The UNC Department of Political Science is pleased to host this distinguished speaker series in conjunction with POLI 203: Race, Innocence, and the End of the Death Penalty. The speakers will address one of the most important policy puzzles our state and nation face: Why is the death penalty fading away, and should it be abolished? The series is made available through the Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professorship.
Mondays, 5:30 – 7:00 pm
Genome Sciences Building, Room G100
UNC-Chapel Hill
All events are free and open to the public.
Free parking is available after 5:00pm in the adjacent Bell Tower Parking Deck.
- Feb 1: Anthony Ray Hinton. Mr. Hinton was freed in April 2015 after 30 years on Alabama’s death row. Mr. Hinton will be accompanied by a representative of the Equal Justice Initiative, led by Bryan Stevenson, which was responsible for Mr. Hinton’s demonstration of innocence.
- Feb 8: Panel: Fernando Bermudez, LaMonte Armstrong, with Duke Innocence Project attorney and law professor Theresa Newman. Mr. Bermudez was wrongly convicted of murder in New York 1991 and was exonerated in 2009. Mr. Armstrong was exonerated in 2013 of a Greensboro, NC murder for which he was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1995. Theresa Newman and others from the Duke Innocence Project secured Mr. Armstrong’s release.
- Feb 22: Ken Rose and Gary Griffin. Mr. Griffin served five years on Mississippi’s death row before his death sentence was overturned. He was released from prison after 23 years in 2009 and is now an investigator working on post-conviction death penalty appeals in Jackson, Mississippi. Ken Rose has been a capital litigator for over 30 years, currently practices in Durham at the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, and was Mr. Griffin’s appellate lawyer.
- Feb 29: Beverly and Katie Monroe. Beverly was sentenced to 22 years in prison for murder in 1992; in fact, the death had been a suicide. Katie, her daughter, had just left law school and devoted the next 11 years to demonstrating the innocence of her mother, which she secured in 2003. Katie is now the Executive Director of healingjusticeproject.org.
- March 7: Serving Life. Hidden Voices brings to the stage dramatic readings co-created with men currently sentenced to die in prison. Serving Life offers audiences the opportunity to both hear these stories and to respond to the men who live them, thereby creating a community call and response. A discussion with project leaders and prison mental health professionals will follow the performance.
- April 4: Kimberly Davis, discussion led by Jennifer Thompson. Kimberly is the sister of Georgia inmate Troy Davis, who was executed in 2011 after a world-wide mobilization based on claims of innocence. Jennifer Thompson lives in Chapel Hill and is the President of healingjusticeproject.org.
- April 11: Duke Innocence Project attorneys Theresa Newman, James Coleman, and Jamie Lau. An examination of pending cases and discussion of the difficult work of an innocence project, including recognition that all the innocent will not go free.
- April 18: Jennifer Thompson, Ronald Cotton, Rich Rosen, and Mike Gauldin. Jennifer and Ronald are the authors of the best-selling memoir, Picking Cotton, the 2010 UNC Common Read. Rich Rosen, a retired UNC law professor, was one of Ronald’s attorneys. Mike Gauldin was the police detective who investigated the case. This is the first time all four key players in the story have been together for a public event in almost 20 years.
All events are free, open to the public, and include the opportunity for audience Q&A. Series sponsor and organizer: Prof. Frank R. Baumgartner, Frankb@unc.edu.