News stories from Tuesday March 30, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- American opinion is largely opposed to the guilty verdict in Lt. William Calley's trial. The jury can choose only the death penalty or life imprisonment in sentencing Calley, unless they reconsider the verdict. Calley told the jury that he never wantonly killed a human being in his entire life; if a crime was committed, it was in judging the lives of his own troops to be more valuable than the lives of the enemy. Prosecutor Aubrey Daniel has not asked for the death penalty, just an appropriate sentence. The crowd outside the Fort Benning, Georgia, courthouse applauded Calley as he left.
In Boston, Capt. Ernest Medina said that the verdict against Calley is harsh, and American citizens must share in the guilty verdict since they grant government the power to draft men to be sent to Vietnam. Medina's attorney stated that Medina will resign from the Army even if he is acquitted in his own trial.
Six congressmen are challenging the Calley verdict and they have asked President Nixon to intervene. The Illinois state legislature is considering a resolution calling for clemency for Calley; five members of the Georgia Draft Board resigned in protest of the verdict. The American Legion of Columbus, Georgia, began a drive to raise money and will circulate a petition to appeal the verdict.
[CBS] - Two weeks ago, Col. Anthony Herbert charged two Army officers with covering up atrocities in Vietnam. Now the Army has found three men who claim that Herbert beat them in Vietnam, and they may charge him with assault. Herbert denied the incidents. [CBS]
- Four U.S. bombers attacked North Vietnamese artillery positions in the DMZ. [CBS]
- The president of the AFL-CIO building and construction trades department said that the union will decide whether its members can participate in the boards which have been set up by President Nixon's executive order to control inflation in the construction industry. [CBS]
- The mother of a POW testified before a House committee that an FBI agent warned her not to deal with an antiwar group called the "Committee of Liaison". Rep. John Bingham responded by calling for the retirement of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. [CBS]
- At the Communist Party congress, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev proposed a world disarmament conference and treaties to ban germ and chemical warfare. The Nixon administration is lukewarm about Brezhnev's conference proposal and was surprised by Russia's agreement at the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks to ban biological weapons. [CBS]
- A Philippines Airline plane was hijacked from Manila to Hong Kong, and then flown to Canton, China; four Americans are among the passengers. [CBS]
- The Lockheed Aircraft Corporation announced a tentative agreement with Britain to continue the production of Rolls Royce engines for the Lockheed Tri Star Airbus. [CBS]
- Sixty-eight-year-old Senator Strom Thurmond's 24-year-old wife gave birth to a girl. [CBS]
- The Senate rejected a proposal to extend unemployment compensation 13 weeks. [CBS]
- The railroad industry told Congress that it needs aid in order to avoid collapse, and asked for $36 billion over the next 11 years. [CBS]
- Jurors in Charles Manson's murder trial returned verdicts of death against all four defendants on all counts. Jurors discussed their reasons for voting for the death penalty: Marie Mesmer said that she thinks Manson is a dangerous influence and must be stopped; this verdict will help stop other Mansons. Juror William McBride said that he believes the motive was "Helter-Skelter" and cited Manson's influence on the girls who committed the murders. [CBS]
- The FDA claims the right to clear all new drugs, but the drug industry maintains that the law exempts drugs which are regarded as safe and effective by qualified experts. The FDA announced that the manufacturers of Ecolo-G and Bohack laundry detergents have agreed to label the products with a warning about their high alkaline content. [CBS]
- The Interior Department reported no widespread cases of high toxicity levels in water. The department took samples from over 700 locations in the United States. [CBS]
- Donald Cominski, the world's second-longest living heart transplant patient, broke three ribs in a car crash and is making a satisfactory recovery. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 903.39 (-0.09, -0.01%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| March 29, 1971 | 903.48 | 100.03 | 13.65 |
| March 26, 1971 | 903.48 | 99.95 | 15.56 |
| March 25, 1971 | 900.81 | 99.61 | 15.87 |
| March 24, 1971 | 899.37 | 99.62 | 15.72 |
| March 23, 1971 | 908.89 | 100.28 | 16.47 |
| March 22, 1971 | 910.60 | 100.62 | 14.29 |
| March 19, 1971 | 912.92 | 101.01 | 15.15 |
| March 18, 1971 | 916.83 | 101.19 | 17.91 |
| March 17, 1971 | 914.02 | 101.12 | 17.07 |
| March 16, 1971 | 914.64 | 101.21 | 22.27 |