Conference Schedule
Conference
Schedule
Wednesday,
June 6, 2001
Registration
5:00pm Opening of The Waiting Room
An interactive art installation based upon the waiting room of death
row San Quentin, CA
designed by San Francisco
artist, Richard Kamler.
McMullen Museum of Art, Devlin Hall
6:00pm Welcoming
Reception for MVFR members and other conference participants
Hosted by Fr.
Frank Herrmann, S.J., Boston College Law School and Rector of the Boston
College Jesuit Community and sponsored
by the BC Jesuit Community.
Gasson
Hall Rotunda and Gasson 100
Thursday,
June 7, 2001
8:00am Continental
breakfast
In dorm and Robsham Theatre
Lobby
9:00– 9:45am Welcome and
Overview
Robsham Theatre Lobby
ù Jennifer Bishop,
Chair of Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation
ù Chancellor J.
Donald Monan, S.J., Boston College
ù Mayor David B.
Cohen, Newton, MA
ù President Charles
C. Yancey, Boston City Council
ù Renny Cushing,
Executive Director, Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation
10:00-11:30am SESSION
1 WORKSHOPS
1A—Parallel Movements: The Victims’
Rights Movement and the Modern Abolitionist Movement - Can MVFR Be a
Bridge?
Robsham
Theatre
Facilitator: Prof.
Alan Rogers, Associate Professor, Department of History, Boston College
Presenters: Stephen Hawkins, National Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP)
Renny
Cushing, Executive Director, Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation (MVFR)
Marlene
Young, Executive Director, National Organization of Victims Assistance (NOVA)
Historically,
the death penalty abolition movement has focused on people on death row, and,
also historically, the victims’ rights movement has assumed that murder
victims’ family members want the death penalty. The panelists will reflect on the history of both movements and
explore the potential for future collaboration.
1B---Healing is a Process: Coping with Grief in the Aftermath of Murder
Devlin 216
This workshop
is open only to family members, the maximum number is 30 and participants must
sign-up at the registration desk.
Presenters: Rev. Walter Everett Pastor of United
Methodist Church, Hartford and MVFR
Board member
Maria Hines,
MVFR Board member
Ricardo
Villalobos, Deputy Director,
Council of Latino Agencies, MVFR Board member
Participants will have an opportunity to share ways they
have coped with grief after the loss of a loved one.
1C—Children and
Violence: A Special Workshop for Youth
Devlin 218
Presenters: Kristi
Smith, MVFR Member
Jennifer Bishop, Chair of MVFR Board
This workshop
is provided for youth to explore issues pertaining to children and violence and
ways to embrace peaceful living.
1D--Healing Art
- the creation of wheel of life mural(everyone)
Mezzanine/Cabaret
Room/Vanderslice Hall
Over the course of the conference artist-activist Suzanne
Boucher will be helping conference participants to create a mural in memory of
victims of murder and the death penalty.
Participants will be welcomed to come to the space of the creation at
any time to contribute their energies and to experience for themselves a
hands-on creative, contemplative meditation.
11:30am-1:00pm Lunch
McElroy Dining Hall
1:00-2:30pm SESSION
2 WORKSHOPS
2A—Restorative
Justice/Transformative Justice: The Vision and the Realization [Part 1]
Devlin 008
Film: Facing the Demons
Facilitator: Rodney
Petersen, Executive Director, Boston Theological Institute
Presenters: Tom Porter, Executive
Director, Just Peace Project, United Methodist
Church
Linda White,
MVFR Board member, Professor of Psychology and Philosophy, Sam Houston State
University
Jamie
Suarez Potts, Co-coordinator, New England American Friends Service Committee
Criminal Justice Program and MVFR member
Restorative justice represents a new way of thinking about justice -- a paradigm shift away from the conventional model of retribution. This panel will introduce conference participants to restorative justice and its legal, ethical, and theological foundations, and will report from the front lines of the movement.
