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Students question judicial affairs committee suspension Admins say lax suits put committee members at risk; students fear judicial affairs issues will be tabled by
Chelsea Allison THE CHRONICLE
The 15-member committee responsible for examining Duke’s Judicial affairs policy was suspended in late January by Dean of Undergraduate EducationSteve Nowicki—a move several student leaders said may leave key issues of judicial reform unaddressed. Nowicki told committee members Jan. 29 that the task force, which began meeting news in November, would be analysis temporarily disbanded because of ongoing litigation against the University. He said he wanted to prevent the possibility that members of the committee would be deposed or cross-examined during the lawsuit the University was facing, filed in December by three unindicted members of the 2005-2006 men’s lacrosse team. In the interim, the practices DSG challenged in September remain unchanged.
Justifying the suspension University Counsel Pam Bernard called two pending lacrosse-related lawsuits both “misdirected” and “meritless,” but she advised Nowicki that it was still possible for members of the committee to become embroiled in the cases. But some student leaders have questioned her reasoning, saying members were not asked whether or not they would be willing to be called as witnesses should their committee involvement require it. “I think [the genuine reason] was that the committee was launching an empirical
investigation at a time when a lawsuit had alleged there were problems in our judicial practices,” said DSG President Paul Slattery, a senior. “The risk for the University, of course, was that the investigation would not only be discoverable [evidence for lawsuits] but could be massaged to support the legal allegations.” Nowicki said he was not pressured into making the decision to put the commiton hiatus. “My primary concern was for the students and the members of the committee. I understand the University and the legal counsel and I’m not insensitive to that,” he said. “My decision... wasn’t because of my concern for the University or things that might have come out of that [legal proceeding] . The University may have its concerns, but that’s not what I’m involved with.” In an e-mail sent two weeks before the committee’s suspension in January, Bernard commented on the potential consequences of DSG’s initial proposals for reform. “If Duke were to adopt the students’ position on important points in an effort to compromise, the result would be: 1. Undermining universities’ decade-built position, tee
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2. Duke would be seen as weak among its peers and out of step with the strong trend over the last decade to de-legalize student conduct processes,” she wrote in the e-mail, obtained by The Chronicle. Bernard also prepared a spreadsheet to provide legal analysis and potential SEE JUDICIAL AFFAIRS ON PAGE 6
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Laurence Lovette is charged with 25 crimes committed while on probation before an arrest for the murders of Eve Carson and Abhijit Mahato. He was placed on probation for breaking and entering and larceny charges.
2 murders bring repeat offenders into spotlight by
Troy Shelton THE CHRONICLE
Small in number but frequent in infrac-
tions, repeat offenders are responsible for much of the nation’s crime, and most recently for the deaths of two local college students. Following the deaths of Duke graduate student Abhijit Mahato and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill senior Eve Carson, Durham Mayor Bill Bell called Monday night for a formal invesdgation into the January release from custody of a Durham teenager, Laurence Lovette, who has been charged in both murders. City Manager Patrick Baker will lead the investigation, and a report will be presented at the Durham County Courthouse April 8. “I want to know what the judge’s role was, what the district attorney’s role was, what the police department’s role was, what the bail was under which he was released,” Bell said. The murders garnered local and, in Carson’s case, national attention in recent weeks. Mahato, a 29 year old from India studying computational mechanics, was killed afterbeing shot point-blank in the head in his home in The Anderson Apartments Jan. 18. Carson, the 22-year-old student body president at UNC, was found dead a short distance from the school’s North Campus March 5 afterbeing shot in the head. With Lovette’s indictment Monday, many, including Bell, are questioning whether or not the murders could have been prevented.
Falling through the cracks The 17-year-old Durham resident’s upcoming hearings will not be his first time facing the courts. Lovette was charged with breaking and entering in November and remained in
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DemarioAtwater has been convicted of breaking and entering and possession of a firearm by a felon.
jail until January, when he pled guilty to a lesser crime. He then received a 24-month suspended sentence and was released. He is now being charged with murdering Mahato and Carson between his release and subsequent arrest for Carson’s murder. City Council member Eugene Brown said one reason for Lovette’s multiple releases from jail is a major miscommunication between the juvenile and adult court systems. “You’ve got judges there with juveniles before them for thefirst time and they don’tknow what’s the background on this kid,” he said. “The fact that both of these guys were on probation, that tells us something about how Durham should not operate. This system is not protecting the public,” Brown added in SEE OFFENDERS ON PAGE
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