Jeanne Clery 1966-1986

The death sentence vacation of Jeanne Clery's murderer Josoph Henry has been appealed by John Morganelli the District Attorney for Northampton County in Pennsylvania. Henry was convicted in 1987 of raping and murdering Clery in her Lehigh University dormitory after she woke up and discovered him burglarizing her room. Last month a Federal District Court Judge, Judge Anita Brody, threw out Henry's death sentence saying that instructions to the jury were confusing.

Morganelli has indicated in published reports that the appeal's success will likely be dependent on a similar Pennsylvania case the U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering whether or not to hear. A refusal to hear that case "would be a signal that it is highly unlikely any case with a similar issue would be overturned" he said.

After Clery's murder her parents Howard and Connie pushed for laws requiring colleges to report their campus crime statistics and founded Security On Campus, Inc. as a non-profit watchdog organization. The federal law requiring institutions of higher education to report their campus crime is now named the "Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act" in her memory.

For More Information...

• District attorney appeals ruling in Henry sentence (The Morning Call; 06/12/02)

• Henry v. Horn Ruling Vacating Death Sentence (05/16/02)

---

Congressional Education Committee Postpones Action On "Fed Up" Bill

Washington, DC-Consideration of the "Fed Up Higher Education Technical Amendments of 2002" (H.R. 4866) has been postponed by the Congressional Committee on Education and the Workforce. The committee was originally scheduled to consider the bill on Wednesday, but it was the second bill on their agenda and they ran out of time. The committee has not yet scheduled a time to consider the "Fed Up" bill.

The result of a year long Congressional review of federal higher education regulations known as "Fed Up" the bill makes numerous technical corrections to federal student aid programs, and a minor "clerical" amendment to the campus crime reporting requirements of the Jeanne Clery Act. The Clery Act amendment changes a reference to the education committees in both the U.S. House and Senate to "authorizing committees" to avoid possible confusion should their names ever change in the future.

Howard K. Clery, III the Executive Director of Security On Campus, Inc. responding to the possibility of further amendments earlier this week sent a letter to the committee expressing no objection to the "clerical" amendment, but asking that no substantive Clery Act amendments be added to the bill. "Concerns remain... that these important student safety provisions may be inadvertently weakened if there are any further changes made to them as a part of the 'Fed Up' initiative," wrote Clery. "Therefore we respectfully ask that the Education & The Workforce Committee not consider any further amendments to the Clery Act during your markup of H.R. 4866."