Death Penalty Teach In

[Alexander Riccio]

Hello fellow dissidents,

ASAP! is hosting a teach in about the death penalty next Tuesday, May 19th from 12 to 1:30 in MU 213 Pan Afrikan room. Food will be provided and we'll have some good speakers. Below is a formal email about the event. Please help us spread the word, and for all you members of the Alliance please help us get the info out to our coalition, hope to see you all there!

Solidarity,

Alex

 

Hello everyone, 

Hope you are all well.

We wanted to let you know about an event that the student organization Allied Students for Another Politics (ASAP!) and the Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (OADP) are hosting about the death penalty in Oregon.

Is the death penalty a crime?

Race, class and the prison industrial complex

We invite you to a teach-in and panel discussion which includes the voices of a diverse group of community activists who have experiences inside and outside of the prison system. Using evidence and research while also drawing from personal experiences in various aspects of the death penalty system in the United States, this diverse group of leaders and activists hope to encourage discussion and spark conversations about this vital issue. 

The teach-in and panel discussion will take place at the Memorial Union on May 19th, from Noon until 1:30pm in the Pan Afrikan room (MU 213).

Our speakers will include:

Ron Steiner serves as board chair for Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death  Penalty (OADP). He has been involved in death penalty repeal work for fiveteen years, first in New Mexico where they repealed the death penalty on March 18, 2009. Ron also served for six years on the national board of directors of Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation. 

Cheri Lovre has a 30-year history responding to school crises, including supporting recovery following a dozen school shootings and a range of violence-related incidents.  Her insights about the death penalty stem from a range of experiences, including as a behavior specialist working with students who posed potential and eventual violent risk as well as seeing the prevention potential in schools implementing student threat assessment.  

Frank Thompson is a former Oregon state penitentiary warden. He supervised the only two executions carried out in Oregon since capital punishment was reinstated in 1984. Has has joined efforts to repeal the death penalty in Oregon and is part of the Advisory Council of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Robert Thompson is an Oregon State Professor of Sociology and Ethnic Studies with expertise on the U.S. prison system. Dr. Thompson specializes in African American history, African American Political and Social Thought in the Early Twentieth Century and Contemporary African American Social and Political Discourse. He teaches a course called Racism and the Prison Industrial Complex that focuses on that focuses on the intersection of race, class and capitalism.

Raquel Rosario Sanchez is a Graduate Student at OSU who has been involved in the abolitionist movement and advocated against the death penalty for several years. She will speak about her late friend Wayne Holsey, who was executed by the state of Georgia on December 2014 and the importance of student activism agaisnt the death penalty and the crucial role that emphathy and compassion have in death penalty politics. 

We hope to see you there an look forward to continuing this conversation about the death penalty. 

In solidarity, 
Allied Students for Another Politics (ASAP!) and Oregonians for Alternatives the Death Penalty (OADP).