A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Thursday, 1 May 2014
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Stories:
Brown Student Lena Sclove Speaks Out After School Lets Her Accused Rapist Return to Campus
The issue of sexual assault on college campuses has been in the spotlight this week with a White House task force urging schools to take action. The government launched a new informational website, NotAlone.gov, and a public service announcement featuring President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden alongside famous actors. But long before celebrities and senators entered the picture, the battle against sexual assault on college campuses was led by students who have risen up to hold their schools accountable. We are joined by Brown University student Lena Sclove, who says she was raped and strangled in August 2013 by a fellow student. Her alleged rapist was found responsible for four violations of the student conduct code, including "sexual misconduct that involves one or more of the following: penetration, violent physical force or injury." But his penalty effectively amounted to a one-semester suspension. Students say Sclove’s case is not unusual as universities across the country have come under fire for mishandling sexual assault cases. More unusual was Sclove’s decision to speak out by holding a press conference on Brown’s campus last week.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The issue of sexual assault on college campuses has been in the spotlight this week. On Tuesday, a White House task force headed by Vice President Joe Biden released a report urging colleges to take action by conducting surveys, promoting bystander intervention and improving their disciplinary systems. Citing studies that show one in five women are sexually assaulted in college, the government launched a new informational website, NotAlone.gov, and a public service announcement featuring President Obama and Vice President Biden alongside famous actors.
BENICIO DEL TORO: We have a big problem, and we need your help.
DULÉ HILL: It’s happening on college campuses, at bars, at parties, even in high schools.
STEVE CARELL: It’s happening to our sisters and our daughters.
DANIEL CRAIG: Our wives and our friends.
SETH MEYERS: It’s called sexual assault, and it has to stop.
DULÉ HILL: We have to stop it. So listen up.
BENICIO DEL TORO: If she doesn’t consent or if she can’t consent, it’s rape, it’s assault.
STEVE CARELL: It’s a crime. It’s wrong.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: If I saw it happening, I was taught you have to do something about it.
BENICIO DEL TORO: If I saw it happening, I speak up.
DANIEL CRAIG: If I saw it happening, I’d never blame her. I’d help her.
DULÉ HILL: Because I don’t want to be a part of the problem.
SETH MEYERS: I want to be a part of the solution.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We need all of you to be a part of the solution. This is about respect. It’s about responsibility.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It’s up to all of us to put an end to sexual assault. And that starts with you.
DANIEL CRAIG: Because one is too many.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Daniel Craig, Seth Meyers, Benicio Del Toro, Steve Carell and Dulé Hill, with President Obama and Vice President Biden. The PSA will air in movie theaters and on military installations and ships. Meanwhile, Senators Claire McCaskill and Kirsten Gillibrand are leading an effort for increased funding to address sexual assault at colleges.
Well, long before celebrities and senators entered the picture, the battle against sexual assault on college campuses was led by students who have risen up to hold their schools accountable, sometimes risking sanctions themselves. Students have filed federal complaints at Columbia, the University of California at Berkeley, Dartmouth, Harvard, Yale, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt, Amherst College and Occidental, among scores of others. The number of complaints against colleges related to sexual violence has tripled since tracking began in 2009, with 33 in the first half of this year alone.
Most recently, attention has focused on Brown University, where a student, Lena Sclove, says she was raped and strangled after a party in August 2013. Her alleged rapist, a fellow student, was found responsible for four violations of the student conduct code, including "sexual misconduct that involves one or more of the following: penetration, violent physical force or injury." Sclove says a university panel recommended a two-year suspension, but a dean reduced that to one year. Sclove appealed, seeking a harsher sentence, but was denied. Since her accused attacker remained on campus throughout the hearing and appeal, his one-year suspension effectively became one semester.
The case has caused a nationwide uproar. But students at Brown and elsewhere say Lena Sclove’s story is not necessarily unusual. In fact, in her letter denying Sclove’s appeal, a Brown University official cited, quote, "the precedent of similar cases." More unusual was Lena Sclove’s decision to denounce the university in public. Last week, standing outside Brown’s Van Wickle Gates, surrounded by supporters, she described her injuries.
LENA SCLOVE: It turned out I had a cervical spine injury in my neck from being strangled. It’s very common for trauma injuries like this to take several months to surface. I could not walk for about two months, from January and February. I was bedridden and was forced to take a medical leave. So I lost my one semester of freedom, and now my next opportunity to come back as a student to matriculate here at Brown is the same semester that the rapist is allowed to come back and matriculate here at Brown. I feel like I should have been thanked by the administration for keeping this campus safe; instead, they kept him safe.
AMY GOODMAN: Lena Sclove, speaking at Brown University on April 22nd. Following the uproar over her case, her accused assailant has decided not to return to Brown in the fall. Lena Sclove joins us now in New York along with Wagatwe Wanjuki, an organizer with the Know Your IX campaign, which helps empower students to file complaints against their schools under Title IX. She’s also a contributor at Feministing and a former student at Tufts University, where she filed a complaint in 2008 after two years of alleged rape and abuse by a fellow student, but Tufts did not take action. She was in Washington, D.C., Tuesday for the announcement of the White House report.
Lena and Wagatwe, welcome. Lena, let’s begin with your case. And thank you very much for joining us. It’s extremely brave to speak out as you are doing. Can you talk about what happened to you?
LENA SCLOVE: Sure. The perpetrator was a friend of mine. We had met at a midyear transfer orientation. He seemed like a nice guy. We spent time together over the summer. And then we had been intimate a couple of times. And I think it’s really important to be open about that, because many survivors feel that they can’t come forward because not only did they know the person, but maybe they had been intimate or dated the person before. That does not mean that it can’t be rape in the future.
So, we had decided that it was over. We weren’t interested in moving forward. We were at a party on August 2nd, 2013. Both of us had been drinking. We left the party. And sort of there was definitely flirtation, and at this point it was all consensual, until I was basically pinned against a telephone pole. He had his hand wrapped around my neck. I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t move. And that is the moment it became completely unconsensual. And the rest of the night is the nightmare that keeps reliving in my head.
