Video: Bud Welch's Lecture at ND
In this brief clip, Mr. Welch explains the background of his visit with Bill McVeigh (Timothy McVeigh's father).
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Conversion to Moratorium: The Chicago Tribune and the Illinois Death Penalty
Bruce Dold, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and Editorial Page Editor of the Chicago Tribune, comes to ND this week as the third speaker in ND ASK's fall lecture series. Mr. Dold will adress the Tribune's role in the Illinois moratorium process and speak about his personal conversion and the editorial page's conversion on the death penalty, at 7:30 pm on Monday, Nov. 5 in the Hammes Student Lounge in Coleman-Morse.
Please click below for more about Mr. Dold.
Mr. Dold joined the Tribune in 1978 as a reporter. He covered the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns and the mayoral campaigns of Harold Washington and Richard M. Daley. He was appointed to the Tribune’s editorial board in 1990 and became deputy editor of the board in 1995. That same year, he began writing a weekly column that appeared on the Commentary page of the Tribune. He was named editorial page editor of the 155-year-old newspaper in July, 2000.
Mr. Dold received the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1994 for a series on the death of a three-year-old boy and the failure of the juvenile court and child welfare system to save the child. His writing contributed to sweeping reforms in the protection and care of abused children in Illinois.
He received the 1999 Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for Commentary, the 1999 Herman Kogan Award for Commentary from the Chicago Bar Association, and the 1988 Peter Lisagor Award for public service from the Chicago Headline Club. He served as a Pulitzer Prize juror in 1997 and 1998. His work has been honored by numerous civic organizations.
Under his direction, the Tribune editorial page has received more than dozen major awards, including the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for editorials demanding reform of the death penalty system.
He has often appeared on national television and radio programs, including Nightline, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Hardball with Chris Mathews.
Mr. Dold received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism in 1977 and a Master of Science in Journalism in 1978 from Northwestern University and has served as an instructor at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.
In his own words
Bud Welch describes his experience following the death of his daughter:
“I was opposed to the death penalty all my life until my daughter Julie Marie was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. For many months after the bombing I could have killed Timothy McVeigh myself. Temporary insanity is real, and I have lived it. You can’t think of enough adjectives to describe the rage, revenge, and hate I felt. But after time, I was able to examine my conscience, and I realized that if McVeigh is put to death, it won’t help me in the healing process. People talk about executions bringing closure. But how can there be closure when my little girl is never coming back. I finally realized that the death penalty is all about revenge and hate, and revenge and hate are why Julie Marie and 167 others are dead.”
Mr. Welch will be speaking at Notre Dame this week, on Nov. 7 at 8 pm in the CSC Classroom; on Nov. 8 at 12 noon in the Law School and on Nov. 8 at 7:30 pm in the Hesburgh Center.
"Vengeance Solves No Problems"
Bud Welch lost his 23-year old daughter in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. In the months after her death, he changed from supporting the death penalty to taking a public stand against it, inspired in part by his daughter's stance against the death penalty prior to her own murder.
Mr. Welch will be speaking at Notre Dame this week, on Nov. 7 at 8 pm in the CSC Classroom, on Nov. 8 at 12 noon in the Law School and on Nov. 8 at 7:30 pm in the Hesburgh Center. Click below for more.
Mr. Welch has testified before the U.S. Congress, many State Senate and House Judiciary Committees, made numerous radio and TV appearances, and met frequently with the father of Timothy McVeigh. He has addressed the British Parliament and the European Parliament as part of the Amnesty International Journey of Hope in Paris, London and Brussels.
His work as a speaker and advocate has been widely recognized. In 1997 Mr. Welch was awarded the "Champion of Justice Award" by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He was given the "Abolitionist of the Year Award" in 1998 by the Okalahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, the "Felton Humanitarian Award" from Death Penalty Focus of California, the "Spirit of Compassion Award" of the Prison Action Committee in Buffalo, New York and the ACLU Oklahoma Foundation "Anti-Death Penalty/Prison Project Award." In 1999 Mr. Welch received the "Abolitionist of the Year Award" from the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. And in 2002, he was named "Abolitionist of the Year" by Coloradans Against the Death Penalty.