2B—Prosecutors and Murder Victims’
Families: Beginning a Dialogue
McGuinn 121
Facilitator: Prof.
Michael Cassidy, Assoc. Dean for Administration, BC Law School
Presenters: Bill
Welch, Assistant United States Attorney in Massachusetts
Janet Fine,
Victim/Witness Program
SueZann
Bosler, MVFR member
Gus Lamm,
MVFR member
Ironically,
one of the most difficult and painful challenges that families of murder
victims may face in engaging with the legal system can be their dealing with
the office of the prosecutor. Among
prosecutors, there is frequently an unquestioned assumption that what the
bereaved family most needs and desires is that the accused be prosecuted to the
full extent of the law, including the death penalty if that is available. When that is not what families want, they
find themselves treated as “bad victims.”
This workshop hopes to open a dialogue between working prosecutors,
professors, students of the law, and murder victims’ families who oppose the
death penalty about what helps, what hurts, and what is possible.
2C—Families of the Executed: The
Invisible Victims
Devlin 218
Facilitator: Bill
Babbitt, MVFR Board member
Presenters: Lois and Ken Robison, MVFR
members
Robert
Meeropol, Executive Director, Rosenberg Fund for Children
This workshop provides family members of persons executed
in the U.S. an opportunity to share their own experience of the impact of the
death sentence on their lives and their relationship to the community.
2D—Healing
Art--The creation of wheel of life mural: the work
continues (especially
for small children; parents are encouraged to accompany their
children)
Mezzanine/Cabaret Room/Vanderslice
Hall
2:45-4:00pm Tree
Planting Ceremony
90 More Drive (near Robsham Theatre)
Afternoon
Plenary: Arun Gandhi
Robsham Theatre
4:15-5:45pm SESSION
3 WORKSHOPS
3A—Healing from
the Trauma of Witnessed Executions
Devlin 008
Facilitator: Marie
Deans, MVFR member
Presenters: Steve Earle, musician/writer and witness
to the execution of a prisoner in Texas
Carolyn
Metzler, Episcopal layperson who was personal chaplain to a prisoner executed
in South Carolina
Panelists
will draw on their own experiences of witnessing executions and working with
death row prisoners to share how the death penalty brutalizes everyone.
3B—Defense Attorneys and Murder
Victims’ Families: Exploring the
Possibilities and Dilemmas
Devlin 026
Facilitator: Kica
Matos, Federal Public Defender, Philadelphia, PA
Presenters: Paula Hutchinson, Nebraska
capital case attorney
Barbara
Keshen, New Hampshire Public Defender
Audrey Lamm,
MVFR member
Rev. Melodee Smith, Capital case attorney and United Church of Christ
minister
Panelists will explore ways attorneys committed to the
legal defense of persons accused of murder can work with families of murder
victims. Are there ways in which defense attorneys can responsibly and
appropriately take into account, for their client’s sake as much as for the
community’s sake, dynamics of restoration and forgiveness?
3C--Unsolved and Unresolved Cases:
What Happens When the Murderer Gets Away with the Crime?
Gasson 305
Facilitator: Mary
Gardner, MVFR member
Presenters: Andy
Pryor, MVFR member
George White,
MVFR member
Families face a special psychological, spiritual, and moral trauma when no one is brought to account for a murder.
3D—Healing Art - The creation of
wheel of life mural: the work continues (everyone)
Mezzanine/Cabaret
Room/Vanderslice Hall
3E—Restorative Justice: The Vision
and the Realization [Part 2]
McGuinn 121
Facilitator: Rodney
Petersen, Executive Director, Boston Theological Institute
Presenters: Prof.