AMY GOODMAN: You said you were strangled twice, and you were raped.
LENA SCLOVE: Yes, I was—yes, he then got me back to his apartment, saying that he would just get me some water and walk me home. Instead, he proceeded to undress me and rape me, and choke and strangle me during the rape again, a second time.
AMY GOODMAN: After this happened, what did you do?
LENA SCLOVE: Well, I was completely in shock the next day. To be perfectly honest, I—the first person I called was a dear friend of mine who’s quite—much older than me. It was, you know, 6:00 in the morning. I woke up. I knew exactly what had happened to me. I was in pain all over. And I think it was very hard for her to understand, you know, what had happened. And it’s really—it’s really crucial to understand that the first person you go to to tell has this immense amount of power. And she really didn’t—didn’t get it and didn’t take it seriously enough or didn’t understand it. And so, by the time my best friend saw me later that day and saw the bruises on my neck and said, "You need to go to the emergency room," I refused, because I had, at that point, started to blame myself, as is so often with survivors. So it wasn’t until five days later, on the Wednesday after the attack, that I called the Brown rape crisis line and was immediately told to go to Health Services, the Brown Health Services, to get tested. And it was basically too late to get a rape kit at that time.
AMY GOODMAN: And what did you do from there?
LENA SCLOVE: Well, from there, I was basically introduced to a sexual assault advocate on campus, who is a wonderful woman, and there are incredible people at Brown who, you know, do support survivors. The problem is it’s a broken system. They are working in a broken system. So I was advised by many people on my various options. While I was told I could go to the criminal justice system, I was told, you know, in the state of Rhode Island, 2 percent of accused rapists are actually found guilty and see any time. He doesn’t have a criminal record. He didn’t have a gun or a knife. You have no physical evidence. This won’t go anywhere, and meanwhile it will be retraumatizing. I was also not given the information that it is possible to go to the police, have pictures of the bruises taken, have the evidence collected, and not make a decision at that time whether or not to press charges. So I did not have the full amount of information.
That said, I wish I had had that information for my case, but I can only speak personally as—especially as a white, upper-middle-class female, I think I should have done that. But for many other people, based on, you know, immigrant documentation status or communities of color, going forward to the police is an incredibly different thing than for a white person to go to the police, for a variety of reasons that we can talk more about. And so, I think so much of this process is about a survivor reclaiming agency over themselves and their decisions, and so I support each survivor’s decision. I just—in my case, if I had had that information, I would have been able to collect the evidence when it existed. Five days later, the bruises were gone.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, at that time, you did not go to the police.
LENA SCLOVE: No, I did not go to the police until February.
AMY GOODMAN: What about the administration?
LENA SCLOVE: I went immediately to the administration. Within two weeks, I had filed an official complaint with the Office of Student Life at Brown University, because I had been told by various advisers that it would be a much faster process, it would keep me safe, I would not be cross-examined during the hearing, and—and that ultimately I would see justice much faster and in a much more humane way than the criminal justice system would handle it.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, let me talk about what the president said, of Brown.
LENA SCLOVE: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now! contacted Brown University’s president, Christina Paxson, and other officials who played a role in the case. Through a spokesperson, they all declined to join us, directing us to the letter from President Paxson, which states, quote, "To be clear, sexual assault at Brown is not tolerated. Every student at Brown has the right to feel safe from the threat of sexual violence. Students who report being the victims of sexual misconduct receive substantial support from deans, counselors, or advocates. In cases where a crime may have been committed, the student is counseled about options for filing a criminal complaint." President Paxson also said that Brown is accelerating a planned review of its policies and procedures. Lena Sclove, can you respond to that statement?
LENA SCLOVE: First of all, I think it was very poor choice in wording to say sexual assault is not tolerated on this campus a week after my press conference, which clearly demonstrates that it is, because the vice president of the university was the one who denied my appeal—and we can get to that—about the sanctions, and the president of the university was quite aware of my case at the time, being CCed on emails. So, clearly, there is a tolerance for it. So I do not believe that statement.
As for moving forward, that was going to happen anyways. Every five years, the code of conduct is up for review. This is the year. So, the fall, they were going to redo the code of conduct and the sexual misconduct policy anyways.
AMY GOODMAN: So talk about what happens. You reported to the administration.
LENA SCLOVE: I report to the administration. You know, there’s a hearing on October 11th. Witnesses are present there. You know, he has this whole document of a whole different—different night that is not what happened. And there’s a panel of a professor, a dean and a student. Now, they make the findings. The findings are final. They make recommendations for the sanctions. A week later, on October 18th, I get a letter with a decision that he has been found responsible by the panel for all four violations and that the sanction is he will be suspended until fall 2014. At that time, he will be allowed to re-apply for re-admission.
I immediately am shocked that, you know, this is the case. I assume he will appeal. He does not appeal. I do appeal. The appeal process is three weeks long. In that time, they allow him to stay on campus, even though at least he is suspended until the fall because he did not appeal. In his statement that he released saying it was consensual, I just have to ask: If it was consensual, why did not—why did you not appeal? If you’re so sure this is all a lie, you got the sanctions, why didn’t you appeal? So, that is baffling to me. But meanwhile, he was still living on campus, attending classes until just before Thanksgiving, when I was notified in person by the vice president of Brown University that they would not grant my appeal based on past precedent. And by then, I only had three weeks left of the semester and this semester, before he would be returning.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, the panel recommended two years—
LENA SCLOVE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —that he be suspended.
LENA SCLOVE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: What actually was the final decision?
LENA SCLOVE: So the panel makes recommendations for the findings, and then the senior associate dean of the Office of Student Life makes the final decision. So he brought it down from two years to one year. And when I appealed the decision, I spoke about that. It’s very peculiar that I was given the information about that findings, because generally students are not told what the panel recommended. So, that’s still a question up in the air of why I was given that information. I was given that information. I cited that in the appeal letter. And the vice president upheld the senior associate dean’s decision, only adding a probationary period as sort of a consolation prize of saying, "We are allowing him back in the fall, but he will be on probation," meaning he will have to check in with deans, you know, once a month or something just to make sure he’s doing OK. And he will—and you’ll have a no-contact order, which essentially means he can’t talk to me. It’s a very weak form of a restraining order.
