Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Volume 135, Issue 24
The University of Delaware’s Independent Newspaper Since 1882
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Bonistall’s murderer seeking new trial BY ELISA LALA City News Editor
On May 1, 2005, university student Lindsey M. Bonistall was raped and murdered in her off-campus apartment. In the coming months, the Bonistall family may have to relive the trial of their daughter’s murderer. James E. Cooke Jr., convicted in 2007 of Bonistall’s rape and murder, is appealing his case to the Delaware Supreme Court on the grounds of being denied his right to due process and the right to counsel. Cooke claims his defense team asserted he was guilty but mentally ill over Cooke’s objections and claims of innocence, Newark Police Department Cpl. Andrew Rubin said. Rubin, the chief investigator in Lindsey’s case, said Lindsey wasn’t given a second chance, and neither should Cooke. “Having to retry the case would mean having to start all over again from the beginning: bringing in the evidence, obtaining a jury, all of it,” Rubin said. “The Bonistalls would have to suffer all over again.” Legal studies professor Nancy Schweda-Nicholson, whose research interests include language and the law, as well as court interpretation, said even though see COOKE page 10
CHADPE?LFEST IS
EAD
see page 12
Labor group investigates UD apparel supplier BY SHANE WEBER Staff Reporter
THE REVIEW/File Photo
James E. Cooke Jr. was convicted of Lindsey Bonistall’s rape and murder in 2007. He is now seeking to appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court.
inside 2 News
14 Editorial
Thirty-six universities including Pennsylvania State University, the University of Maryland and Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, have all decided to discontinue their contracts or refuse to continue business with the Russell Corporation, a supplier of apparel to universities across the country. The universities have separated themselves from Russell over alleged violations of workers rights at the company’s factory Jerzees de Honduras. On Jan. 31, Russell closed JDH, one of the only unionized plants in the country. Russell is still a supplier of apparel for the University of Delaware. Freshman Sarah Forst wrote about the situation in an article for the student-run magazine DEconstruction after attending a speech at the University of Maryland. The speech was given by a woman who was previously
15 Opinion
17 Mosaic
employed at Russell’s JDH factory. “The woman who worked at this Honduran factory talked about how workers at this plant were trying to form a union to get things like fair wages and clean water — and the factory got shut down,” Forst said. Senior Amy Saltzman, co-editor in chief of DEconstruction, was not aware of the Russell Corporation situation until Forst presented the magazine with the issue. “Of course you don’t really think about how sweatshop labor applies to you,” Saltzman said. “You always think of the picture as a larger problem until it is brought to your attention.” In the article, Forst provided a letter for students to cut out and to mail to university officials. The address, phone number and email address of university President Patrick Harker and the Office of Communications and Marketing were also given.
26 Classifieds
“Clearly students in other schools are getting things done, and I think it is possible here as well,” Forst said. “We basically vote with our wallet — if we refuse to buy those things, they’re not going to make them anymore.” The Worker Rights Consortium, an independent labor-rights organization, accused the Russell Corporation of violations of labor standards in a 36-page report, “documenting serious violations of university labor standards by the Russell Corporation.” The report claims there were multiple threats from the management that the factory would close because of workers exercising their right to unionize. On Feb. 2, the Fair Labor Association, a non-profit organization for the supervision of
27 Sports
see UNIVERSITY page 10
29 Football Preview