Meet our Forum Keynote Speaker: Paula Sites

We're fortunate enough to have the Indiana Public Defender Council's Assistant Executive Director, Paula Sites, as our keynote speaker for our upcoming forum, Achieving the Inevitable: Ending the Death Penalty in Indiana. If you have not already done so, please register!


Paula Sites was born three days before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Birmingham, Alabama bus, and while she claims no direct memory of either event, both fill her with a measure of gratitude and wonder. She serves as Assistant Executive Director of the Indiana Public Defender Council, a statewide support center for public defenders.

Since 1990, she has provided training, consultation, and research assistance to attorneys representing capitally charged or sentenced clients throughout the state, and monitors the status of all capital cases filed in the state. In her capacity as Assistant Executive Director, she also works with a variety of organizations and government agencies to promote the fair administration of justice in Indiana, focusing on capital punishment as well as issues involving criminal defendants with mental illness, mental retardation, and developmental disabilities.

She recently served on the Indiana Assessment Team of the ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project. She is a past winner of the Indiana State Bar Association Women in the Law Achievement Award and the Amnesty International USA Indiana Abolitionist of the Year.

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Achieving the Inevitable: Ending the Death Penalty in Indiana

We are proud to finally announce our title --Achieving the Inevitable: Ending the Death Penalty in Indiana-- and schedule for the upcoming forum on April 27th-29th.

If you haven't already registered, click here to do so!

Click below to expand this post and see the schedule.

Friday, April 28

7:30 pm, Opening Remarks

8:00 pm, Screening of The Exonerated
(Jordan Auditorium)

Saturday, April 29

9:30 - 10:45, Breakfast and Keynote Address by Paula Sites, Assistant Executive Director of the Indiana Public Defender Council (Center for Social Concerns)

11- 12:15, Panel Session 1:

The American Bar Association & Indiana: Moving toward a Moratorium
(Room 121, Mendoza College of Business)

Prison Ministry: Building Relationships with Death Row Inmates
(Room 122, Mendoza)

Mental Illness and the Death Penalty: Arbitrary, Capricious and Inhumane
(Room L014B, Mendoza)

12:30 - 1, Presentations:

Indiana's Movement Against the Death Penalty
--Chris Hitz-Bradley, President, Indiana Information Center for the Abolition of Capital Punishment
(Room 121, Mendoza College of Business)

From Death to Detention: 18th Century Great Britain's Penal System as the End to Capital Punishment
--Professor Sean O’Brien, Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies
(Room 122, Mendoza)

Sane Punishment for the Mentally Ill
--Kathleen Bayes, Executive Director, National Alliance on Mental Illness – Fort Wayne
(Room L014B, Mendoza)

1-1:50, Working Lunch:

Group Discussions with Guest Speakers and Panelists on Students’ Role in the Movement for a Moratorium in Indiana

2-3:15, Panel Session 2:

The American Bar Association & Indiana: Moving toward a Moratorium
(Room 121, Mendoza College of Business)

The Role of Religion and Churches in Ending Indiana’s Death Penalty
(Room 122, Mendoza)

The Role of Indiana’s Media in the Movement for a Moratorium
(Room L014B, Mendoza)

3:30-4:30, Action and Information Session on the May 4th Execution of David Woods:

--Discussion of ND ASK’s planned response to the pending execution of David Woods, including a petition to Governor Mitch Daniels and a vigil at Michigan City prison. Also, Wanda Callahan, longtime spiritual adviser to David will speak to his rehabilitation and their twenty-year friendship.

7:30-9, Film Screening: The Thin Blue Line
(Jordan Auditorium)

9:15, Grotto Vigil:
--In remembrance of the victim of David Woods’ crime, Juan Placencia, and his family

Sunday, April 29

9:30 – 11, Breakfast and Closing Remarks:
(Oak Room, South Dining Hall)

Click here to register now!

Speakers and location subject to change. Updates will be sent to those registered for the forum and posted regularly on our blog.

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ND ASK Spring Forum Registration

ND ASK is proud to announce its first annual forum on the death penalty at which we will address the growing national trend towards moratoriums and abolition as well as the evolution of various legal issues. The primary focus will be how to harness and accelerate this national trend here in Indiana, moving public opinion as well as political capital towards the end of capital punishment.

The forum will feature several panel discussions on topics such as legal issues regarding mental illness and lethal injection, the importance of the media’s role in ending the death penalty, as well as a keynote speech by Assistant Executive Director of the Indiana Public Defenders Council, Paula Sites.

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