Carolyn Boyes-Watson, Director of the Center for Restorative Justice, Suffolk
University
Linda White,
MVFR Board member, Professor of Psychology and Philosophy, Sam Houston State
University
Jamie
Suarez Potts, Co-coordinator, New England American Friends Service Committee
Criminal Justice Program and MVFR member
Ricardo
Villalobos, Deputy Director,
Council of Latino Agencies, MVFR Board member
This panel will continue the discussion begun in
Session 2A (attendance in 2A not required to participate in 3E).
5:45-8:00pm Dinner
McElroy Dining Hall
Participants
arrange on their own or by special interest and needs
(message board available)
8:00-11:00pm Family
Concert
Robsham Theatre
Performances by Steve Earle, Karen Brandow and Charlie King
Hip Hop and break dancing (all
conference participants and guests invited; open to the public for $10.00)
Friday,
June 8, 2001
8:00am Continental
breakfast
In dorm and Robsham Theatre
Lobby
8:45- 9:00am Greetings
His Eminence Bernard Cardinal
Law, Archdiocese of Boston
9:00-10:30am Morning
Plenary—Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Re-imaging Alternatives to Violence
Robsham Theatre
Facilitator: Ray
Helmick, S.J., Boston College Department of Theology
Presenters: Prof. Martha Minow, Harvard Law School,
author of Between Violence and
Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence
Rabbi Marc
Gopin, Fletcher School of Diplomacy, author of Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence
and Peace Making
Presenters
will share lessons they have learned about breaking cycles of
retribution at the societal level. Many of these lessons are relevant to
advocacy against the death penalty and to healing the wounds of murder within
our own society.
10:45-12:15pm SESSION 4 WORKSHOPS
4A—Ending the Epidemic of Violence
Robsham Theatre
Facilitator: Prof.
Alberto Godenzi, Dean, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work
Presenter: James
Gilligan, M.D., author of Violence:
Reflections on a National Epidemic, was for 15 years involved as a psychiatrist
with the penal system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Dr.
Gilligan’s presentation will examine
the roots of violence in shame and abuse and
critically
consider how the present practices of retributive justice, including the call
for the
death
penalty, prevent us from seeing and addressing solutions.
4B—Do I have to Forgive? What is the Difference Between Forgiveness
and Reconciliation?
Devlin 008
Facilitator: John
McDargh, Boston College Department of Theology
Presenters: Bill
Pelke, Director of Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing and MVFR
member
Tom
Lowenstein, MVFR member
Sally Peck,
MVFR member
Aba Gayle,
MVFR member
4C—How to tell your story – public
speaking on painful issues
Devlin 216
Facilitator: June Post, MVFR member
Presenters: George White, Board member of
Journey of Hope, From Violence to Healing
and
MVFR member
Earnest
James, MVFR member
Celeste
Dixon, MVFR member
Presenters
discuss the importance of sharing messages of opposition to the death penalty,
and talk about how best to go about it.
Presenters will also talk about their own journeys of reconciliation and
forgiveness.
4D—Healing Art - The creation of
wheel of life mural: the work continues (age 12-adult)
Mezzanine/Cabaret
Room/Vanderslice Hall
4E—Effective Victim Involvement in Death
Penalty Cases
McGuinn 121
Facilitator: Tammy
Krause, Federal Defender Program, Atlanta, GA
Presenters: Bud Welch, MVFR Board member
Audrey Lamm,
MVFR member
Sheila
Rockwell, MVFR member
12:15--1:00pm Lunch--on your own
1:15--2:00pm Afternoon Plenary--From Grief to
Action: A Conversation with Azim
Khamisa
Robsham Theatre
Azim Khamisa’s only son Tariq, age 20, was murdered by an
eighth grader, Tony Hicks, in San Diego. In his
book Azim’s Bardo: A Father’s Journey from Murder to Forgiveness, Azim
Khamisa describes his developing relationship with Tony’s grandfather Ples
Felix with whom he has created an outreach program to adolescents vulnerable to
gang recruitment and violence in Southern California.
