Inclusion Daily Express -- June 5, 2003

INCLUSION DAILY EXPRESS

http://www.InclusionDaily.com

Your quick, once-a-day look at disability rights, self-determination
and the movement toward full community inclusion around the world.

Thursday, June 5, 2003
Year IV, Edition 095

This edition includes 8 news and information items, each preceded by a number (#) symbol.
Today's "Below the Fold" page includes headlines and links to all other news items gathered today.

QUOTES OF THE DAY:
"It feels good."
--Timothy Brown, after learning that a murder charge against him has been withdrawn, nearly 12 years after he began serving a life term for the crime (First story)

"The biggest enemy in society is a poor attitude . . . enhanced by ignorance."
--Gerson Mutendere, Secretary-General of Namibia's National Federation of People With Disabilities (Fourth story)

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# LAWS / FORCED CONFESSIONS

Murder Charge Finally Dropped Against Tim Brown
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 5, 2003

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA--Thursday morning, State Attorney prosecutors withdrew a murder charge against Timothy Brown, clearing him completely of the crime for which he spent nearly 12 years behind bars.

Brown's 1991 conviction and life sentence were overturned this past March, more than a year after another inmate gave a more convincing confession to the same murder.

Brown was released from prison May 14 on a $5,000 bond and placed on house arrest, after a judge ruled that there was not enough evidence to keep him locked up. The judge gave prosecutors until June 23 to come up with evidence to begin a new trial against Brown.

But an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Broward Sheriff's Office ended Tuesday with no new evidence revealed.

The move means that Brown is finally a free man.

"It feels good," said the smiling 27-year-old, who was in the court room -- for the first time as an audience member -- as the charge was officially dropped.

"It means I'll be out and I'll be going to Disney World."

"It's a lot I've lost out on," he said. "I lost all my childhood. I can't go back."

Broward Circuit Judge Ana Gardiner told Brown: "I am sure it has been a nightmare for you . . . and I hope (this provides) some closure for you."

Brown then went to have an electronic monitoring device removed from his ankle.

Brown, who reportedly has mental retardation, was 14 years old when Broward Sheriff's Deputy Patrick Behan was shot to death in his patrol car. Brown was 15 when he confessed to the crime. Later he withdrew his confession, claiming investigators encouraged him to waive his right to remain silent and put physical and psychological pressure on him to confess.

According to an investigation by the Miami Herald, at least 38 false or questionable murder confessions have been thrown out by Broward County courts since 1990.

Related article:
"Prosecutors drop charge against Brown" (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/03/red/0605a.htm

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# INSTITUTIONS

State Senate Passes Budget Plan That Would Down-Size Fircrest School
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 5, 2003

OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON--The fate of Fircrest School remained up in the air Thursday, the day after the state Senate passed a budget plan that would down-size the institution and prepare for its eventual closure.

Late Wednesday night, the state Senate passed its $23 billion budget with a 28-19 vote, mostly along party lines. The House was expected to pass the same plan Thursday.

Advocates for the rights of people with developmental disabilities to live outside institutions had backed ESB 5971, a bill that would have closed Fircrest and moved its 250 residents to the community or to the four other state-run RHCs (Residential Habilitation Centers).

The measure was opposed by family members of those housed at the institution, and by the labor union that represents the more than 700 state workers at Fircrest.

According to the Seattle Times, a compromise version of ESB 5971 would keep Fircrest open for now, but moves out about 75 of the residents over the next two years. An initial transition plan would be submitted to fiscal and policy committees by the end of this year. Legislators would receive regular reports and updates on the downsizing progress.

In the time remaining before the final vote, community advocates were continuing to fight for provisions that would more directly lead to the Fircrest's closure.

Democratic Sen. Darlene Fairley, whose district includes Fircrest, voted against the package. Fairley has been leading the drive to close the facility and sell its prime real estate to generate revenue for the cash-strapped Division of Social and Health Services.

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# LAWS / DEATH PENALTY

High Numbers Of State's Death Row Inmates Claim Mental Retardation
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 5, 2003

COLUMBUS, OHIO--Nineteen inmates in Ohio's death row claim that they have mental retardation. By next Monday, an additional 21 are expected to make the same claim, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

That will make up nearly one-fifth of the state's 204 death row inmates.

"We believe that there is substantial evidence of mental retardation and that these prisoners should be released from the sentence of death," said Public Defender David A. Bodiker.

Last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing people who have mental retardation is "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. The court did not define what mental retardation is, nor did it tell the states how to define it. In most states, mental retardation is linked to scores of 70 or below on IQ tests taken before the person became an adult. Some use other evaluations of a person's "functioning ability".

In Ohio, those facing the death penalty have until Monday to file an appeal to have their mental status reviewed. For many, it could be tough for them to prove that they have a disability. Testing that was done when each inmate was first imprisoned do not show any indications of mental retardation, according to JoEllen Culp, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Death row inmates Ernest Martin and Lewis Williams, who are scheduled to be executed later this month, are among those who have filed claims. Officials are particularly skeptical of these claims, and point to the facts that Martin has written and copyrighted a 236-page autobiography, and that Williams has asserted his innocence in a 62-page legal brief he filed in a federal appeals court.

