NDASK gathers experts
Jenn Metz
Issue date: 4/30/07 Section: News
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Notre Dame Against State Killing (NDASK) held a forum Saturday and Sunday called "Achieving the Inevitable: Ending the Death Penalty in Indiana" - giving speakers and students a chance to discuss, learn and focus on the developments the club has made over the past year.
A group of students formed NDASK last fall through the Center for Social Concerns with the goal of achieving a moratorium on the death penalty in Indiana by building a statewide network of support for the cause.
The conference this weekend was a conclusion to the club's work during its first year. NDASK has about 30 active student members and a newsletter readership of 200 working to fight the death penalty through education.
Speakers at the conference included top experts on the death penalty in Indiana. Priests and lawyers, like Father Tom McNally, a Holy Cross priest and volunteer chaplain at the Michigan City Prison, and Chris Hitz-Bradley of the Indiana Information Center on the Abolition of Capital Punishment spoke on campus this weekend.
Junior Andrea Laidman, co-director of NDASK, said the forum turned into an unexpected summit for these experts.
"They were all glad to have a chance to meet up," Laidman said. "The speakers seemed to learn a lot from each other and students had the chance to get more expertise and to get a framework together for next year."
Getting these different actors together is an important step, she said.
"In order to be successful, we need to integrate as one solid group of people with different beliefs and messages," Laidman said.
That integration is already taking place, Laidman said, citing the varying backgrounds of the forum's speakers. Some stand against the death penalty based on beliefs in criminal justice, she said, while others take a religious stance against state executions.
This weekend's events included a screening of "The Exonerated" and a keynote address by Paula Sites, assistant executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council. NDASK also held panel sessions entitled "The American Bar Association & Indiana: Moving toward a Moratorium," "Prison Ministry: Building Relationships with Death Row Inmates" and "Mental Illness and the Death Penalty: Arbitrary, Capricious and Inhumane."
A group of students formed NDASK last fall through the Center for Social Concerns with the goal of achieving a moratorium on the death penalty in Indiana by building a statewide network of support for the cause.
The conference this weekend was a conclusion to the club's work during its first year. NDASK has about 30 active student members and a newsletter readership of 200 working to fight the death penalty through education.
Speakers at the conference included top experts on the death penalty in Indiana. Priests and lawyers, like Father Tom McNally, a Holy Cross priest and volunteer chaplain at the Michigan City Prison, and Chris Hitz-Bradley of the Indiana Information Center on the Abolition of Capital Punishment spoke on campus this weekend.
Junior Andrea Laidman, co-director of NDASK, said the forum turned into an unexpected summit for these experts.
"They were all glad to have a chance to meet up," Laidman said. "The speakers seemed to learn a lot from each other and students had the chance to get more expertise and to get a framework together for next year."
Getting these different actors together is an important step, she said.
"In order to be successful, we need to integrate as one solid group of people with different beliefs and messages," Laidman said.
That integration is already taking place, Laidman said, citing the varying backgrounds of the forum's speakers. Some stand against the death penalty based on beliefs in criminal justice, she said, while others take a religious stance against state executions.
This weekend's events included a screening of "The Exonerated" and a keynote address by Paula Sites, assistant executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council. NDASK also held panel sessions entitled "The American Bar Association & Indiana: Moving toward a Moratorium," "Prison Ministry: Building Relationships with Death Row Inmates" and "Mental Illness and the Death Penalty: Arbitrary, Capricious and Inhumane."