Friday, October 26, 2007
National Update: Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Nevada and Virginia stay executions
The past week has once again included numerous stayed and postponed executions across the nation. Georgia and Texas each stayed two, while Alabama, Nevada and Virginia each halted one execution--for a variety of reasons, the most frequent being the pending challenge to lethal injection.
Expand this post below to see a listing of the dates of each stay, with links to news articles relating the full stories.
10/24 - The scheduled execution of Daniel Siebert in Alabama was stayed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals: Execution of Ill Alabama Inmate Blocked (source: The Associated Press)
10/23 - Georgia stays two executions in four days: Top Court in Georgia Again Delays Execution (source: The New York Times)
10/18 - Two executions in Texas postponed: Two Executions Halted Over Challenges (source: The Associated Press)
10/18 - Virginia halts execution, raising more questions about national state of the death penalty: Supreme Court Halts Va. Inmate's Execution (source: The Washington Post)
10/17 - Nevada becomes the fifth state to stay an execution since Sept. 25: Court Stays Execution in Nevada (source: The New York Times)
Sorry for our blackout
Dear ND ASK readers,
Our apologies for the technical difficulties and lack of posts you may have noticed if you've been visiting the site lately. We've cleared up some problems, and will continue to cover state and national death penalty news--there's plenty of it right now--as well as ND ASK events.
There are three more excellent speakers in our fall lectures series, so we hope to see you at an event soon!
Thank you for your continued support,
Andrea & the ND ASK team
Monday, October 8, 2007
Bush clashes with Texas on the execution of a Mexican National
According to the Associated Press, President George W. Bush has tried to halt the execution of a Mexican national on death row in Texas, Jose Ernesto Medellin (pictured to the left), whose case is to be heard by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Read more in The Guardian which reports, "It puts Mr Bush in the unusual position of arguing against the death penalty and against the very same Texans who helped put him in the White House. Even more unusually, it puts Mr Bush on the same side of the dispute as the International Court of Justice in The Hague."
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Lethal Injection: Recent developments
A number of developments have occurred in the last week, following the Sept. 26 decision of the Supreme Court to hear a challenge to lethal injection sometime this winter. Below, starting with the most recent, is a review of the big decisions and stays-of-execution:
Oct. 4: Oklahoma’s attorney general asked the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals not to set any execution dates until the United States Supreme Court ruled on a challenge to the lethal injection method.
Oct. 2: The Texas Court of Appeals stayed the execution of Heliberto Chi, pending the decision by the US Supreme Court on lethal injection. Some legal experts in Texas view the decision by Texas' highest appeals court and the issues it raised as an indefinite halting of all executions in the state, though Texas officials claim they plan to proceed. See the New York Times for more.
Sept. 28: The US Supreme Court granted a rare stay of execution to a Texas inmate, Carlton Turner, Jr., who had appealed to the Court due to the pending lethal injection hearing. According to the New York Times, "The decision suggests that until it issues a ruling on lethal injection, the court may be receptive to requests to delay such executions, at least for defendants whose cases raise no procedural issues."
Sept. 28: Another rare stay of an execution by Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, who said the state would not execute inmate Tommy Arthur, while it came up with a new formula for lethal injection. State officials said they wanted to make sure prisoners were completely unconscious before they were killed--an issue that has been problematic in recent months and has temporarily halted executions in several states, including Florida.
Judicial Update: Supreme Court to hear lethal injection challenge
On Sept. 26, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by two Kentucky death row inmates, who claim that lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and is therefore unconstitutional under the 8th amendment.
Current challenges to lethal injection have effectively stopped executions in a growing number of states, including California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
37 of the 38 death penalty states all use lethal injection (except Nebraska, which still uses the electric chair).
According to the New York Times, "Lethal injection was adopted in the 1980s as a more palatable alternative to electrocution, but it has proven increasingly troublesome. Leading medical organizations have told their members not to participate, and lawyers for death-row inmates have produced evidence showing that in the absence of expert medical attention, there is a substantial risk of error in administering the combination of anesthesia and paralyzing drugs necessary to bring about a quick and painless death."
The Times also reports, "The Supreme Court case will be argued in January or February and decided by early next summer. While it is pending, judges around the country are certain to be asked to bar executions in those states that are not already under an official or de facto moratorium."
Read the Sept. 26 piece, "Justices to Enter the Debate Over Lethal Injection," for more and continue to check this site for updates.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
