Word: hanford
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...reactors currently licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate commercially in the U.S. is graphite moderated like the one at Chernobyl, and it is cooled by gas rather than water, which makes it substantially safer. One of five reactors operated by the Government for weapons production, the Hanford, Wash., plant, is also graphite moderated. Though water-cooled, it has safety features not present at Chernobyl, the Department of Energy insists...
...Twice he was recondemned to death. Then in 1974 his sentence was reduced to life because of a California decision barring capital punishment in the state. Since then, Hillery has come up for parole eight times, and each time he has been turned down after petition drives organized in Hanford gathered thousands of signatures opposing his release...
...Where's the justice?" asks Councilman Madill. "Is there any justice?" Most of Hanford believes little attention was given to deterring the larger evil. "It's an absolute shame that the Supreme Court has to take such a gruesome crime to make a social statement," says Deputy Kings County Planner Bill Zumwalt, who had been a member of Marlene's high school class. Joan Pegues, assistant city editor of the Hanford Sentinel, puts it more simply: "When you say 'Hillery' around here, people turn purple...
...town see it differently. Burdella Minter, who moved to Hanford in 1973, began researching Hillery's case after being asked to sign one of the petitions to deny him parole. An organist for the black congregation of the Second Baptist Church, she helped lead a drive in support of parole for Hillery, mustering 480 signatures. Minter believes that if a fair trial finds Hillery guilty, he should go back to prison. "If you do the crime, you do the time," she says, with the air of someone who has thought about what the words mean: her own stepson is serving...
...Something about this killing has stirred this community," says William Prahl, California's deputy attorney general. "These people won't forget it." Neighbors say that Marlene's parents, now in their 70s, dread the possible reopening of the case. They still reside in Hanford, though the house they lived in at the time of their daughter's death has long since been torn down. The memories have been harder to demolish. "The sad thing is that it keeps coming back," says Marlene's brother Walter Jr. "We have not been allowed the time to heal." And the end is still...