Featured Articles 1

Use people power, not electricity

By Heather Michalsen
Guest Writer
Did you know that the elevators (in Mott, the Library and the Conservatory) cost Olivet College about $8,000 in electricity each year? There has to be a better way to spend that money.
So here’s a proposal: Use your own energy to take you from floor to floor. Stair climbing is a great workout that strengthens the heart and shapes up the lower body, and it doesn’t require a trip to the gym.
Still not convinced to start climbing? The Mayo Clinic estimates that climbing one flight of stairs burns about five calories, and while that’s not a huge number, it all adds up when you make stair climbing a regular part of the day.
Thirty minutes of stair climbing can burn up to 300 calories (based on a 150-lb person), and the faster one climbs, the more one burns.
Start by taking the stairs to class one day a week (even if it’s on the fourth floor!), and adding on a day or two each week until it becomes a habit. If you have knee or back problems, take the elevator down to avoid the extra weight on those joints.
For those who already take the stairs, good for you! Save the college and the earth’s energy by spending a little of our own. Skip waiting for the elevator and take the stairs; it’s free and part of a healthy lifestyle.
Happy climbing!

Ray Krone - mailman to jailman

By Nicki Babcock
Editor
“It is my hope that no one in this room will walk in Ray Krone’s shoes,” said Phil Reed, professor of criminal justice, to a packed Mott Auditorium. Krone’s shoes meant living in a 6 by 8 foot cinder block room with bars, a little door for food, a cement slab with a cushion for a bed and cement stool and table. It meant only getting to go outside to another cage for two hours, three times a week. It meant stripping down to make sure he wasn’t hiding any weapons. And, it meant three showers a week.
Krone’s life wasn’t always like this though. On Wednesday, Nov. 12, he shared his story as part of the Lecture and Symposium series.
After growing up in the small town of Dover, Pa., Krone joined the Air Force. Six years of service landed him in Phoenix, Ariz. He decided to stay around and became a mail carrier. He spent time playing in volleyball and softball leagues, which always finished back at the sponsoring bar, the CBS Lounge.
One Sunday, the owner of CBS Lounge found the bar unlocked. Nothing was gone, but it was apparent that someone had been there. Confused as to why his night manager Kim Ancona hadn’t taken care of this he began looking around until he stumbled upon the answer. Ancona was lying dead in the men’s bathroom. With no signs of a break in, police suspected it was someone she knew. A friend of hers mentioned that she liked Krone, and three hours later the police had found him.
At first, Krone said he didn’t know who she was but that was because he never knew her last name. When the homicide detectives asked if they could question him he agreed because he knew he didn’t do it. Krone was interrogated, took mug shots and had prints taken of his shoes. It wasn’t enough though, because that Monday, the detective was back to collect blood, urine, hair and teeth samples. Krone continued to play along.
On Tuesday, Dec. 31, 1991, he was arrested for murder, kidnapping and sexual assault. Krone couldn’t believe it because “my honor and integrity was something I was proud in,” and no one but family and friends believed him. “I didn’t expect to stay long,” he said, “I was naïve. The first few days I was thinking about if my car was unlocked and if the dog was fed.”
Instead of selling his house to pay legal fees, Krone got a public defender. “I was told, ‘we expect you to be found guilty but we will fight it on appeal’,” he said, remembering how mad this made him. The public defender left and took the entire system with her, citing Krone as a “conflict of interest.” Krone was then given a court appointed lawyer.
At trial, Krone was found guilty of murder and kidnapping. Besides the fact that he didn’t do it, Krone was confused as to why the sexual assault charge was dismissed. “The prosecutor said the motive was that I came for sex, and when she refused, I killed her,” he said. In order to receive a death sentence an aggravating factor must be present. The prosecution persuaded the judge that the bite mark on the victim’s left breast constituted as an aggravating factor, and Krone was sentenced to death.
Krone admitted to beating himself up those first few weeks in prison. “While I felt helpless, I wasn’t hopeless,” he said, so he decided to take action. He started doing research in the law library, which turned into a job helping other prisoners.
A retrial was granted almost three years later but Krone didn’t count on much because “we all made peace with dying on death row. Anything was better than living there,” he said.
During the second trial Krone had finally gotten his own lawyer, but what he hadn’t realized was that “this trial was all or nothing for the prosecution.” After proving that the saliva from the bite mark was not a match, the foot print at the scene was not a match (it was a nine-and-a-half and Krone wears an 11), the judge had doubts. This meant that instead of going back to death row, he would receive consecutive sentences of 25 to life and 21 to life. “As bad as the first verdict was, the second was worse,” he said, “but worse than that was the wail from my mother and sister four feet back.”
Ten years later, his attorney Alan Simpson took advantage of a new law that permitted DNA testing on new items if they were still available. Luckily, the police had kept Ancona’s pants and underwear, which had visible stains. The DNA didn’t match, and thanks to one worker going above and beyond what was required, a match was found. It matched a man named Kenneth Phillips that lived behind the bar. Thanks to a plea bargain, Phillips was sentenced to 25 to life for murder and 27 to life for sexual assault.
In April of 2002 charges were dropped, making Krone the 100th person exonerated from death row. “I left to start my life over at the age of 45,” he said.
Since then, Krone has appeared on “Extreme Makeover” as the snaggletooth killer, been in Playboy magazine, and is now the director of communications and training for Witness to Innocence, an organization that brings to light the crisis of wrongful death convictions in the United States.
Krone finished his presentation saying, “you all will have trials, tribulations and uphill climbs. Sometimes we don’t know the why, but we must find something to strengthen us from it.”