The Baylor Lariat WE’RE THERE WHEN YOU CAN’T BE
www.baylorlariat.com
WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 17, 2012
NEWS Page 3
MOVIES Page 4
SPORTS Page 5
Baylor freshman helps bring sustainability to Live Oak Classical School
Hidden opportunities in the voice acting field abound online for those looking for a different acting approach
Baylor softball lose against the National Professional Fastpitch Allstars 8-0 on Tuesday
Flip the energy switch
DO
Acting with the voice
Vol. 113 No. 29
Bears strike out
© 2012, Baylor University
Clint Dobson killer handed death penalty
In Print >> DON’T GET TAKEN Movie reviewer predicts ‘Taken’ sequels to continue on to infinity
Page 4
>> YARD BY YARD
Yard loss against TCU shows there’s room for improvement on Baylor’s defense
>> DRUG CAPTURE
Authorities have captured the daughter of a leading Mexican drug lord
Page 3
On the Web Associated Press
President Barack Obama, left, and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney confront each other Tuesday during the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.
Presidential debate heats up town hall style Follow us on Twitter
@bulariat
Viewpoints “Paying more money for a movie ticket to watch a movie we have already seen is absurd. We are spending money to support an industry that is putting out old material.” Page 2
Bear Briefs The place to go to know the places to go
An eve of Halloween The Waco Civic Theatre presents “All Hallowed,” at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Waco Civic Theatre, 1517 Lake Air Drive. Tickets are $18 on Friday and $13 for every subsequent showing.
Horsing around
The National Barrel Horse Association competition will take place Friday at the Extraco Show Pavillion, 4601 Bosque Blvd. For more information, visit extracoeventscenter.com.
www.baylorlariat.com
Nelson had been released from a court-ordered anger-management program, part of a deal with FORT WORTH— The Rev. Dallas County prosecutors after Clint Dobson was sitting in his he was arrested for aggravated aschurch office writing a sermon sault on his girlfriend. when a convicted felon began He earlier had served time bescouring the neighborhood for a hind bars for a two-year sentence car to steal. for theft, and spent much of his The felon honed in on the teen years in juvenile facilities afchurch, where investigators say he ter committing various crimes. suffocated the young pastor and Dobson had taken a considerseverely beat his secretary before ably different life path. fleeing in one of their cars. The 28-year-old had done misNew details of Steven Lawayne sionary work and had big plans Nelson’s past — offenses that led for NorthPointe Baptist Church up to what prosecutors called his in Arlington, about 15 miles west most heinous crime — were re- of Dallas. The young minister was vealed during a week-long hear- known by friends and relatives as ing to decide Nelson’s fate fol- a generous, helpful person who lowing his conviction last week also had a fun-loving side. of killing Dobson. On Tuesday, His widow, Laura Dobson, jurors chose the death penalty. said she will continue to be her “It is hard for me to fathom husband’s voice and “be a rethat you did what you did for a minder that good will always tricar and a laptop and a phone,” umph evil.” Dobson’s father-in-law, Phillip “I refuse to let you get the best Rozeman, said in a statement af- of me,” she told Nelson in a victer the sentencing. “The world is tim impact statement after the going to miss a leader. It’s sad to sentence. “You have wrecked so know all the people that won’t be many lives ... that nobody will helped because Clint want to remember is not here.” you after this.” Nelson suffocated Nelson had denied Dobson, leaving him killing the minister, dead on the floor blaming two friends with a bag over his for the crime. He head and lying near said he stayed outside his severely beaten and only came into secretary. Nelson had the church to steal a driven away in the laptop. He admitted secretary’s car, then stepping around Doblater sold Dobson’s son and the secretary Nelson laptop and bought on the floor to get the some items at a mall laptop, but said they using the victims’ were still alive when credit cards. he was there. Jurors had the option of senBlood from both victims was tencing Nelson to life in prison found on a pair of Nelson’s shoes, without parole. and studs from his belt were For a death sentence, jurors found at the church, according to had to unanimously agree that testimony. Nelson posed a danger to society, Prosecutor Bob Gill said Nelthat he intended to kill and that son’s violence didn’t stop as he there were no mitigating circum- awaited his murder trial, and that stances to diminish his culpabil- he fatally strangled an inmate ity. with a blanket. The 25-year-old Nelson Nelson hasn’t been charged in showed no reaction as his sen- that death. tence was read. He was later “Now you know why the state heard yelling after he was taken decided to seek the death penalty,” to a holding cell, where he broke Gill told jurors. “That’s all that can a sprinkler head, causing flood- be done here. It could not be more ing in the courtroom shortly after clear.” most people had left. Three days before the murder, SEE DOBSON, page 6 By Angela K. Brown Associated Press
Page 5
