RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A defense attorney, acknowledging that her request was unprecedented, argued unsuccessfully yesterday that a jury fluent in American Sign Language be seated for a rape trial in which both the defendant and the alleged victim are deaf.
Public defender Mara Feiger said jurors who could directly interpret for themselves the testimony of the victim and other witnesses could best judge their credibility, because of the nuances of body language that are critical in sign language.
But Riverside County Judge Gordon Burkhart denied the request. He agreed with the prosecutor that using an interpreter to vocalize signed language is no different than employing a qualified interpreter in a trial in which witnesses speak a foreign language.
Burkhart said, however, that he would allow the defense to present an expert witness to explain and interpret to the jury the subtle body language used by the deaf witnesses. But he said he would not allow that expert witness to opine whether the witness was telling the truth based on body language - a request made by the defense attorney but vehemently opposed to by the prosecutor.
The case involves two students at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside. Jesse Manuel Macias, 19, is accused of raping a 17-year-old girl on campus last June. There are no witnesses to the alleged rape.
The girl told investigators she cried for help, but the deaf students in the vicinity could not hear her. She reported the assault to a school counselor.
That represents 17 percent of the 54 million people who had been unregistered in states covered by the new system, according to the study, prepared for the League of Women Voters and the NAACP by Human Serve, a New York-based bipartisan registration reform organization.
For the 18 months from January 1995 to June 1996, some 20 million people either registered to vote for the first time, re-registered or updated their registrations using the law.
"It shows that many more people will register if it is made simple," said Frances Pivin, Human Serve's co-director.
Some 8.8 million people, or 44.4 percent, registered at a department of motor vehicles, the report said. About 5 million, or 24 percent, registered through the mail. Voters also registered at other government locations such as unemployment offices, libraries or military recruiting offices.
The National Voter Rights Act requires states to offer registration through state agencies such as driver's license offices - hence the name, motor voter.
HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, unveiling the study in Detroit, pointed to the city as one of several trying to cooperate economically with suburban neighbors to create new jobs.
The study argues for continuation of existing programs to ease the transition of city-dwellers from welfare to work.
In the past 15 years, many high-tech and manufacturing jobs have moved to the suburbs while cities have retained a large share of government services.
and business services, the study found.
Yet in many metropolitan areas, cities can provide potential workers for regional high-tech computer and data processing industries, the study suggests.
"HUD's study shows that communities that emphasize cooperation over competition within their region have succeeded in expanding economic prosperity and creating jobs," Cisneros said.
Administration officials said about $2 billion has been earmarked for new enterprise zones that give employers tax credits for hiring and, in some cases, training workers from cities.
Other components include providing job training, transportation and child care to urban dwellers working in the suburbs and giving tax credits to employers who hire welfare recipients.
The study finds that the areas best positioned for growth are those where a series of stand-alone industries are interconnected.
In Detroit, for example, the study found that the auto industry's comeback has been helped by locating manufacturers' research and development centers in the city.