AMY GOODMAN: Your injuries?
LENA SCLOVE: My injuries, PTSD, for one, immediately after, noise sensitivity and all of that. But physically, during finals, starting December 14th, I began to have migraines. I had a migraine for two weeks straight. Right before Christmas, I woke up with a lump on the back of my spine. We thought it was a tumor. We freaked out. We went to the doctor. It turned out it was—the lumbar spine and the cervical spine are very connected. It was a cervical spine injury as a result of being strangled. So I, from basically late December to early February, was not able to walk without help. I could not climb stairs and have just begun—you know, now I’m able to walk and sit here and be mobile, but I’m in a great deal of back pain all day long. I still cannot run, dance, do yoga or all of the many things that I did before this assault as a very active person.
AMY GOODMAN: And the panel found your assailant responsible for sexual misconduct that involves one or more of the following: penetration, violent physical force or injury.
LENA SCLOVE: And all three were the case in my—in my case.
AMY GOODMAN: Ultimately, although the dean commuted the punishment to one year, a suspension, he, the student, has decided not to return to Brown?
LENA SCLOVE: Correct. His attorney released that in a statement to The Brown Daily Herald last week.
AMY GOODMAN: After your news conference?
LENA SCLOVE: After my news press conference and after many reporters had covered the issue and his name had been released based on the police report.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Lena Sclove, who is a Brown student who went to her university reporting that she had been raped and strangled. And you’ve heard the story of what happened. When we come back, we will also be joined by Wagatwe Wanjuki to talk about what happened to her at Tufts and to talk about the wider campaign. Both Lena and Wagatwe will talk about what’s happening on college campuses around the country to protect people from sexual abuse and rape. Stay with us.
Lawyer for Next Oklahoma Prisoner Set for Death Calls for Independent Probe of Botched Execution
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has ordered a review of the state’s execution procedures following the botched lethal injection that induced a prisoner’s fatal heart attack. The prisoner, Clayton Lockett, had initially won a stay for challenging the secrecy surrounding the untested execution drugs. But Fallin overruled Oklahoma’s Supreme Court last week and ordered the execution to proceed. Fallin’s review is being conducted by a member of her Cabinet, so its independence is in doubt. Oklahoma officials say Lockett suffered a vein failure, but critics say that claim could mark an effort to hide a problem with the untested chemicals. We are joined by Madeline Cohen, a federal public defender who represents Oklahoma death row prisoner Charles Warner, who was set to be killed right after Lockett, but whose execution has now been delayed for 14 days.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Oklahoma officials are refusing to say whether attempts were made to revive a prisoner during a botched execution on Tuesday night. Clayton Lockett writhed and groaned in pain for several minutes after a large dose of sedatives was apparently not fully delivered. After 16 minutes had passed for a procedure that takes usually takes an average of six minutes, officials drew the shades, blocked witnesses from seeing what happened next. Lockett ultimately died of a heart attack 43 minutes after the execution began. The execution had been put on hold for several weeks due to a legal fight over a new cocktail of chemicals for the lethal injection.
On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney reaffirmed President Obama’s support for the death penalty.
PRESS SECRETARY JAY CARNEY: He has long said that while the evidence suggests that the death penalty does little to deter crime, he believes there are some crimes that are so heinous that the death penalty is merited. In this case, these cases, the crimes are indisputably horrific and heinous. But it’s also the case that we have a fundamental standard in this country that even when the death penalty is justified, it must be carried out humanely. And I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of that standard.
AMY GOODMAN: Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin responded to the international outcry over Tuesday’s botched execution by ordering a review of the state’s procedures for lethal injections.
GOV. MARY FALLIN: I believe the death penalty is an appropriate response and punishment to those who commit heinous crimes against their fellow men and women. However, I also believe the state needs to be certain of its protocols and its procedures for executions and that they work.
AMY GOODMAN: Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin ordered the review to be conducted by a member of her Cabinet. It was just last week that Fallin declared the Oklahoma Supreme Court had overstepped its authority in delaying Tuesday’s double execution until legal questions could be resolved about the new drug combination.
Well, for more, we go to Denver to Madeline Cohen, a federal public defender who represents Oklahoma death row prisoner Charles Warner, the man who was not executed Tuesday night after Lockett’s botched execution. Warner’s execution has been delayed for 14 days. Cohen is joining us by phone from Denver.
Thank you for coming on today. Welcome to Democracy Now! What is your response to what took place Tuesday night and what the Oklahoma governor says she will do next?
MADELINE COHEN: Thanks, Amy. What took place on Tuesday night was a travesty. It was the farthest thing from an execution in compliance with the Eighth Amendment that we can imagine. Governor Fallin’s call for an investigation is great, but there’s nothing independent about the investigation she has established. It’s to be conducted by a member of her own Cabinet, with the involvement of her attorney general, who has been fighting tooth and nail to keep us from obtaining information about Oklahoma’s execution practices and, most importantly, about the drugs that are used in those executions.
AMY GOODMAN: What are you demanding happen right now?
MADELINE COHEN: We’ll be demanding an independent investigation by a third-party entity. And we also have been requesting an independent autopsy. I understand that yesterday there was an autopsy conducted, but there is a practice available to do a second autopsy by an independent pathologist, and we will be insisting that that take place so that we have some objective assurances of what went so horribly wrong.
AMY GOODMAN: The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma has called for an immediate moratorium on all executions, pending the outcome of the investigation into Lockett’s death. The group’s legal director, Brady Henderson, also issued a statement saying, quote, "We hope that courts will reconsider whether transparency about the drugs used in executions is required as a matter of law. ... It is important to remember that the State of Oklahoma continues to deny relatively simple requests from condemned men to find out about the drugs that will be used to kill them. ... If we are to have executions at all, they must not be conducted like hastily thrown together human science experiments," the ACLU said. Your response to that?