2:15-4:00pm SESSION
5 WORKSHOPS
5A—Victim-Offender Mediation:
Possible Models
Devlin 216
Facilitator: Linda White, MVFR Board member,
Professor of Psychology and
Philosophy, Sam Houston State University
Participants: Don
and Mary Streufert, MVFR members
Sue Norton, MVFR member
Kristi Smith, MVFR member
There are no ABC’s for bringing together murderers and the victim’s families, but
there are models of possibility
that can be shared and explored and
that provide
possible guidelines for social
workers, families, mediators and pastoral workers.
5B—The Long Work of Healing from
Trauma – Bringing together the knowledge of families and social workers
McGuinn 121
Facilitator: Dorothy
Weitzman, LICSW, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work
Presenters: Lynn
Sanford, LICSW, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work
Karen
Robblee, Alpha Resource Center, MA
Marie Deans,
MVFR member and Mitigation specialist
Social
workers and MVFR families will explore the role social workers can play in
helping to heal the trauma that results from murder.
5C—Healing Within the Walls: The
View from Death Row and the Life Sentenced
Devlin 026
Facilitator: Prof.
(Emeritus) Bob Castagnola, LICSW, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work
Presenters: Kerry
Cook, former Texas death row prisoner wrongfully convicted and MVFR member
William
Nieves, former Pennsylvania death row prisoner wrongfully convicted
Aundre
Herron, Attorney with California Appellate Project and MVFR member
Former death
row inmates and anti-death-penalty practitioners will share the impact the
death penalty had on them and their family members.
5D—How Art Heals
Devlin 008
Facilitator: Charlie
King and Karen
Brandow, Musicial composers and performers
Presenters: Lily
Yeh, Director, Village Arts and Humanities, Philadelphia, PA
John Wunjo, Poet,
Cambridge, MA
Phyllis
Kornfeld, Artist and teacher
Suzanne
Boucher, Muralist and Artist
A discussion of how art can be used as a way of healing the wounds of
murder.
5E—Publishing our Stories
Devlin 218
Facilitator: Susannah
Sheffer, Writer in residence at MVFR
Presenters: Antoinette Bosco, author, Choosing Mercy: A Mother of
Murder Victims
Pleads to End the
Death Penalty
Sam Sheppard,
author, Mockery of Justice
Azim Khamisa,
author, Azim’s Bardo: A Father’s Journey from
Murder to Forgiveness
Greg Gibson,
author, Goneboy: A Walkabout
Bill Jenkins,
author, What to Do When the Police Leave
Presenters
share the challenges involved in publishing their stories and the impact their stories have had on others.
5F—The Death Penalty and the Legislative
Process
Gasson 305
Facilitator: Tom Lowenstein,
Former political director of the Massachusetts Citizens Against The Death
Penalty
Presenters: Wayne Smith, Executive Director, The Justice
Project, Washington, DC
Michelle Giger, CEO
of the Center for Civic Values and MVFR member
This workshop
will focus on ways that murder victim family members have and can affect the
legislative efforts. It will also
present legislative strategies that are underway around the government.
4:00–
5:30 pm Affinity Group Gatherings,
facilitated conversations
·
Social Workers and
Mental Health Professionals Working with Murder Victims’ Families (Dorothy
Weitzman) Devlin 216
·
The Unique Challenge
for Law Enforcement Family Members (Maria Hines)
Devlin 218
·
Murder within the
Family (Lorry Post)
Devlin 227
·
Families of the
executed and imprisoned (Bill Babbitt)
Devlin 117
·
“Research
Roundtable,” an opportunity for researchers in the area of trauma, violence,
reconciliation, restorative justice and related topics to share work in
progress and discuss the contribution of scholarship to “healing the wounds of
murder.” Led by Prof. Hugo Kamya, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work
and Linda White, Sam Houston University
Devlin 221
·
Healing
Art - The creation of wheel of life mural”
Mezzanine/Cabaret Room/Vanderslice Hall
Additional affinity groups can be developed on
site.
