NBC Nightly News open - 1993-04-13

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Another

[0:03] dead inmate in that Ohio prison siege

[0:05] and speculation about racial tension.

[0:07] Too many voting accidents. So today the

[0:09] federal government recommended a

[0:10] crackdown. And look who showed up for

[0:12] Thomas Jefferson's birthday. The former

[0:15] sage of Moscow.

[0:19] >> This is NBC Nightly News with Tom Bro.

[0:24] >> Good evening. Many of America's prisons,

[0:26] overcrowded and divided by racial

[0:28] hatreds, are time bombs waiting to

[0:30] explode. That maximum security prison in

[0:32] Lucasville, Ohio, was one such facility.

[0:34] And tonight, the siege there continues.

[0:37] Another inmate is dead. That's seven

[0:39] altogether. Now, and as NBC Sarah James

[0:42] tells us from the prison site tonight,

[0:44] there are more questions about the role

[0:45] of race and some late developments.

[0:47] Sarah,

[0:48] >> Tom, a couple of hours ago, we saw a

[0:50] great deal of commotion at the prison.

[0:52] We saw guards, armed guards running in

[0:54] and now we know what that was. The

[0:56] rioting prisoners tried to get another

[0:59] group of prisoners to join in. Prison

[1:01] officials came in with tear gas and

[1:03] managed to keep the riot from spreading.

[1:05] On top of that, another inmate was found

[1:07] dead today, and officials have little to

[1:09] say about that incident.

[1:11] >> We're not going to comment on it. Wasn't

[1:12] a natural death.

[1:14] >> Prison officials say the seventh person

[1:15] to die since the Easter riots here was a

[1:18] black man. And while the other victims

[1:20] were in cell block L, scene of the riot,

[1:22] 43-year-old Dennis Weaver was in a part

[1:25] of the prison officials called secure.

[1:27] >> Weaver was in the group of the LB block

[1:29] inmates that we took out of the yard

[1:31] about 9:00 Sunday night and put into K

[1:34] block.

[1:35] >> While negotiations drag on in hopes of

[1:37] freeing the eight hostages, Lucasville

[1:40] speculates about what sparked the riot.

[1:42] tensions against one another,

[1:44] but as I hate to say it, white and you

[1:46] know, white and black,

[1:49] then the Rodney King thing is probably

[1:52] put a little fuel to it.

[1:53] >> Prison officials downplay that idea.

[1:56] >> To our knowledge,

[1:58] it does not appear to be racially

[2:01] motivated,

[2:02] >> but this institution has a long history

[2:04] of racial strife. In 1991, newborn

[2:07] Arthur Tate enforced a long-standing

[2:09] corrections policy of randomly assigning

[2:12] prisoners to cells. Some white inmates

[2:14] saw it as forced integration and refused

[2:16] to comply. The institution has also

[2:19] earned a reputation as Ohio's most

[2:21] violent prison. At least six inmates

[2:24] have been killed here in the past four

[2:25] years.

[2:28] Freshman Ohio Congressman Ted Strickland

[2:30] lives in Lucasville and knows this

[2:32] prison well after working here as a

[2:34] psychologist. NBC News caught up with

[2:36] him at the prison last fall.

[2:38] >> How you doing?

[2:39] >> Good to see you.

[2:40] >> Strickland remembers counseling

[2:42] 35-year-old Daryl Deina who was afraid

[2:44] for his life. What in particular were

[2:47] the nature of this prisoner's fears?

[2:51] >> Um fear of other prisoners primarily.

[2:55] >> And now Dpina and six others are dead.

[2:57] Strickland says it is too early to see

[2:59] if racial tensions were a part of the

[3:01] cause of this riot, but he says he has

[3:03] heard about them from other inmates. Tom

[3:06] and Sarah, what about the negotiations?

[3:07] What can you tell us about those

[3:08] tonight?

[3:09] >> Well, they aren't going very well. Early

[3:11] this morning, prison officials sounded

[3:13] positively optimistic. They came out and

[3:14] said they hope to have something to tell

[3:16] us soon, but that faded as the day went

[3:19] by. They have cut off electricity. They

[3:21] have cut off water. They've cut off

[3:22] food. But they acknowledge that some of

[3:24] these inmates had stockpiled food in

[3:26] their foot lockers. And indeed, it seems

[3:28] that the inmates are trying to get in

[3:29] touch with us, the media. They're

[3:31] hanging sheets outside the windows. In

[3:33] addition to that, they got some sort of

[3:34] a loudspeaker and tried to broadcast

[3:37] some of their demands. It was hard to

[3:38] hear, but that isn't good news news to

[3:40] the prison negotiators. They want to

[3:42] talk to him one on one on the telephone,

[3:45] and that is going very slowly. Tom,

[3:48] >> thank you very much. Sarah James tonight

[3:49] in Ohio in Los Angeles. The wait

[3:51] continues in the Rodney King beating

[3:53] trial with the jury now in its fourth

[3:54] day of deliberations and an ever greater

[3:57] show of force to discourage riots.

[4:01] At Camp Pendleton about 90 minutes south

[4:03] of Los Angeles, US Marines conducted

[4:05] exercises in containing domestic

[4:07] uprisings.

[4:09] They stormed the mockup of a small town.

[4:12] This exercise is at once a training

[4:13] program and a warning to potential

[4:16] troublemakers.

[4:18] NBC's George Lewis is outside the

[4:20] federal courthouse in Los Angeles again

[4:21] tonight. And George, I gather these

[4:23] extended jury deliberations are having

[4:25] an impact on the community. Tom, the

[4:28] jury is getting close to wrapping up

[4:29] another day of deliberations with no

[4:31] sign yet they're anywhere near a

[4:32] verdict. And the waiting game is getting

[4:34] on everyone's nerves.