As of October 2004, 117 wrongfully convicted persons from twenty-five
states have been released from America's death rows, and the number
continues to grow. How do such serious mistakes occur in what some call
the best court system in the world
? And how can fifty
states, each bound by the same Constitution and Supreme Court
guidelines, implement the death penalty so differently? Should justice
in a democratic society be an arbitrary matter? You are invited to join
this conversation about one of the most important civil rights issues
of our day.
SISTER HELEN PREJEAN
Since the success of her first book, Dead Man Walking (1993), Sister Helen Prejean has worked tirelessly to provoke discussion about the death penalty. In a new book, The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions,
Sister Helen tells the story of her ministry to possibly innocent human
beings who die at the hands of the state and exposes the workings of
America's "machinery of death."
LAWRENCE C. MARSHALL
A graduate of Northwestern Law School, Larry
Marshall co-founded the Center on Wrongful Convictions, which pioneered
the investigation of serious miscarriages of justice and was a driving
force behind Governor George H. Ryan's decision to suspend executions
in Illinois. He is now Professor of Law and the David and Stephanie
Mills Director of Clinical Education at Stanford Law School.
WILLIAM F. ABRAMS (moderator)
Educated at Stanford and the University of
Santa Clara Law School, Bill Abrams teaches courses on children's legal
issues and the death penalty in Stanford's program in Human Biology. A
partner in the law firm, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, he is
currently working to overturn the death sentence and conviction of
Jimmy Davis, a prisoner on Alabama's death row since 1993, and Melvin
Davis, who had been on death row in Alabama since 1998.