nationally and in some battle- watched raptly as the two sparred ground states. while struggling to appear calm Obama challenged Romney and affable before a national teleon economics and energy policy, vision audience. HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — An ag- accusing him of switching posiThe rivals disagreed about taxgressive President Barack Obama tions and declaring that his eco- es, measures to reduce the deficit, accused challenger Mitt Romney nomic plan was a “sketchy deal” energy, pay equity for women and of favoring a “one-point plan” to that the public health care ishelp the rich and leveling offen- should reject. sues. Immigra“I think sive criticism about the recent Romney tion prompted deadly terrorist attack in Libya gave as good as yet another [Romney] did a good Tuesday night in a debate crack- he got. clash, Romney job of pointing out ling with energy and emotion just “You’ll get saying Obama the president’s failure three weeks before the election. your chance had failed to Romney pushed back hard, in a moment. pursue the to responding to the saying the middle class “has been I’m still speakcomprehensive [Libya] event.” crushed over the last four years,” ing,” the former legislation he that 23 million Americans are Massachusetts promised at the Brandon Waltens | Baylor struggling to find work and that governor said at dawn of his adchapter chairman of Young the death of the U.S. ambassador one point while minist rat ion, Conservatives of Texas to Libya was part of an unravel- Obama was and the presiing of the administration’s foreign mid-sentence. dent saying Repolicy. He said the president’s policies publican obstinacy made a deal The president was feistier had failed to jumpstart the econ- impossible. from the outset than he had been omy and crimped energy producUnder the format agreed to in in their inition. advance, members of an audience tial encounter The open- of 82 uncommitted voters posed two weeks stage format questions to the president and his “The difference was ago, when he left the two challenger. that [Obama] was turned in a men free to Nearly all of them concerned listless perstroll freely domestic policy until one raised much more on the formance that across a red- the subject of the recent death of offensive... He knew sent shudders carpeted stage, the U.S. ambassador to Libya in that he had something through his and they did. a terrorist attack at an American supporters Their clashes post in Benghazi. to gain.” and helped crackled with Romney said it took Obama fuel a rise by energy and a long time to admit the episode Adaobi Ekweani | President of Romney in tension, and the Baylor Democrats opinion polls the crowd By DAVID ESPO and STEVE PEOPLES Associated Press
SEE
DEBATE, page 6
First black chief justice in Lousiana dispels racial tension By Michael Kunzelman Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court resolved a racially-tinged power struggle inside its own ranks, ruling Tuesday that Bernette Johnson should be the state’s first black chief justice. Johnson’s years of appointed and elected service on the high court give her the seniority to succeed Chief Justice Catherine “Kitty” Kimball early next year, the court said in a unanimous ruling. Justice Jeffrey Victory, who is white, argued Johnson’s appointed service shouldn’t count and he deserved to be chief justice. Voters elected Johnson in 1994 to the state appeals court, and she was assigned to the Supreme Court as part of settlement of an earlier lawsuit that claimed the system for electing justices diluted black voting strength and violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Rounding up campus news since 1900
She served an eighth Supreme Court district centered in New Orleans until the court reverted back to seven districts in 2000, when she was elected to the high court. The racial dynamics of the case reverberated outside Louisiana. A long list of elected officials and civil rights advocates, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, called for Johnson to get the position. The New York Times published two editorials supporting her, one of which called the dispute an “unsettling example of how power can trample voting rights even where they should be sacrosanct.” The court said its ruling was based strictly on the law. “Although commentators have loudly emphasized them, factors which we do not ascribe any importance to in answering the constitutional question before us include issues of gender, geography, personality, philosophy, political
Associated Press
The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Bernette Johnson of New Orleans will be the court’s next chief justice, resolving a legal dispute that wound up in federal court.
affiliation, and race — all of which have the potential to inflame passion,” the court said.
TheLariat
James Williams, one of Johnson’s attorneys, said his client was thrilled. “It means she can put this bitter fight behind her and begin to unify the judiciary,” he said. “This is not a fight that Justice Johnson went looking for. We all wish this result could have happened without the fighting.” Any requests for the court to reconsider must be filed within five days. An attorney for Victory didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. Victory joined the court in 1995, a year after Johnson, but said her years of appointed service shouldn’t count when deciding which justice is “oldest in point of service” under the state constitution. The court disagreed. “Both election and appointment are described by the constitution as legitimate methods to commence service on this court,” its opinion said. Johnson, Victory and a third
judge who stood to be secondin-line if Victory’s argument prevailed were recused from the dispute. Three state appeals court judges sat in their place and made the ruling along with four other justices. In July, Johnson filed a federal lawsuit after her colleagues said they would debate the matter. U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan ruled Johnson had more seniority, but stopped short of ordering the state’s highest court to name Johnson as Kimball’s successor. Lawyers for Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office have asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Morgan’s Sept. 1 ruling. A lawyer for Jindal has said the governor wasn’t taking a position on which justice should succeed Kimball but believed the state Supreme Court should decide the matter. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the federal case was moot in light of Tuesday’s decision.
Best Student Newspaper three years running| Houston Press Club
N dad: scary traffic D candy abduc lines thing the h or-tre even few in A migh lished Amer found room aroun sport Th cent o to the of th some kin-c that “ injuri een w inclu than W shoul paren vious kids a make mask tume to pro