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Panel zeroes in on restorative justice

This year’s Common Reading Experience, which is focused on Sister Helen Prejean’s book Dead Man Walking, will examine the issue of the death penalty through the lens of photography, theater, film, poetry, music, community dialogue and more.

The dialogue part of the program will kick into high gear Wednesday at Fort Lewis College with a panel on Restorative Justice – a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused by criminal behavior instead of solely punishing the offender. The event will feature a defense attorney, a philosophy professor and two people whose lives were altered when family members were murdered.

“The panel will explore our penal system and in particular the complications of it for the families of the victims,” said Bridget Irish, Common Reading Experience coordinator.

The panel will be moderated by Sarah Roberts-Cady, a professor of philosophy at Fort Lewis College whose teaching primarily focuses on moral philosophy. Among her academic articles on ethics and public policy is a recently published piece titled “Against Retributive Justifications of the Death Penalty.”

She will be joined on stage by:

Jeanne Bishop, sister of Nancy Bishop Langert who was murdered along with her husband and their unborn baby in 1990. Since that event, Jeanne Bishop has become a prominent advocate of gun-violence prevention, abolition of the death penalty, forgiveness and the role of victims and restorative justice in the criminal justice system. Bishop is a felony trial attorney in Chicago and adjunct professor at Northwestern’s law school.

James Oury, who has practiced legal defense of indigent capital clients for 25 years in the U.S. and abroad. A member of the International Bar Association, he sits on the panel that advises the British government on death penalty issues.

Bill Pelke, an author and activist whose grandmother Ruth Elizabeth Pelke was murdered in 1985. Bill Pelke originally supported the death penalty for the teenage girl who was convicted of killing his grandmother, but he changed his mind after a spiritual transformation and went on to dedicate his life to the abolition of the death penalty.

The panel, which is in partnership with the Life-long Learning Lecture Series, is free and open to the public.

kklingsporn@durangoherald.com

Oct 13, 2014
Common reading and community dialogue


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