Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 26, 1995 TAG: 9509260095
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WASHINGTON - An elaborate gilded coffin, the centerpiece of an art exhibit with an AIDS theme, went on display Monday at a union headquarters after senators decided it was too graphic for the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.
``I'm not sure what they're afraid of,'' said artist Mary Fisher, who held the 1992 Republican convention spellbound with a speech about being a mother with the AIDS virus. ``I don't consider my art controversial, nor do I consider myself a controversial person.''
Three senators had invited Fisher to mount her 26-piece exhibit, called ``Messages,'' in the rotunda, but subsequent objections to the coffin, and Fisher's refusal to remove it, led Sen. John Warner, R-Va., to rescind the invitation Friday.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., one of the three original sponsors, helped Fisher find space at the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America headquarters.
- Associated Press
Prison terms for blacks longer than for whites
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Blacks get prison sentences that average about three months longer than whites for similar federal crimes, according to a computer analysis of 80,000 convictions over a two-year period.
Richard Conaboy, chairman of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and others told The Tennessean that drug sentencing in particular had been unfair to blacks.
A computer analysis by the newspaper found that whites convicted in 1992-93 received an average sentence of 33 months, while blacks got 36 months.
- Associated Press
by CNB