MADELINE COHEN: I think that that is absolutely correct. And in Mr. Warner’s case, we have been requesting transparency for many months, as for Mr. Lockett, and we will be continuing and renewing our efforts to obtain information about the drugs. I think it’s worth noting that when the Oklahoma Supreme Court very hastily changed its mind last week about the need for a stay of execution and serious consideration of our constitutional claims, they said that the secrecy law in Oklahoma protects only the identity of persons, not drugs. And we responded to that by asking for more information about the drugs that would let us know they’re safe, effective, uncontaminated, unadulterated and were obtained through legal channels. And as late as Friday afternoon, the state had once again refused to give us that information.
AMY GOODMAN: Austin Sarat, the author of the book Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty, wrote an op-ed in The Boston Globe this weekend about the first comprehensive study of botched executions in the United States from 1890 to 2010 and documented the ways that different methods of execution go wrong. He wrote, quote, "During the time period covered by our research, 3 percent of all executions were botched, from the decapitations that happened at hangings to the 'high tech' electric chair in which condemned criminals have caught on fire. Botched executions have not disappeared since America has adopted the current state-of-the art method of lethal injection. In fact, executions by lethal injection are botched at a higher rate than any of the other methods employed since the late 19th century, 7 percent," he wrote. Your response to that, Madeline Cohen?
MADELINE COHEN: Yeah, I saw that, as well. One of the things that’s going wrong in the current situation is that doctors, anesthesiologists, people with medical training, do not want to be involved in killing someone. And the manufacturers of drugs that are used to provide sedation and kill pain don’t want their drugs used to kill people. And so, the states have turned to increasingly, shall we say, creative methods and shady practices to conduct lethal injection executions with very little medical oversight and with drugs of questionable origin.
AMY GOODMAN: The mother of the baby your client Charles Warner was convicted of killing has previously asked for clemency in his case. Shonda Waller was Warner’s live-in girlfriend at the time of the murder. She spoke in a video at Warner’s Pardon and Parole Board hearing and said she morally opposed the death penalty. She said, quote, "That would dishonor my daughter. It would dishonor me and everything I believe in. I wouldn’t want to have to know about something like that, because I wouldn’t want to know that my hand or what I went through personally is the reason why he is no longer living. When he dies I want it to be because it’s his time, not because he’s been executed because due to what happened to me and my child," she said. Madeline Cohen?
MADELINE COHEN: Yes. I just want to point out that Ms. Waller was not Charles Warner’s girlfriend. They were roommates. But she has called for mercy in his case, and she asked the Pardon and Parole Board to grant him clemency. Every time I hear the attorney general say that our calls for transparency in this process are delaying justice for the victims, I think back to her impassioned plea, which took an enormous amount of courage and compassion for her to recognize that more violence and more killing were not going to bring her peace.
AMY GOODMAN: Was Oklahoma Governor Fallin’s move to overrule the state Supreme Court’s execution stay illegal? Do you think then that the state Supreme Court was intimidated to change its ruling after lawmakers threatened impeachment?
MADELINE COHEN: Yes, I do. I do. Their stay on Monday of last week indicated that they recognized the seriousness of the issues and wanted to take the necessary time to give those issues serious consideration. Remember that the lower court judge in Oklahoma had ruled in our favor that the secrecy law was unconstitutional. And in fact she said in her ruling that it was not even a close question. And so, the state was appealing from that decision. And the Oklahoma Supreme Court rightly said we need enough time; we need to stop the executions so that we can evaluate these serious constitutional questions, a first impression. And it only took a few hours after Representative Christian introduced the articles of impeachment for the court to decide it had had enough time to decide the issues against us.
AMY GOODMAN: Madeline Cohen, where were you during the botched execution of Clayton Lockett?
MADELINE COHEN: I was in a nearby minimum-security prison with Mr. Warner’s family, and we were awaiting our turn to the execution viewing area. A great deal of time had passed, and I was growing concerned, and so I went out to try to see if I could talk to Mr. Lockett’s attorneys when they were brought back to the same area. And more time passed, making us increasingly worried. And when the lawyers did arrive, they were extremely shaken, and they told us what had happened.
At that point, I—and by—when I say "us," we had an investigator with us who was in the parking lot. I went back into the minimum-security waiting area and told Mr. Warner’s family and my co-counsel, Lanita Henricksen, that I had been given information that Mr. Warner was not to be executed that night and that I was trying to find out more. As you can imagine, cellphones are not allowed inside the prison. So I then went back to the parking lot to try to be a lawyer and call people and figure out what was going on. Mr. Warner’s family and my co-counsel followed me out, because none of us wanted to be inside a prison if we didn’t have to be.
As we were standing in the parking lot trying to figure out this terrible situation and get information and provide assurances to the family that they would not be going through an execution that night, the staff at the minimum facility came out and essentially forced us back into the prison, telling us that we were not allowed to leave until we had been dismissed, and fairly aggressively ushered us back into the waiting area, sent our colleagues away and forced them to leave the parking lot. When we went back into the waiting room, they berated us for breaking their rules. But we asked for them to find that information, and they told us that they could not do that; they would have to wait for a call from—from the death area.
Several minutes later, a woman came in. We assumed that that would be our information, but instead she began to brief the family on what to expect when they went to the execution room. At that point, I had to step in. It was too horrible. And I insisted that she stop the briefing and go and call somebody and find out what was going on. And she did comply. And several minutes later, she came back and said simply, "You are dismissed." So, at that point, we were able to leave and, you know, deal with the reality of the situation, which was, as you can imagine, both a shock and a tremendous relief for Mr. Warner’s family, and then proceed to try to figure out what had happened.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Madeline Cohen, the Oklahoma corrections officials said Lockett suffered vein failure. I think one of them said his vein exploded. Do you believe this explanation?
