Wednesday, March 23, 2016
The Independent Student Newspaper of Sam Houston State University
Volume 127 | Issue 22
GCJD on sexual assault
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ABIGAIL VENTRESS Staff Reporter
Sam Houston State’s Global Center for Journalism and Democracy will campaign for sexual assault awareness throughout the month of April. GCJD has collaborated with several other organizations on campus in order to carry out the campaign. “Over the years, many organizations from sororities to counseling centers to the Title 9 organization have hosted events that focus on sexual assault, so we brought all of those activities together,” Executive Director of GCJD Kelli Arena said. “These were student organizations, departments within colleges, sororities and fraternities, a combination of faculty, staff, and students who all came together to come up with an agenda.” The community is also participating in the sexual assault campaign. On March 14, Walker County read a proclamation declaring the month of April to be Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and on March 15 the mayor and the city of Huntsville read a proclamation declaring the same. “We’ve heard that we had the most people from Sam ever at both the county and city proclamation,” Arena said. “It was very well received by the community; they were really excited that we were able to get that many people to show up.” The Global Center for Journalism and Democracy has a class, where each semester the students ask the student body what issues they feel should be discussed more on campus. The responses help determine the topic of their campaigns such as their previous mental health and immigration campaigns. “Sexual assault came up repeatedly as something that Sam students thought needed to be discussed more openly and was something that we needed to raise awareness about,” Arena said. “This is an issue that is not easy to talk about--a lot of people just don’t want to talk about it, but it needs to be discussed.” The theme for the sexual assault campaign is “Start by Believing.” The theme is a national movement urged at law enforcement partners who are undergoing training on how to handle sexual assault cases. “When a police officer approaches any situation, they’re supposed to start at a point of neutrality,” Arena said. “This whole ‘Start by Believing’ movement is trying to push them to just believe a person when they first come and report something; it’s not to deal with that sexual assault survivor with any amount of skepticism or negativity.” According to Arena, this campaign is not limited to law enforcement, it goes for anyone who may come in contact with someone who has been sexually assaulted. “If we start by believing, then we react in a concerned, more positive way,” Arena said. “There’s research that shows that everything that happens after that results in more efficient healing for the survivor.” Statistics show that one in four women are sexually assaulted. Most sexual assaulters are repeat offenders. —
GCJD, page 2
Garland for SCOTUS ELISABETH WILLASON Staff Reporter
Kevin Fenner| The Houstonian
EXECUTION. Adam Ward was executed at the Huntsville unit Tuesday, March 22 for the murder of a code enforcement officer. As many as nine protestors were present, including a fellow code enforcement officer.
Argued mentally ill man executed
KEVIN FENNER Staff Reporter Despite arguments that he was ineligible for the death penalty due to his severe mental illness, Tuesday night the state of Texas executed Adam Ward for the 2005 murder of a code enforcement officer. Ward insists he was defending himself when he fatally shot code enforcement officer Michael Walker, who was taking photos of possible code violations outside the Ward family home in Commerce, about 65 miles northeast of Dallas. Ward, 33, was put to death by lethal injection March 22 at the Huntsville Unit, just one street block away from the Sam Houston State University campus. Outside the nation’s most active execution chamber, 15 to 20 protestors stood holding signs opposing capital punishment and held public prayers. Danielle Allen of Cleveland is also a code enforcement officer and was outside protesting the execution, despite the death of another officer. “The man’s obviously mentally ill,” Allen said. “He’s delusional. I understand we’re government officers and that makes his murder a Capital offense, but how can we
put this boy to death? Why does it have to be the death penalty and not life in prison? What’s more killing going to solve?” Ward is the ninth person executed this year and the fifth inmate executed in Texas; 535 inmates have been executed in Texas since 1976. Walker, 44, began taking pictures of the Ward’s family home to document code violations resulting from the piles of junk outside the house which led to an argument between Walker and Ward, then 22. Ward intervened and told Walker to leave the property. Walker waited nearby after calling for assistance, but he was unaware that Ward had gone inside the house to grab his gun. Walker died after sustaining nine gunshot wounds from Ward’s .45 caliber pistol. Ward confessed to the murder soon after, stating that he shot Walker because he feared for his life Ward’s parents were not present at the execution at the request of Ward who said he did not want his parents there to witness his death, according to Gloria Ruback of Houston, who stood holding an “abolish the death penalty” sign outside the prison. “He has two parents who love and adore him,” Ruback said, who spoke with Ward’s parents last
