IMPLICIT RACISM Stop validating coded language and call out utterances of hate
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AWARD SHOW HOSTS Although it hasn’t been done in 30 years, a host-less Oscars is the right move SEE INSIDE BEAT, PAGE 8
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Rutgers loses Big Ten battle in devastating fashion
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TUESDAY FEBRUARY 12, 2019
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New Jersey autism center opens at Rutgers after receiving $4 M APARNA RAGUPATHI CONTRIBUTING WRITER
After receiving a $4 million grant from the New Jersey Department of Health, Rutgers is now home to the New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence (NJACE). The center, led by principal investigator Elizabeth Torres, scientific director James Millonig and clinical liaison Jill Harris, aims to promote research, professional training and public awareness to improve the quality of life for individuals and families affected by autism. “The purpose of the center is basically threefold. We’re trying to
create something that is innovative, collaborative and comprehensive,” Harris said. For years, Rutgers has been at the forefront of internationally recognized autism research as well as the development of services for people with autism. This commitment to advancing autism treatment and care is what puts Rutgers in a strong position to house NJACE, Harris said. NJACE is also partnering with the Children’s Specialized Hospital, which Harris said is one of the largest providers in the region of services for children, teens and families affected by autism.
Autism is an umbrella term that encompasses many different medical conditions that lie in the nervous system and manifest through difficulties with social communication, Torres said. “There’s an expression that if you know one person with autism, you just know one person with autism,” she said. The center hopes to stratify the spectrum and advance personalized treatment methods while recognizing and building on the strengths of individuals with autism. SEE CENTER ON PAGE 4
The newly established New Jersey Autism Center of Excellence, located on Busch campus, helps to support autism research and outreach at the University as well as the state. PRONNOY NANDY
Rutgers students get murder case repealed CATHERINE NGUYEN NEWS EDITOR
Huwe Burton’s murder conviction was exonerated last month due to newly discovered evidence showing that he falsely confessed to the crime. It was discovered that the detectives who interrogated him obtained false confessions from other men as well. RUTGERS.EDU
Huwe Burton, who had no previous criminal record, was only 16 years old when he was wrongfully convicted of murdering his mother exactly 30 years ago. For approximately 10 years, students and attorneys in Rutgers— Newark Law’s Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic worked to absolve him from the conviction, according to Rutgers Today. Last month, in a hearing on Jan. 24, Bronx Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett finally annulled Burton’s conviction and dismissed the case. Due to newly discovered evidence showing that Burton falsely confessed to the murder, Barrett was able to make his decision. The exoneration was due to the collaboration with Laura Cohen, the director of the clinic, her students, Steven Drizin, a professor at Northwestern University, Barr y Scheck and Susan Friedman from the Innocence Project and the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Bronx District Attorney’s Office. During his hearing, Burton thanked the students and attorneys who helped to vacate his case. “I could not have made it here by myself,” he said to the judge and spectators in the courtroom. Suzanne Hoyes and Adrienne V. Hawkins, both former students at Rutgers Law School, came to the hearing and said they remembered working on the case while in school. “To this day I feel like the work I did on Huwe’s case and in the clinic
VOLUME 151, ISSUE 7 • UNIVERSITY ... 3 • OPINIONS ... 6 • INSIDE BEAT... 8• DIVERSIONS ... 9 • SPORTS ... BACK
was my most meaningful experience at Rutgers Law,” Hoyes said. She is currently a chief compliance officer for an investment management firm in Chicago. “The justice due to Huwe came after decades and decades of doggedly fighting and I was grateful to be a small part of that fight.” The Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic was first involved in 2009, when Drizin asked Cohen to join the legal team for Burton. Cohen and Drizin had also been working together on another juvenile false confession case, helping to exonerate David McCallum and Willie Stuckey in Brooklyn five years ago. At the time the clinic became involved, Burton had just been released on parole after serving for 20 years. Drizin, Cohen and her students investigated the case for the following six years, finding evidence about an alternate suspect and also revealing that the three detectives who interrogated Burton had obtained false confessions previously from two other individuals. When Darcel Clark was elected as the Bronx District Attorney in 2016, the evidence was used to begin the path to Burton’s exoneration. After her election, Clark established the Conviction Integrity Unit and was introduced to Drizin and Cohen by Scheck, , who also became a part of the legal team. The Conviction Integrity Unit helped to gain access to other evidence, which had previously been undisclosed, that confirmed Burton’s innocence. Based on this SEE CASE ON PAGE 4