Related resource:
"The Death Penalty and Mental Retardation" (Inclusion Daily Express)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/laws/deathpenalty.htm

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# ADVOCACY

Awareness Week Is Good, But Not Enough, Advocate Says
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 5, 2003

WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA--The 1991 national census showed that there are more than 40,000 people with disabilities in Namibia. Eighty percent of those live in rural areas, far away from health and other services. Those living in cities have few choices because of a shortage of professionals able to perform such services.

On Monday, the Health Ministry launched the National Awareness Week on Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation. Health officials said the effort is aimed at making communities aware of the services and strategies that are in place to prevent disabilities and rehabilitate those who have them. While officials say that some disabilities are the result of poor pre-natal care, they also note that many are the result of vehicle accidents and injuries from violence in the home and workplace.

But Gerson Mutendere, Secretary-General of the National Federation of People With Disabilities (NFWPD), said it's not enough to let people know about professional services and efforts to prevent disabilities.

"The biggest enemy in society is a poor attitude . . . enhanced by ignorance," Mutendere told The Namibian news.

Mutendere, who has a disability related to a 1989 auto accident, lobbies to improve the lives of people with disabilities and integrate them into society at large.

"Society creates barriers for you [as a disabled person]," said Mutendere. "All of us can be confronted with a disability one day."

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# ACCESSIBILITY / SPORTS

Wheelchair Athletes And Others Have Accessible Ball Field
June 5, 2003

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS--The following four paragraphs are excerpts from an article in Thursday's Chicago Sun-Times:

The new softball field at California Park has no grass and a 4-foot-high home run fence.

But the design is no mistake--the Northwest Side field was built with wheelchair athletes in mind.

"Just a few months ago, we were sweeping glass and rocks off a parking lot so we could play ball," said Jorge Alfaro of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago's Cubs softball team.

This is one more step toward ensuring that all athletes--able- bodied and those with physical disabilities--are able to compete at the highest levels possible with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities," said Wayne Lerner, president and CEO of the Rehab Institute.

Entire article:
"N.W. Side field lets wheelchair athletes play ball" (Chicago Sun-Times)
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-chair05.html

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# TODAY'S FEATURED DISABILITY HISTORY WEBSITE

"The Roots of the I.Q. Debate: Eugenics and Social Control" By Margaret Quigley, The Public Eye, 1995

During the first three decades of this century, a small but influential social/scientific movement known as the eugenics movement extrapolated from the new science of human genetics a complex set of beliefs justifying the necessity for racial and class hierarchy. It also advocated limitations on political democracy. The eugenicists argued that the United States was in immediate danger of committing racial suicide as a result of the rapid reproduction of the unfit coupled with the precipitous decline in the birthrate of the better classes. They proposed a program of positive and negative eugenics as a solution. Positive genetics would encourage the reproduction of the better-educated and racially superior, while a rigorous program of negative eugenics to prevent any increase in the racially unfit would include compulsory segregation and sterilization, immigration restriction, and laws to prohibit inter-racial marriage (anti-miscegenation statutes).

I will argue that the eugenics movement of the early 20th-century was primarily a political movement concerned with the social control of groups thought to be inferior by an economic, social, and racial elite. I reject the contention that the movement was primarily scientific and apolitical. I have looked here primarily at the organized eugenics movement and its leading figures, rather than at the average rank-and-file follower within the movement.

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45/034.html

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# EXPRESS EXTRA!!!

FROM THE INCLUSION DAILY EXPRESS ARCHIVES (Two years ago)

ADVOCACY

Good-bye, "Retarded", We Won't Miss You.
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
June 5, 2001

TORONTO, ONTARIO--Say good-bye to the word "retarded".

The Ontario government is officially removing the "R" word from more than 30 pieces of legislation. In fact, they are going so far as to throw out the entire Homes for Retarded Persons Act.

Good-bye. Good riddance.

According to Tuesday's Ottawa Citizen, Social Services Minister John Baird is set to announce that the province will not only be replacing the "R" word with "people with developmental disabilities", but will also be removing old laws based on old assumptions about people with disabilities.

Baird said the decision reflects a basic change in attitudes toward Ontarians who used to be automatically placed in institutions, but who now live better, more meaningful lives in the community.

"This is not just about the choice of one word," the Minister said. "It's about changing a whole outdated philosophy."

"This sounds like it is about being politically correct," explained Agnes Samler, executive director of the Toronto Association for Community Living, "but if you actually talk to someone who has an intellectual disability and they talk about what it means to be called 'mentally retarded,' it's no longer an issue of political correctness, its about real hurt to people who are labeled this way."

"The continued use of the term 'mentally retarded' is the equivalent of racial slurs that we don't use except to hurt people", Samler added.

The language used in the 1966 Homes for Retarded Persons Act, which was introduced about the time when people started moving out of institutions, reflected an attitude that it was dangerous for people with disabilities to live in the community. That law included guidelines for using things like straitjackets and electric cattle prods to control group home residents, and even required kitchens to lock away all knives.

It should be noted that many governments, agencies, programs and organizations have removed the word "retarded" from their names, titles and policies.

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# BELOW THE FOLD
A list of all other disability-related news items found today:
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/03/btf/060503_57.htm

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