MADELINE COHEN: I think they’re trying to cover up something that has gone horribly wrong. Remember that the execution is done by putting IV lines into both arms at the same time, and simultaneous doses, equal doses, are supposed to be pushed into both arms, and those are supposed to be fairly large doses of the drugs. So I think it is not realistic to assume that both arms would have suffered vein failure simultaneously or that it would have taken the supervising doctor so long to realize a vein had blown, including after he had pronounced Mr. Lockett sedated. We have to have a full investigation, we have to have an independent investigation and an independent autopsy, or we will never know what went so horribly wrong.
AMY GOODMAN: Madeline Cohen, I want to thank you for being with us, federal public defender who represents Oklahoma death row prisoner Charles Warner, who was scheduled to be executed Tuesday night after Lockett was killed, but his execution was delayed for 14 days after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett. You can go to Democracy Now!'s website see all of our coverage of the death penalty, including the Tuesday night execution, as well as our 2007 show, "The Execution Tapes," 19 recordings of electrocutions carried out by the state of Georgia since 1984, including the botched execution of Alpha Otis O'Daniel Stephens in 1984.
This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a moment with two young women. Both reported that they were raped to their university administrations. You may be surprised to find out what happened to each of them next. One a student at Brown, the other was a student at Tufts. Stay with us.
After Tufts Found to Violate Title IX, How Student Rape Survivors Are Leading Movement for Reform
Wagatwe Wanjuki filed a complaint at Tufts University in 2008 after two years of rape and abuse by an ex-partner who was also a Tufts student, but the university did not take action, and later expelled her. This week, the U.S. Department of Education found Tufts to be in violation of the federal Title IX law, saying the school has mishandled complaints of sexual assault and harassment. Now an organizer with the "Know Your IX" campaign and a contributor at the blog Feministing, Wanjuki stood with Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday as he unveiled the administration’s new guidelines for handling sexual assault cases in schools. We also speak with Lena Sclove, a Brown University student who is speaking out about her sexual assault and campus policies.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Our guests are two women who reported that they were raped to their universities, and we’re talking about their response. Lena Sclove is currently on medical leave from Brown University, where she reported she was raped and strangled by a fellow student in August of 2013. The student she accused received what amounted to a one-semester suspension but has since decided not to return to Brown following nationwide uproar over the case. Lena Sclove actually had a news conference on campus when she was dissatisfied about Brown University’s response. We’re also joined by Wagatwe Wanjuki, organizer with the Know Your IX campaign, a contributor at Feministing. She filed a complaint at Tufts University in 2008 after two years of rape and abuse by an ex-partner who was also a Tufts student.
Can you explain, Wagatwe, what happened to you?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: Sure. So I was in a relationship with a student on campus, and after enduring two years of abuse and multiple instances of sexual assault, I realized that what was happening was wrong, and I really wanted to have some consequences for what happened to me. So what I did was that I filed a complaint with Tufts University. It took a couple months—I was meeting with deans and with judicial affairs officer and—just to talk about the process. So I finally handed in my complaint, and they said that they weren’t going to go forward with anything. So I explained two years’ worth of what had happened to me, and they decided that I couldn’t use the Tufts system to get any form of justice.
AMY GOODMAN: Why?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: They said that some things were outside this one-year statute of limitations. However, they had an exception where they thought that they will allow students to file a complaint if they believe that the student is a threat to the larger campus. We all know that most rapists are repeat offenders. So if you are able to commit rape and physical abuse, you’re clearly a threat to students. However, despite giving me an extension verbally, they decided not to do it when I actually filed the complaint.
AMY GOODMAN: How did you find out that they would not move forward on your case?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: I waited, and I waited. And the semester ended, and I realized, I guess, they weren’t going to do it.
AMY GOODMAN: And how did this affect you at Tufts?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: My—it affected me in so many ways. An abusive relationship is already so very isolating, so I had lost many friends. And then I was on leave, so a lot of my friends graduated. And then, coming back to a school where the administration didn’t care about what happened to me was very hard, and my academic performance declined.
AMY GOODMAN: And so?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: So, I met another student in a class. She actually had a similar experience. She actually was able to go through the adjudication process, and they found—it was a very terrible experience, and they ended up not punishing her assailant. So we started a movement to change Tufts’ sexual assault policy. It was only two sentences and a list of phone numbers at the time, essentially saying, "We think rape is bad. We will help you. Call these numbers if you’re raped." Not comprehensive whatsoever. So, when we started speaking up and I started speaking up about my own experience, they actually ended up expelling me.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean speaking about your own experience? What did you say?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: I talked about how the administration did nothing to address my rape. They didn’t support me in any way, shape or form. They refused to accommodate me academically. They refused to give any justice. They refused to acknowledge that I endured violence at the hands of another student. And they refused to acknowledge that they were more comfortable with letting a rapist graduate with a degree from their institution than to help me.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to recent developments at Tufts University. On Monday, the Department of Education—that’s the federal department, the U.S. Department of Education—said it, quote, "may move to initiate proceedings to terminate federal funding" to the school for failing to comply with Title IX. That’s the law that requires schools to "respond promptly and effectively" to sexual violence and harassment. The DOE found Tufts failed to employ a Title IX coordinator for two academic years and, quote, "allowed for the continuation of a hostile environment" for a student who identified as a survivor. Tufts signed an agreement April 17 to address the compliance issues with dozens of changes, but about a week later Tufts backed out of the agreement after the DOE said Tufts’ current policies were violating Title IX. The university responded in a statement that, quote, "We believe the department’s recently announced finding has no basis in law and we have requested to speak with OCR’s Washington Office to discuss this unexpected and troubling announcement." Wagatwe Wanjuki, can you respond to this, that Tufts is in violation of Title IX?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: This is something that survivors have known for a long time on this campus, and it shows how out of touch the administration is. I think they’ve been able to get away with it for so long, they think it can continue. But we have new people at the Department of Education, and it’s not going to continue any longer. I actually know a current survivor and student at Tufts, and the same people who mishandled my case, they also mishandled his. So, there’s a systemic problem of failing to support survivors at Tufts University.
