than any other DA in the state except those in more populous Jefferson and Montgomery counties. Valeska said that though his faith is important to him, he believes the sanctity-of-life philosophy should not apply to people who have taken a life. "It's my opinion they should forfeit their life," he said. "As far as incarcerating them for the rest of their lives ... they can take others' life in prison, hurt guards, hurt other people." Valeska said the priest at his church in Dothan has written him, asking him not to seek the death penalty in specific cases, but he has not complied. There are 13 people on death row from Houston and Henry counties, more per capita than anywhere except Talladega County. "I'll continue to seek the death penalty. If that means that I'm going to hell then God's going to send me to hell," Valeska said. "I have a problem with the bishops, their liberal stance." Nationally, the Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty will include legislative and legal action, education and a Web site. Foley said he sees his role as a teacher, like his role in the church in general. He hopes to reach out to children and high school students. "We're beginning to create a generation that will turn away from this," Foley said. "I believe that everyone wants a culture of life." (source: Birmingham News)
