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Winston-Salem State UniversitN
February 2004
Free at Last
WSSU student Darryl Hunt is exonerated
of all charges in the Deborah Sykes case
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1
1
Darryl Hunt takes notes during an American Government course taught by Dr. Larry Little.
By Nicole Ferguson
Editor-in-Chief
For the first time in well
over a decade, Darryl
Hunt got to tell his side of
the story, but not from behind
bars.
The Student Government
Association of Winston-Salem
State University hosted a Free At
Last! forum for Hunt on Jan.22
at 7 p.m. in Dillard Auditorium.
The forum served as an infor
mal, candid environment for the
WSSU community to express
their support for Hunt while
getting their questions about his
infamous case answered.
Hunt was accused and con
victed twice for the 1984 mur
der of Deborah Sykes. He was
released from prison on Dec. 24
after serving nearly 18 years in
jail for the murder. The release
came as a result of the murder
confession made by Willard
Brown.
On Feb. 6 a hearing was held
"There are only two
satisfying things
you can get. One is
your faith in a higher
being. The other is
getting your mind
to take you to
another place."
-Darryl Hunt
in which Hunt was exonerated.
Now, he's enrolled in the politi
cal science courses at WSSU,
many under Dr. Larry Little.
Little has been an activist for
and supporter of Hunt since
the beginning of his trials for
murder. Little opened up the
forum speaking of the teenage
boy he used to play basketball
with at the local YMCA. Once
he found out about Hunt's
arrest for the murder, he
decided to look into the matter.
Argus photo by Nicole Ferguson
"Nothing I had seen made
me feel he was a murderer pr a
killer, but I didn't know."
So Little began investigating.
What he found led him to
believe that Hunt was without
a doubt, innocent. When police
reports detailed a light-skinned
man wearing a spider designed
t-shirt. Little immediately went
down to the only store in
Winston-Salem that sold the
shirts at the time.
See HUNT, Page 4
Gates cause inconvenience and irritation
By Kelechi 0. Anyanwu
Argus Reporter
A gate has been installed in front of Wilson Hall
to prevent drivers from parking in the fire lane.
When students returned from the MLK holiday,
they realized there was no longer a path to drive
through.
Norma Bailey, a junior sociology major and resi
dent of Wilson Hall, said, "Putting the gates there
made it a big problem to the students who need to
transmit things from their vehicles to the dorms."
Chief Willie Bell Jr. of the Winston-Salem State
University campus police said that the gates are
there for a reason. According to Bell, the problem
started two years ago when emergency vehicles
would try to respond to situations at Wilson Hall
and were unable to get through because of vehicles
parked on the left-hand side in the fire lane. It
became even more of a safety hazard because the
emergency vehicles would block the front of MLK,
making it difficult to see oncoming traffic. As
months went by, campus police began ticketing or
towing the vehicles, but students were still
adamant about parking there. A student could be
fined up to $500 dollars every time their vehicle
blocked the fire lane. Students are unable to go
through Wilson to get to Vargrave Street because of
the new gates.
Ebony Briggs, a junior business administration
major, said, "The gates make it more complicated
See GATES, Page 6
y