The Hornet Spring 2015 issue 9

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Volume 100, Issue 9 February 11, 2015

Underground student art group goes local

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The Hornet The Voice of Fullerton College @fcHornet

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FC Hornet

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JUSTICE IS SERVED

hornet.fullcoll.edu

Female student assaulted on campus

A male suspect was arrested after being accused of sexually assaulting a female student. REBEKA NOP Managing Editor

MARTIN BECERRA Editor-in-Chief

The California justice system took nearly a quarter of a century from an innocent man, and for that the guilty ran free. Stephanie Gorman Hornet Reporter

INSIDE

THE HORNET

Fullerton College welcomed Thomas Goldstein as a guest speaker Monday for Jodi Balma and the Sociology department’s showcasing of the film The Exonerated. Goldstein spent 24 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit before finally being exonerated in 2004.The film featured six individuals, each exonerated from the crimes for which they were incarcerated. Each person having wrong spent anywhere between two and 22 years wrongly imprisoned, The Exonerated, directed by Bob Balaban, highlights the issues in our criminal justice system – how easily the guilty can run free and the innocent are forced to fit the frame of guilt. Goldstein took the podium clearing his throat and blinking the redness out of his eyes following the 90-minute film, telling the audience he’d never seen that film before.

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NEWS

A rabid bat was found on campus poses health threat to students.

Photo by Stephanie Gorman, The Hornet

“I want to express what we all had in common, and that’s that the system in some way failed us,” Goldstein said, “the prosecution withheld evidence, police coerced the witness, forced a false confession, the defense attorneys didn’t do their jobs…and that’s why you have so many wrongful convictions.” In 1979, Goldstein was arrested for a murder that happened in his Long Beach neighborhood. Two witnesses gave false testimony in his trial – one that Goldstein confessed to the murder and the other that saw him running from the crime scene. Despite inconsistencies in eyewitness descriptions of the suspect, Goldstein was found guilty and sentenced to 27 years to life. It wasn’t until 1997, after years and years of failed appeal attempts, did Goldstein find evidence that not only was one witness coerced with false information into identifying him as a suspect, but also the other witness was handsomely compensated for his testimony. This evidence granted Goldstein the appeal and set him free. “I lost 24 years of my life in prison…I lost all these years, and they’re long, lonely,

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OPINION

Let it go, let it go are we finally done with Disney’s Frozen Yet?

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wasted years, and when I speak, when I work with death penalty focus and when I address the legislatures and the colleges, I get some meaning, some value out of those years,” Goldstein said. In 2010, Goldstein filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County, the District Attorney, and Long Beach, and settled out of court with the county for $7.95 million in the summer of 2014. After watching the film and listening to Goldstein’s testimony, several students were asking, "What can we do to change this?" This then sparked a serious discussion about what role college students play as young voters, and to seriously consider where we as students stand and how we'll vote on a proposition regarding the death penalty come the 2016 election. For students who are looking to get involved more intimately than voting, a program called Another Chance, based out of Urban Ministries in Pomona, works to help men and women leaving prison get clothing, counseling, and job interviews. A guest speaker Beverly Weatherhill, representing First Christian Church of Orange, said, "There are things that all of

A.C.E.

One fish, two fish, Dr. Seuss play makes way to Fullerton.

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LOCAL

Learn ways to shop for a cause that will benefit charities.

Students received an email on Friday Feb. 6 around 5 p.m. after a male suspect was arrested by the Fullerton Police Department for allegedly groping a female student. The incident occurred around 10:35 a.m. in Parking Lot 6 located between Sherbeck Field and the softball and baseball fields. The suspect Kevin Martinez, 22, approached the female student from behind while she was walking on the sidewalk and squeezed her butt according to Campus Safety. The female student then notified Campus Safety immediately of the incident. The Fullerton PD was contacted and officers were able to detain Martinez, driving a silver Ford Mustang near the intersection of Chapman and Pomona Ave. It is not currently known if Martinez is a student. When responding to an incident Campus Safety will do a report by interviewing the victim and getting information. Whether or not they call the Fullerton Police Department depends on the circumstances of the situation according to Campus Safety Coordinator, Jim McKamy. “Any type of sexual battery or sexual assault that is reported to us we will 100 percent of the time bring in to the police,” McKamy said. McKamy encourages students to report any incidents immediately, and to keep the emergency phone number in their cell phone. Campus safety is available for contact 24 hours a day seven days a week and offers to escort students to their car as long as they are on campus and their car is parked on campus. See ASSAULT on page 3

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Sports

Women’s tennis player overcomes adversity.


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