Annual Speedfest breaks records

Cannon’s execution is scheduled for July 20. He has been on death row since 1996, after he was convicted of murdering Sharonda Clark on Feb. 3, 1995. His attorney, Mark Henrikson, said Cannon’s previous trial teams “failed to present the affirmative defense, either by permitting him his absolute right to testify or by bolstering his statement to law enforcement with a forensic deconstruction of the government’s case.”

Henrikson prepared Cannon’s clemency petition as well as made minor edits to Cannon’s “Events Leading to Self-Defense,” which tells his own story about the events on that February day in 1995.

Here is a brief summary of “Events Leading to Self-Defense.”

Cannon first spoke to Clark during a phone call his sister Tamara had with Clark in March 1994, during which she put him on the phone for about 20 seconds. They met at his brother’s funeral in July of

On the day of Clark’s death, Cannon had planned to leave, and the apartment was to be sprayed for bugs, causing it to be in extreme disarray.

A neighbor, Sheena Elliot, came by and asked to borrow money from Clark. Clark became angry, and, when she became aware of Cannon’s plan to leave, attempted to stop him. Clark punched and kicked Cannon, who grabbed her wrists to stop her, causing her to punch herself in the nose and make herself bleed. She threw a jewelry box at him but missed, hitting and breaking a window. She tripped over items on the floor and fell into the closet, smearing the closet floor with blood.

As he left, Clark grabbed a kitchen knife and came at him with it. He grabbed her wrists and they both fell, Clark dropping the knife. They both lunged for it and when Cannon grabbed it he blindly swung it, swinging it four times.

The knife broke and Cannon dragged Clark’s body to the bathroom, where he saw he could do nothing to help her. Clark was dead. Cannon changed his clothes and left.

Edward Hueske, a world-renowned crime scene reconstructionist, explained the basis for self-defense in Cannon’s clemency petition. Hueske had access to the trial transcripts, the federal evidentiary hearing transcripts, police reports, crime scene photos, autopsy photos and reports and interviewed Cannon personally.

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Strap in and prepare for takeoff.

Oklahoma State University’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology (CEAT) hosted its 12th annual Speedfest event at the OSU Unmanned Aircraft Flight Station on April 29 in Glencoe.

The event is an aerospace competition for engineering students from OSU and middle and high school students. They come together from across the state to showcase their engineering abilities in friendly competition.

Speedfest holds two main competition areas every year. The Alpha Class is the category for college students, while the India Class is the category for middle and high school students.

In the collegiate competition, team orange and team black are made up of more than 20 interdisciplinary seniors. They come together to design and build a high-speed, remote-controlled plane. Every year, Andy Arena, the Speedfest coordinator and a School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering professor, makes different parameters for the competition that the teams’ planes must follow.

For this year’s contest, the teams were charged with creating a cost-efficient and strong plane that could dependably showcase speed and efficient pylon-racing abilities. The planes were scored based on how well they completed a rocket glide paired with a pylon race, an ultimate speed and endurance challenge. Team black won the overall contest. They received a high score in the pylon race and endurance test, but it was team orange that developed the fastest plane in the competition’s history, reaching speeds of 240 miles per hour during their speed test.

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