AMY GOODMAN: You were ultimately expelled from Tufts?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: Yes. I—my academic performance was not great, because I was at a school that did not care that I was raped, and I was—I was recovering from the trauma. And they decided to expel me, even though my GPA was still high enough for me to graduate. I had a year left. And when I appealed the decision, the person deciding my case was actually the academic adviser of my assailant. So it’s needless to say that he denied my appeal. They said—I cited Title IX in my appeal, and they said, "Well, we looked up at the law, and we made sure we have no obligation to help you. Good luck at home."
AMY GOODMAN: How did it feel to be one of those people who was standing with Vice President Joe Biden this week, announcing—he was talking about what the White House is recommending for colleges to do?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: It was an amazing experience to be so alone at Tufts and feel like no one is supporting me, to having the administration acknowledge a very serious issue, something that’s very near and dear to me, as something that all colleges need to address. So I’m really fortunate for the opportunity and really fortunate that we’ve been able to meet with senior staff who met with Know Your IX and took our concerns very seriously.
AMY GOODMAN: Know Your IX is?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: Know Your IX is an organization made to educate students about their rights under Title IX. I am specifically a part of the ED ACT NOW campaign. And we launched last summer. We had a rally in front of the Department of Education. We also had a petition asking for better enforcement of Title IX, because knowing about your rights under Title IX is useless unless it’s enforced properly. And we had a petition. We have about 170,000 signatures for it right now. So, it just shows that students are willing to fight back, and the administration is listening, even if specific school administrators are not.
AMY GOODMAN: In 2010, the Center for Public Integrity published an award-winning investigation about sexual assault on college campuses. They examined a federal database on sexual assault proceedings and concluded, quote, "colleges seldom expel men who are found 'responsible' for sexual assault; indeed, these schools permanently kicked out only 10 to 25 percent of such students. Just more than half the 33 students interviewed by the Center said their alleged assailants were found responsible for sexual assault in school-run proceedings. But only four of those student victims said the findings led to expulsion of their alleged attackers—two of them after repeat sexual offenses." Lena Sclove, I wanted to get your response to that. And also, you released at your news conference—and maybe we can go to a clip of this—a letter from another student who had alleged they were assaulted by the same student.
LENA SCLOVE: Well, to answer your first question about the comment that was just read, let’s see, I just—I guess it’s—sorry, I—it’s just hard for me to even think about it, because—could you just ask me a direct question about it? Just because it’s so—it’s so overwhelming, about the whole—the whole quote, sort of.
AMY GOODMAN: Yeah, well, I want to go back to your news conference.
LENA SCLOVE: OK, OK.
AMY GOODMAN: And then we’ll go back to the Center for Public Integrity.
LENA SCLOVE: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me go back to the news conference that you had on April 22nd.
LENA SCLOVE: I had another letter submitted from another student who had been assaulted by this same person. It was initially accepted. When the rapist saw that it was accepted, he objected to it, and the university removed it from the hearing materials. So the university has on file another letter that this person has assaulted another woman on this campus, but does not acknowledge it in their decision-making process because the rapist objected to the letter being included.
AMY GOODMAN: If you could talk about this, the statistic: Nine out of 10 assaults are committed by repeat rapists?
LENA SCLOVE: Right. Well, and that even goes up when choking or strangling is attached. Many studies have shown that that makes the statistic of repeating even higher. I’m glad to have shown that clip; however, the other student has made it very clear to me they do not actually want me to discuss that situation in more detail, and out of respect and protection of her anonymity, I don’t feel I can speak more to that. I feel like that sort of sums it up. What I will say is that Brown really and many schools need to examine the policy, because, as of now, a student cannot add an additional letter to a single case. They—if there’s another survivor of the same perpetrator, they have to file their own complaint and go through their own hearing process, which many people are unable or do not want to or do not feel safe doing. So that’s a big policy problem. I apologize I can’t speak more to that, but it’s out of respect for this other survivor.
AMY GOODMAN: Wagatwe, you wrote a piece for Feministing called "Stop Telling Survivors They Must Report to Police." Why?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: We need to be respectful of survivors’ choices. I really believe that we need to trust them to know what is best for them to recover and for them to heal and for them to find their own sense of justice. We need to be mindful that survivors of all identities have different relationships with the police and with the courts. And I personally, I know, as a woman of color, I do not feel comfortable turning to the police. And I think this is why empowering colleges to actually have—to enforce, you know, sexual misconduct policies is so important. A lot of students, just like Lena did, she did not go to the police and—
AMY GOODMAN: Originally, [inaudible].
WAGATWE WANJUKI: Originally. She originally did not go to the police. And students should still have another venue to go through for—to get a sense of justice. The criminal justice system or prison-industrial complex only holds 3 percent of all rapists accountable. Should we be forcing survivors or shaming them for refusing to go through a process that will often result in zero justice? I don’t think that is fair, and it’s really unfortunate that we continue to put pressure on survivors after—before and after their assault.
AMY GOODMAN: Are you optimistic things will change?
WAGATWE WANJUKI: Things are changing. I was assaulted—I mean, I was kicked out in 2009, and just so many things have changed since then, and just having the administration acknowledge that this is an issue. One of the biggest problems with sexual violence is that a lot of people don’t talk about it, but now it’s a national conversation. So I believe we’re going to have a lot of progress.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank both of you for being here. You are very brave to speak out, Wagatwe Wanjuki and Lena Sclove.
This is Democracy Now! And that does it for our show. If you’d like a copy, go to our website at democracynow.org. I’ll be speaking at Dartmouth College on May 2nd, Friday evening at 5:00 p.m. at Moore Hall. Go to our website at democracynow.org.
Headlines:
Oklahoma Orders Lethal Injection Review After Botched Execution
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has ordered a review of the state’s execution procedures following the botched lethal injection that induced a prisoner’s fatal heart attack. The prisoner, Clayton Lockett, had initially won a stay for challenging the secrecy surrounding the untested execution drugs. But Fallin overruled Oklahoma’s Supreme Court last week and ordered the execution to proceed. On Wednesday, Fallin defended the death penalty and appointed a Cabinet member to conduct the review.
Gov. Mary Fallin: "I believe the death penalty is an appropriate response and punishment to those who commit heinous crimes against their fellow men and women. However, I also believe the state needs to be certain of its protocol and its procedures for executions and that they work."
