Kent State survivors seek new probe of 1970 shootings

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Kent State survivors seek new probe of 1970 shootings
ReutersBy Kim Palmer | Reuters – 3 hrs ago

KENT, Ohio (Reuters) - Survivors of the shooting of 13 students by the Ohio National Guard during an anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in 1970 called on Thursday for a new probe into the incident that came to define U.S. divisions over the Vietnam War.

Four students were killed and nine wounded in the shootings on May 4, 1970 that followed days of demonstrations on the campus after disclosures of a U.S.-led invasion of Cambodia that signaled a widening of the war in Southeast Asia.

Kent State was shut for weeks after the shootings and student strikes closed down schools across the nation.

On the eve of the 42nd anniversary of the shootings, four students wounded that day asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate digitally enhanced audio evidence they believe proves an officer ordered the guardsmen to fire on the unarmed students.

A command to fire has never been proven and guardsmen said they fired in self-defense. Criminal charges were brought against eight guardsmen, but a judge dismissed the case. Wounded students and families of those slain later received a total of $675,000 after civil lawsuits.

The shootings also spawned an investigative commission, numerous books and Neil Young's song, "Ohio," which became an anti-war anthem. A Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a teenage girl kneeling over the body of one of the slain students became an enduring image of the tragedy.

In 2010, Alan Canfora, one of the wounded students and director of the nonprofit Kent May 4 Center, asked the Justice Department to review the enhanced recording, which was taken 250 feet from the guardsmen when they fired their shots in 1970.

Canfora and other audio specialists say the enhanced recording shows a clear military order to fire seconds before the shooting. The troops fired 67 shots over 13 seconds.

A Justice Department official closed the matter last month, finding the recordings were still inconclusive.

Canfora, and other wounded students Dean Kahler, Thomas Grace and Joe Lewis, asked Holder on Thursday for a new probe, saying anyone involved in the shooting should be offered immunity to provide information. They asked any surviving guardsmen to come forward with information.

"I was an angry young man for a number of years," Canfora said. "We have to work within the system. I've learned a lot since we were younger. I believe they were ordered to shoot us."

Kahler, who has been paralyzed from the waist down since the shooting, told Reuters: "We want justice in a sense, to have the truth. It would be nice to know what actually happened.

If the United States does not open a new investigation, the May 4 group plans to appeal to the International Court of Justice, the U.N. Human Rights Council or the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Canfora said.

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Questions Remain 42 Years After Kent State Shootings

Posted on May 4, 2012
AP/Douglas Moore

May 4, 1970: A group of students cluster around a wounded person on the Kent State University campus as National Guardsmen stand with their weapons in the background.

By Rep. Dennis Kucinich

Forty-two years ago on May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd of unarmed students at Kent State University, firing between 61 and 67 shots over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and injuring nine others. The shootings at Kent State symbolized the deep divides that existed in America during the Vietnam War era and played a significant role in shaping the way a generation interacted with its government. The iconic images of the events of May 4, 1970 are just as powerful today as they were when news of the shooting sparked nationwide protests.

The only known audio recording of those events was made by Terry Strubbe, who placed a microphone out of his window and recorded 29 minutes of audio. At least two copies of the Strubbe tape were made, with one ending up in Yale University’s Kent State Collection in 1989. In 2010, the Cleveland Plain Dealer engaged forensic audio engineers to examine a copy of the Yale recording made by Alan Canfora, one of the 13 victims of the Kent State shootings. That analysis made a stunning finding: Shots were fired before the National Guard opened fire. That evidence could be significant, because it could connect an FBI paid informant who was on campus that day and who possessed a gun that might have been the one caught by Strubbe’s microphone.

In 2010, as chairman of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I opened an inquiry into this evidence. I requested that Yale University make another copy of the Strubbe tape to ensure its authenticity, and sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that the Department of Justice undertake a forensic analysis of this authenticated recording. The DOJ obliged my request; and more than a year later, I received a reply. The DOJ concluded that the tape was unintelligible, but that the sounds preceding the fire from the guardsmen were likely to be the sound of Strubbe’s dorm room opening and closing.

Despite the detailed response from the Justice Department, significant questions remain. There was no attempt to reconcile major discrepancies in conclusions among expert analysts. The role of Terry Norman, the FBI informant on campus that day, was not discussed. In order to lay these questions to rest, I wrote to the Justice Department requesting the full analysis used to reach their conclusions.

The Kent State shootings remain a significant event in American history. Nothing less than a full investigation is warranted.