The nation in brief

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 28, 2001

U.S. may seek death penalty in spy case

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday the government may seek the death penalty against Robert Hanssen, the veteran FBI agent accused of spying for Moscow.

But former prosecutors and other experts said the Justice Department will face major legal hurdles if it tries to apply a 1994 law that provides capital punishment for divulging the identity of a U.S. agent to a foreign country, causing the agent's death.

The FBI alleges that Hanssen told Moscow in 1985 that two KGB officers at the Soviet Embassy in Washington were secretly working for the United States. Both men, Sergei Motorin and Valery Martynov, subsequently were executed.

Because Hanssen's alleged betrayal of Motorin and Martynov took place nine years before Congress passed the law setting the death penalty, defense lawyers could argue that capital punishment would violate the ex post facto clause of the Constitution, which prohibits applying criminal laws retroactively.

Prosecutors have until May 21 to weigh such issues and bring a grand jury indictment against Hanssen, who has been held on an interim criminal complaint since his Feb. 18 arrest.

Legal experts said discussion of the death penalty may be intended to pressure Hanssen to cooperate with the FBI. In most espionage cases, the government has agreed to a reduced sentence in return for a guilty plea and cooperation in assessing damage from the spying.

Forest chief leaving Bush administration

WASHINGTON -- Forest Service chief Mike Dombeck, a proponent of a sweeping land-use plan the Bush administration may now be trying to undo, announced Tuesday he is stepping down.

Dombeck could have stayed until the end of April, longer if asked. Instead, he told his boss, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, he was retiring from federal service after 25 years, effective Saturday.

"It was made clear in no uncertain terms that the administration wants to take the Forest Service in another direction," said Chris Wood, who served as Dombeck's top aide until Friday. But "it is very cordial."

Chris West, vice president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group based in Portland, Ore., said he had problems with the course that Dombeck and the Clinton administration took the Forest Service.

West said Dombeck tried to turn the forests he governed into national parks, instead of recognizing the value of their resources, including timber.

As chief, Dombeck worked to conserve old-growth forests, increase staff to protect wilderness areas and improve funding to fight wildfires and protect communities near the agency's 192-million acres of national forests.

Clintons' home to debut as fundraising site

WASHINGTON -- The ritzy new home of former President Bill Clinton and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will debut as a Democratic fundraising spot next month, when Hillary Clinton holds a reception to help a fellow freshman senator retire a $4.3-million campaign debt.

The April 25 event is for Sen. Maria Cantwell, who beat Republican incumbent Slade Gorton in Washington state by a few thousand votes after a long recount.

The fundraiser is expected to be the first of many such events at the five-bedroom house near Embassy Row, which the Clintons bought during their last days in the White House.

Affirmative action dealt another blow

DETROIT -- Dealing another setback to affirmative action, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the use of race in admissions at the University of Michigan law school is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman, in a case closely watched by educators across the country, acknowledged there is a "long and tragic history of race discrimination in this country."

But he said the law school's goal of achieving a racially diverse student body is not a compelling state interest -- and even if it were, the school has not narrowly tailored its use of race to achieve the goal.

"Whatever solution the law school elects to pursue it must be race-neutral," the judge said. "The focus must be upon the merit of individual applicants, not upon characteristics of racial groups."

The ruling conflicts with another federal judge's decision upholding a similar admissions policy used for University of Michigan undergraduates. The two cases could ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The university said it will appeal Friedman's ruling.

"His ruling overturns over 20 years of settled law and the practices of virtually every selective college and university in the country," said Liz Berry, associate vice president and deputy general counsel. "But we are confident that we will prevail because of the overwhelming evidence that diversity is critical to education."

The ruling was praised by the Center for Individual Rights, the conservative legal group that brought both Michigan lawsuits.

Affirmative action has been abandoned by public universities in Florida, Texas and California, and the use of race and gender in awarding public contracts has also come under strong legal attack around the country.

The Michigan law school case was brought on behalf of Barbara Grutter, who said she was unfairly denied admission in 1997 because minorities with lower grades and test scores got preferential treatment. The law school adopted its affirmative action policy in 1992. It relies first on grades and exam scores. But it also gives consideration to applicants who have lower scores but "may help achieve that diversity which has the potential to enrich everyone's education."

Of the 367 students in the most recent entering class at the law school, 12 percent did not report their race or ethnicity, while 10 percent identified themselves as black and 4 percent as Hispanic.

Miranda Massie, an attorney for students who intervened on the university's side, said Friedman's ruling will intensify racial inequalities. "We don't need any institutions in this society to be reserved for white people alone," she said. "If this decision is sustained, that would be its impact."

Also . . .

MORE REMAINS FOUND ON "HUNLEY': Scientists discovered the remains of a second crewman Tuesday aboard the H.L. Hunley, a Confederate submarine being salvaged off the Atlantic Coast.

The newly discovered bones probably belonged to an artillery man because two uniform buttons bearing the letter "A" were found near the same spot last week, said project manager Bob Neyland.

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