Fallin has delayed all executions until the review has been completed. Oklahoma officials say Lockett suffered a vein failure, but critics say that claim could mark an effort to hide a problem with the untested chemicals. The botched execution has reinforced calls for abolishing the death penalty. The White House says it backs capital punishment but called Lockett’s death inhumane. In response, Maria McFarland of Human Rights Watch said no execution can ever be carried out in a humane way.
Maria McFarland: "Last night’s events were just horrifying. The U.S. has been making progress in abolishing the death penalty in a number of states, yet it’s clear that some states are just so obsessed with carrying out this already inherently inhumane and irreversible punishment that they’re going to absurd and cruel lengths to carry it out."
Ohio Gov. Commutes Death Sentence for Arthur Tyler
Ohio Gov. John Kasich has commuted the death sentence of a convicted killer one month before his scheduled execution. Arthur Tyler has spent nearly three decades on death row for a 1983 murder. But prosecutors and a state parole board recommended clemency over evidence pointing to a co-defendant in the case. Like in Oklahoma, Ohio has faced problems with its lethal injection execution drugs. An execution in January lasted more than 30 minutes and saw the prisoner gasping for air.
Senate GOP Blocks Minimum Wage Hike
Senate Republicans have blocked a measure that would have raised the federal minimum wage. Promoted heavily by President Obama, the bill would have brought the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour over the next three years, up from the current rate of $7.25 an hour. It would have been the first such hike in five years. But in a nearly party line vote, Democrats fell eight votes shy of the 60 needed to avoid a filibuster. Speaking at the White House, President Obama denounced the Republican stance.
President Obama: "By preventing even a vote on this bill, they prevented a raise for 28 million hard-working Americans. They said no to helping millions work their way out of poverty. And keep in mind, this bill would have done so without any new taxes or spending or bureaucracy. They told Americans, like the ones who are here today, that you’re on your own — without even looking them in the eye."
Hawaii Raises Minimum Wage to $10.10
The minimum wage did see one increase on Wednesday, in Hawaii. Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed a $10.10 minimum wage into law following its approval by state lawmakers.
Regime Bombing Kills Children in Aleppo; U.N. Aid Chief Warns of Conflict’s "Horrific Toll"
Dozens of people have died in the latest violence across Syria. On Wednesday, at least 18 people were killed when government forces bombed a school in the northern city of Aleppo. Activists say most of the victims were children. The bombing comes one day after more than 100 people died in car bombings in a government-controlled part of Homs. At the United Nations, Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said Syria’s violence is only getting worse.
Valerie Amos: "Far from getting better, the situation is getting worse. Violence has intensified over the past month, taking a horrific toll on ordinary Syrians. Each month, I report on the relentless killing and maiming of civilians; the destruction of homes, schools and places of worship; the blatant disregard for life; and the total disregard by all parties for the fundamental tenets of international humanitarian law. The parties appear to be engaged in an endless spiral of targeting and harming civilians for tactical purposes."
In her comments, Amos said a two-month-old U.N. Security Council resolution to deliver aid to Syrians trapped in war zones has failed to change conditions on the ground. Western countries have floated a proposal to authorize aid deliveries without the Assad regime’s consent, but that is likely to draw a veto from Russia.
U.N. Warns of South Sudan Catastrophe
The United Nations’ top human rights official is warning the power struggle in South Sudan is tearing the country apart. Thousands have died and more than one million people have fled their homes since clashes erupted between government troops and supporters of the country’s sacked vice president late last year. On Wednesday, Navi Pillay said South Sudan is on the verge of catastrophe.
Navi Pillay: "The country’s leaders, instead of seizing their chance to steer their impoverished and war-battered young nation to stability and greater prosperity, have instead embarked on a personal power struggle that has brought their people to the verge of catastrophe."
Ukraine Gov. Admits Loss of Control over East; IMF Approves Bailout
The Ukraine government says it has lost control of the restive east as pro-Russian separatists continue to expand their reach. On Wednesday, Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, blamed what he called "inactivity, helplessness and even criminal betrayal" among Ukrainian forces in the east. The news comes as the International Monetary Fund has approved a $17 billion bailout for Ukraine. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde announced the two-year package.
Christine Lagarde: "Urgent action was necessary. Decisive measures were taken by Ukraine, and decisive measures have just been taken by the IMF. So there has been a very strong endorsement for the program, which will release, over the course of the next two years, $17.1 billion in different installments over the course of those two years."
Hundreds March in Nigeria to Demand Rescue of Kidnapped Schoolgirls
Hundreds of people marched in Nigeria on Tuesday to press for a greater response to a mass kidnapping of young girls. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram is suspected of abducting about 230 schoolgirls during a night raid in a northeastern area two weeks ago. Some managed to escape, but more than 200 remain missing. Dubbed by organizers a "Million Woman March," the demonstrators carried signs reading "Bring Back Our Girls."
Halita Aliyu: "I personally believe that not enough is being done to rescue our daughters. Please recollect like two, three months ago, 25 girls were abducted from Konduga. Because the nation has not risen in unison to do something about those 25 girls abducted in Konduga, it is now possible to abduct another 200-plus. Next time, maybe it will be more. Each and every one of us needs to do something to arrest the unpleasant developments that are happening in the country, especially in the northeast."
A local human rights group is claiming the girls have been sold off, forced to marry their abductors, and taken across the border to Cameroon and Chad. The report has not been verified. The mass kidnapping is seen as one of the most shocking attacks in the Boko Haram’s five-year militant campaign, which has left thousands of people dead.
Train Carrying Crude Oil Derails, Spills in Virginia
A train carrying crude oil has derailed in Virginia, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents and spilling into the James River. The company CSX says 15 tankers broke free of the train near Lynchburg, with at least three catching fire. The oil has spilled for hours into the James River, which is the capital Richmond’s main water supply. It was the second oil train accident for CSX this year and the sixth overall in North America since the derailment that killed 47 people in Quebec last July. Environmental groups have campaigned for a ban on oil train routes through the Richmond area. In a statement, the Sierra Club said: "In the wake of this, and other recent dirty fuel disasters, it’s clear that we must move as quickly as possible to safer, cleaner forms of energy like wind and solar. The safest place for dirty fuels is in the ground."
