Kent State Reopened

The fatal shooting of four Kent State University students by Ohio National Guardsmen in May 1970 is a tragedy that has never been satisfactorily explained, and until recently there was little hope that it ever would be. The state grand jury that investigated the killings indicted 25 students and others for acts of rioting and other violations, some of which presumably provoked the Guardsmen's rifle fire; 23 of them were eventually cleared. None of the Guardsmen or their officers were ever legally charged with violations, though their conduct was sharply criticized by FBI investigations and a presidential commission headed by former Pennsylvania Governor William Scranton. Former Attorney General John Mitchell supported the commission's conclusion that the rifle fire was "unnecessary, unwarranted and inexcusable." But he shelved the matter--unresolved questions, unanswered accusations and all--by refusing to convene a federal grand jury that might have got to the bottom of it. Mitchell claimed that any prosecutions of Guardsmen were unlikely. Yet Kent State, says a high Justice Department official, "is a case that would just not stay closed."

Personal Quarrel. This week a federal grand jury will be empaneled in Cleveland to look into the killings. The Justice Department took that step because of "information" that it "developed" in a recent informal inquiry. Justice officials decline to elaborate and stress that they are not seeking indictments at this stage. Yet in the grand jury hearings they will surely ask who fired the first shot and why--and whether there was a conspiracy among the Guardsmen to shoot the students. U.S. attorneys will also introduce to the jury important evidence that was never seen by the original Ohio panel.

The grand jury will hear a claim by several witnesses that a suspected FBI student informer named Terry Norman, who claimed to be a freelance photographer, fired a pistol at a group of students in a personal quarrel during the confrontation with the Guard, possibly touching off its firing-squad response. Norman, now an employee of the Washington, D.C., police department, has denied that he used a gun on the day of the shooting, and the FBI denies that he worked for it; but Norman has never explained under oath why he was acting as a photographer.

Further, the grand jury will hear that the Justice Department, after analyzing some 8,000 pages of FBI reports, concluded that the Guard units called to Kent State were not surrounded by hostile students and that they were responsible for unwarranted killings; that they fired at students when they were in no real danger themselves. Justice officials said that the Guardsmen's defense that they opened fire to protect themselves seemed to be "fabricated."

The Government official most responsible for reopening the case is J. Stanley Pottinger, 33, Assistant Attorney General in charge of civil rights. A political conservative who is dedicated to protecting civil liberties, Pottinger, according to a colleague, became disturbed shortly after he took office last February about "why this thing is still in such an uproar." By midsummer he had read all 8,000 pages of FBI information and asked then Attorney General Elliot Richardson, under whom Pottinger had previously worked at the Health, Education and Welfare Department, to order a new investigation. Richardson did so in August. The decision to empanel a grand jury was made by acting Attorney General Robert Bork, and his designated successor, Senator William Saxbe, has promised to let assistants handle the case. Saxbe is a former officer in the Ohio National Guard, and at one point he questioned whether a new investigation was necessary.

Pottinger found the uproar over Kent State continuing because many people were dissatisfied with the decision to drop the investigation, and suspected a coverup. There were endless pleas and visits to Washington from present and former Kent State students, some of them injured in the fusillade, including Dean R. Kahler, 23, the "fifth victim," who was permanently paralyzed from the waist down by a Guard bullet. There were also effective pleadings by Peter Davies, author of The Truth About Kent State (TIME, Sept. 17) and by John Adams, of the United Methodist Church's department of Law, Justice and Community Relations.

The saddest and most determined protesters were the parents of the slain students. Arthur Krause of Pittsburgh, whose daughter Allison was killed, has spent countless days for 3 1/2 years doggedly waiting to question state and federal officials, standing up at political gatherings to voice grief and anger, passing along tips to newsmen. "I made a promise to Allison's boy friend, who insisted justice would never be achieved under the 'system,' " says Krause. "I told him, 'I'll show you; I'll make the system work.' " Adds Mrs. Louis Schroeder of Lorain, Ohio, whose son William was killed: "A grand jury investigation is all we ever asked for. Not having one has been like not being allowed to come home from the funeral."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.