Update from ND ASK Director

Dear ND ASK members and readers,

In the past six weeks, we’ve been silent on this blog, due to the end of the school year at ND. The months of May and June brought transitions out of South Bend and travel to homes and jobs across the country and world for many of ND ASK’s members.

ND ASK co-founder and co-director, Will McAuliffe, graduated with the class of 2007. While he has left Notre Dame, his work on the death penalty in Indiana is just beginning. He will continue his contributions to this blog, and to our organization’s objectives and actions.

I will continue to run ND ASK on campus and across Indiana, putting together a central committee of students to lead the campaign and expand our efforts state-wide.

The past six weeks, both in Indiana and abroad, have included many events to note—some are hopeful to those who share our goals, while others must be viewed as further motivation to continue working against the death penalty.

On June 8, the parliament of Rwanda voted to abolish the death penalty.
One week later, on June 15, the state of Indiana executed Michael Lambert.

The contrast between these two events—the commutation of death sentences of hundreds of prisoners indicted in the Rwanda genocide and the failure of the Indiana justice system to grant life without parole, a sentence with a possibility of rehabilitation, to the second inmate killed in our state this year—indicates the need for a different dialogue on violence and the dignity of persons in Indiana.

With this post, ND ASK will again provide frequent coverage of capital punishment-related developments in Indiana and elsewhere. We will share campaign updates throughout the summer as we build our calendar and plan of action for the coming academic year. We will continue to address both sides of violence in our work for a moratorium on executions in the state of Indiana, working towards the prevention of violence before it occurs and an entrenched attitude of rehabilitation following tragedy.

Thank you for your continued support,
Andrea Laidman
Director, ND ASK
alaidman@nd.edu