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 The New People
 A monthly publication of the Thomas Merton Center
 Table of Contents -- September 2002


Index of Monthly Issues

Death Penalty Conference Schedule
 Voices of Conscience: Activists, Families of Murder Victims, and Survivors of Death Row Speak Out Against the Death Penalty
Friday, September 27, 7:00 p.m.
Carnegie Mellon University, Oakland
Porter Hall 100
Free to the public

Panelists for the program include Bud Welch, who lost his daughter in the Oklahoma City bombing and is an ardent opponent of the death penalty; Ernie Preate, former Pennsylvania attorney general and currently a spokesperson for prison reform and ending the death penalty; William Nieves, released from Pennsylvania’s death row in 2001; and Pat Clark, Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and former head of the American Friend Service Committees Death Penalty Project. Local musician Karl Mullen will close the event with a song. An informal reception will follow.

Dismantling the ‘Machinery of Death’ in Pennsylvania: Education for Action
Saturday, September 28, 10:00 a.m. - 4:15 p.m.
University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Oakland
Cost: $8, $5 for low income, and free for students (includes a boxed lunch)
Advance registration preferred, although last minute attendees are welcome
To register, call 412-681-7736 x26 or visit www.pa-abolitionists.org.

Saturday’s program will be devoted to education and activism workshops. Workshops include the following:

  • Race, Class, and the Death Penalty

  • Vengeance and Restorative Justice

  • Conditions on Death Row

  • Innocence Projects

  • Legislative Update & Strategies

  • Organizing in High Schools and on College Campuses

  • Mobilizing Faith-Based Opposition to the Death Penalty

  • What Lawyers and Law Students Can Do to

  • Right the Death Penalty

  •  

Speakers/workshop leaders include:

  • Pat Clark, Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, former head of the American Friends Service Committee’s Death Penalty Project

  • Larry Frankel, ACLU of Pennsylvania lobbyist

  • Jeff Garis, Executive Director of PAUADP

  • Douglas Grane, student organizer with Amnesty International

  • Rev. Aaron Kerr, pastor at Dicksonburg Charge

  • Thomas Kimbell, Jr., innocent released from death row

  • William Nieves, innocent released from death row

  • John Knorr, local attorney who handles death penalty cases

  • Marcus Rediker, history professor at the University of Pittsburgh

  • Bud Welch, anti-death penalty activist who lost his daughter in the Oklahoma City bombing

  • Phil Wilson, retired Methodist minister

  • Diann Rust-Tierney, Director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, will be the keynote speaker.