week. “All this execution is doing – just like with all of the other children Texas has murdered – is creating more victims, more pain and suffering.” Last week, Ward’s lawyers filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the high court to overturn a March 16 decision from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal’s denying a stay of execution for Ward. In the appeal, his lawyers argued that Ward committed a murder because he suffered from “delusions and paranoia fed by his disabling bipolar disorder” dating back to his childhood. “That’s one of the surest ways to avoid a death penalty is to have your client found not mentally competent or mentally sane and then they can’t execute you according to the Supreme Court,” Criminal Justice professor and capital punishment expert Dennis Longmire, Ph.D., said. “But it’s very, very rare that somebody avoids any punishment in Texas, much less the death penalty as a result of mental incapacity.” Longmire said southerners tend to believe in the death penalty and make little exceptions, including mental illness. “In Texas and the south in general, it’s just not part of the culture to recognize that somebody —
EXECUTION, page 2
Bearkat accepted into HGO ASHLEY PARROTT Campus Culture Editor A Sam Houston State University student has been accepted into the Houston Grand Opera Young Artsit Vocal Academy after a rigorous application process and extensive training in the music performance program. Sophomore music major Brea Marshall was accepted into the Houston Grand Opera Undergraduate Program, a two week intensive program that allows her to attend master classes and work under prestigious opera singers. The HGO undergraduate program is highly competitive. It recieves over 700 applications nationwide while only 16 singers are accepted. Marshall has been involved in choir from a young age, though she never initially thought of her talent as a career path. “We had a youth day at my church once a month and that’s when all of the kids would
perform, sing or dance - I use to dread it when I was younger,” Marshall said. “My mom would push me to do something because I was so shy.” Marshall eventually found her confidence in her talent and pursued it through various auditions in her hometown school choirs. “I think I really started to love music with choir because it introduced the more classical side of things and I really started to understand technique,” Marshall said. “I didn’t really take classical music seriously until my junior year of high school. My senior year I auditioned for the all-state choir and I made first chair in the women’s choir.” Marshall continued on with her drive and passion for music but eventually made the decision to pursue it professionally after her major successes in her high school career. “I knew I loved music but there’s so much negativity with pursuing a career in music,” Marshall said. “I figured I love to do this but I always tried to look for an
Vanilla is the highest priced food commodity in the world.
editorial pages 1-4.indd 1
HoustonianOnline.com
alternative back up plan. Nothing ever came up, and I wouldn’t be happy doing that because I just don’t get the same feeling that I do with music with any other type of career choice.” SHSU offers three distinct choirs: the all-women’s choir, concert choir and the top collegiate choir, chorale choir. Marshall said her short time in these ensembles has shaped her knowledge of the art and helped her better understand the principles of technique. “Choir in conjunction with my voice lessons really helps settle me with my music,” Marshall said. “At first it was kind of just a hobby but now it’s real. This is my career; it’s what I want to do, so it levels me.” Marshall was eventually approached by her university vocal instructor Jammieca Mott, who introduced Marshall to the idea of auditioning for the Houston Grand Opera. Marshall was initially intimidated by the suggestion but then decided there was not reward without risk. For the entire article visit Houstonianonline.com
Against the wishes of Republican congress members, President Barack Obama handed down a nomination for the Supreme Court on Wednesday March 16. Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland, 63, to fill the seat left vacant after Justice Antonin Scalia’s sudden death in Shafter, Texas. Garland’s nomination comes on the heels of a public refusal from Republican congress members to hold a hearing for anyone Obama might nominate. Garland — who is best known as the prosecutor in Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols’s trial for their roles in the Oklahoma City Bombing — was appointed to the D.C. circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1997 by former President Bill Clinton and assumed the chief judge position in 2013. In his time on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Garland has earned a reputation of neutrality and bipartisanship. “I think Garland is a moderate choice,” political science professor Richard Yawn said. “I think Republicans from moderate states of who are otherwise moderate will advocate for giving him a vote.”
“Anytime Judge Garland disagrees, you know you’re in a difficult area.” -Chief Justice John Roberts Senator Mitch McConnell has been at the forefront of the campaign to refuse Obama’s nomination, arguing that since it is an election year the nomination should go to the next elected president. “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” McConnell said in February. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.” Obama’s choice to nominate Garland puts Sen McConnell and others standing with him in an interesting position — if GOP senators refuse to vote yes or no on a centrist nomination it could affect their campaign in primary challenges and the general. “It’s going to depend on whether the president and Democrats can win the public relations battle against the Republicans,” Yawn said. Because Garland is a choice that appeals to both liberal and conservative members of congress, it could be hard for McConnell to refuse a vote on the nomination. Even Chief Justice John Roberts, one of the most conservative members of SCOTUS, has had positive things to say about Garland’s decisionmaking as a judge. “Anytime Judge Garland disagrees, you know you’re in a difficult area,” he said. If a new Justice is not appointed and confirmed, it leaves the possibility for 4-4 votes on cases heard by SCOTUS — if there is a tie, the lower court’s verdict stands and it is as if SCOTUS never heard the case at all.
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