2 Killed, Dozens Injured in Gas Explosion at Florida Jail
Two prisoners have died and more than 150 people have been injured in a gas explosion at a Florida jail. The blast at the Escambia County Jail caused the building’s partial collapse.
Study: 1 in 25 Death Row Prisoners Innocent
A new study says about one in 25 people sentenced to death in the United States is innocent. The National Academy of Sciences looked at data over three decades. According to the study, 340 people were wrongfully sentenced to die — more than double the number of death row prisoners exonerated over the same time period.
Toronto Mayor Takes Leaves After New Crack Video Surfaces
In Canada, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is taking a leave of absence after a new video emerged of him apparently smoking crack cocaine. A man claiming to be a drug dealer showed reporters footage he said was taken of Ford this past weekend. Ford is seen smoking from a metal pipe. The tape comes nearly a year after news first broke of an initial video of Ford smoking crack. Ford later admitted to drug use and other illegal behavior but has refused calls to step down. He’s now in the midst of a campaign for re-election. In a statement, Ford said he is taking a leave from campaigning to receive treatment for substance abuse. Ford said: "I know that I need professional help. I have struggled with this for some time." Another newly released tape captures Ford making homophobic remarks as well as lewd comments about one of his female opponents.
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"When Cruel and Unusual Punishment Becomes Usual" by Amy Goodman
The state of Oklahoma tortured a man to death this week. On Tuesday, April 29, Clayton Lockett was strapped to a gurney in the state’s execution chamber. At 6:23 p.m., before a room of witnesses that included 12 members of the media, the first of three drugs was injected into his veins. Ziva Branstetter, enterprise editor at Tulsa World, was among the reporters who watched. She later reported Lockett’s ordeal, minute by minute:
“6:29 p.m. Lockett’s eyes are closed and his mouth is open slightly.
“6:31 p.m. The doctor checks Lockett’s pupils and places his hand on the inmate’s chest, shaking him slightly. ‘Mr. Lockett is not unconscious,’ [Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Anita] Trammell states.”
Branstetter’s detailed eyewitness account goes on:
“6:38 p.m. Lockett is grimacing, grunting and lifting his head and shoulders entirely up from the gurney. ... He appears to be in pain.”
Suddenly, the blinds were lowered, concealing the grim activity in the execution chamber. The reporters were told to exit. Lockett was pronounced dead at 7:06 pm. Branstetter said on the “Democracy Now!” news hour, “We were told by the Department of Corrections last night that they haven’t even determined that this qualified as an execution, because he died of a heart attack 43 minutes later.” Most Oklahoma executions last about six minutes. Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton later explained, “His vein exploded.”
Oklahoma had never used this particular “lethal cocktail” before: midazolam, a sedative; vecuronium bromide, to stop respiration; and potassium chloride, to stop the heart. Charles Warner was scheduled to be killed on the same day as Lockett. After the horrifically botched execution of Lockett, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin issued a 14-day stay of execution for Warner. Announcing a review of lethal injections, Fallin said on Wednesday that “the state needs to be certain of its protocols and procedures for executions and that they work.” While the review she has ordered will include an autopsy of Lockett by an independent pathologist, the overall review is being conducted by a member of her cabinet, so its independence is being questioned.
Lockett and Warner had sued Oklahoma, claiming that the secrecy surrounding the source of the drugs and the execution cocktail violated their constitutional rights. One Oklahoma judge agreed and issued a stay last month. Justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately agreed and issued their own stay of execution on April 21. On April 22, Gov. Fallin, claiming the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction, ignored the stays and rescheduled the executions to April 29. The next day, the Supreme Court rescinded its stay, stating that the inmates do not, in fact, have the right to know the chemicals to be used in their execution.
“After weeks of Oklahoma refusing to disclose basic information about the drugs for tonight’s lethal-injection procedures, tonight, Clayton Lockett was tortured to death,” said Madeline Cohen, attorney for the other condemned man, Charles Warner. “The state must disclose complete information about the drugs, including their purity, efficacy, source and the results of any testing. Until much more is known about tonight’s failed experiment of an execution, no execution can be permitted in Oklahoma.”
Lockett’s botched execution follows on the heels of a similar debacle in Ohio. On Jan. 16, Dennis McGuire was subjected to a two-drug cocktail. His son, also Dennis, witnessed the ordeal: “My dad began gasping and struggling to breathe. I watched his stomach heave. I watched him try to sit up against the straps on the gurney. I watched him repeatedly clench his fists. It appeared to me he was fighting for his life, but suffocating. The agony and terror of watching my dad suffocate to death lasted more than 19 minutes.”
There are many more such stories. States are desperate for the execution drugs, as pharmaceutical companies in Europe refuse to sell to state governments in the U.S. any chemical that might be used in an execution. The Colorado Independent obtained email documents showing the assistant Oklahoma attorney general joking with a Texas colleague that he might be able to help Texas get the drugs in exchange for 50-yard line tickets for a top college football game.
The Death Penalty Information Center lists 144 people who have been exonerated from death row since 1973. These are innocent people who might have been executed. An article published in the respected Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, released just a day before Lockett’s execution, suggests that more than 4 percent of all death-row prisoners would be exonerated, given enough time to properly review their cases. Even in cases where guilt is not in question, an argument can be made on a purely financial basis. It costs three to four times more to execute a prisoner than it does to incarcerate for life with no chance of parole.
Most developed nations have banned capital punishment. The United States stands shoulder to shoulder in continuing this barbaric practice with countries like China, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia. As states commit atrocious experiments on prisoners like Lockett, it is vital to remember that the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Sadly, cruel and unusual is becoming more and more usual.
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,200 stations in North America. She is the co-author of “The Silenced Majority,” a New York Times best-seller.
© 2014 Amy Goodman
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
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