NDASK applauds report
Kaitlynn Riely
Issue date: 2/21/07 Section: News
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The American Bar Association's (ABA) release of a report calling for Indiana to impose a moratorium on executions less than six months after the creation of Notre Dame Against State Killing (NDASK) might be "divine providence," said co-organizer Will McAuliffe.
The student group formed last fall to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in Indiana - and on Tuesday it came a step closer to that goal. The ABA released its report urging the state to halt executions until changes can be made to improve the administration of death penalty cases.
McAuliffe, who is also an Observer columnist, called the findings of the report a "stepping stone" to ending use of the death penalty.
The Indiana Death Penalty Assessment Team, a panel working under the guidance of the ABA, reviewed Indiana's death penalty system for nearly two years. Indiana is the fifth state to be assessed under ABA's Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project.
The seven members of the panel - including former Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan, an adjunct professor in Notre Dame's political science department, and Indiana Sen. John Broden, D-South Bend - listed 12 changes Indiana should make to its death penalty system to make it fair and accurate.
The changes, which NDASK endorsed, included requiring law enforcement agencies to record all interrogations, banning the execution of defendants with severe mental illnesses and requiring that biological evidence is preserved the entire time the defendant is imprisoned.
NDASK co-organizer Andrea Laidman said the debate about the use of death penalty is just starting to take place nationally and is now taking root in the Midwest, specifically Indiana.
"I think the reason that we started NDASK was because no one was talking about the issue on campus and across the state as a whole," Laidman said.
But with the speaker series NDASK sponsored in the fall - which included Kernan and Broden - and now with the release of this report, Laidman and McAuliffe hope people will start talking about the death penalty.
The student group formed last fall to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in Indiana - and on Tuesday it came a step closer to that goal. The ABA released its report urging the state to halt executions until changes can be made to improve the administration of death penalty cases.
McAuliffe, who is also an Observer columnist, called the findings of the report a "stepping stone" to ending use of the death penalty.
The Indiana Death Penalty Assessment Team, a panel working under the guidance of the ABA, reviewed Indiana's death penalty system for nearly two years. Indiana is the fifth state to be assessed under ABA's Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project.
The seven members of the panel - including former Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan, an adjunct professor in Notre Dame's political science department, and Indiana Sen. John Broden, D-South Bend - listed 12 changes Indiana should make to its death penalty system to make it fair and accurate.
The changes, which NDASK endorsed, included requiring law enforcement agencies to record all interrogations, banning the execution of defendants with severe mental illnesses and requiring that biological evidence is preserved the entire time the defendant is imprisoned.
NDASK co-organizer Andrea Laidman said the debate about the use of death penalty is just starting to take place nationally and is now taking root in the Midwest, specifically Indiana.
"I think the reason that we started NDASK was because no one was talking about the issue on campus and across the state as a whole," Laidman said.
But with the speaker series NDASK sponsored in the fall - which included Kernan and Broden - and now with the release of this report, Laidman and McAuliffe hope people will start talking about the death penalty.