Meet
the Authors: (Authors will be available to sign their books)
Antoinette Bosco, Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death
Penalty
Sam Sheppard, Mockery of Justice
Azim Khamisa, Azim’s Bardo: A Father’s
Journey from Murder to Forgiveness
Greg Gibson, Goneboy: A Walkabout
Bill Jenkins, What to Do When the Police Leave
Sr. Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking
Carolyn Baker, Journey of
Forgiveness
Ray Helmick, S.J. and Rodney
Petersen, Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Religion, Public
Policy and Conflict Transformation
5:30-7:30pm Family Style Barbecue
Campus Green (Rain location:
McElroy Dining Hall)
8:00-9:30pm A
Ceremony of Remembrance (Creating a “Tree of Life”)
Robsham Theatre
Music provided by Emily Tyson
Saturday,
June 9, 2001
8:00 Continental
breakfast
In dorm and Robsham Theatre Lobby
9:00-10:30am Morning
Plenary—Challenging an Eye for an Eye: Spiritual Foundations for Reconciliation
Robsham Theatre
Facilitator: Prof.
Hugo Kamya, Boston College Graduate School of Social Work
Presenters: Antoinette
Bosco, Roman Catholic spiritual writer, author of Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victim\s Pleads to End the Death
Penalty and MVFR member
Pat
Clark, Coordinator of the Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty
Project, American Friends Service Committee and MVFR member
The Canon Reverend Ed Rodman, Episcopal Diocese of Boston
There are frequently strongly held religious convictions
that are used to legitimize a policy of state executions, and deeper still a
belief that the profound rupture of violence cannot be healed except by further
violence. Are there are other religious and political ways of living that can
be pointed to as signs of an alternative approach to the trauma of murder,
within families, within cultures, within nations? Plenary presentation will explore both the theological and
existential face of an alternative to retributive violence.
10:45-12:15 pm SESSION 6 WORKSHOPS
6A—Spiritual
Resources for Healing the Wounds of Murder
McGuinn 121
Facilitator: Prof.
John McDargh, Boston College Department of Theology
Presenter: Robin
Casarjian, Founder of the Lionheart Foundation Prison Project
Sam Sheppard,
MVFR member
Azim Khamisa, President and Founder of the Tariq Khamisa
Foundation nd MVFR Board member
Participants share the spiritual resources they have drawn on to
overcome the
wounds of murder.
6B—Can We Talk? When the Death
Penalty Divides Families and Communities
Devlin 008
Facilitator: Jennifer
Bishop, Chair, Board of MVFR
Presenters: Johnnie Carter, MVFR member
Lois and Ken
Robison, MVFR members
Bill Jenkins,
author, What to do When the Police Leave
Lee
Bishop, Father of a murder victim
Family
members sometimes react differently when murder occurs in their midst. Presenters will share their journeys and the
difficulties that can occur when the grief takes on different forms.
6C--No One Is Untouched: A Clinical
Psychologist’s Perspective on the Impact of the Death Penalty on All Involved
Gasson 305
Presenters: Dr.
David Lisak, Clinical psychologist
Adele Clark, Nurse
and wife of an executed death row prisoner
This workshop will examine the impact of the death penalty on those who
are
most intimately affected by executions.
6D—Healing Art - The creation of
wheel of life mural: the work continues (open to everyone)
Mezzanine/Cabaret
Room/Vanderslice Hall
6E—How to Build
a Support Group
Devlin 216
Presenters: Pat Bane, Former Executive Director of MVFR
Maria Hines, MVFR Board member
6F—Working with the Media
Devlin 218
Presenters: Brenda Bowser, Communications Director,
Death Penalty Information
Center
Peter Loge, Director of The Campaign for
Criminal Justice Reform, The
Justice Project
The presenters will share
helpful information for people interested in learning to
communicate their messages more effectively.
6G--Children and
Violence: A Special Workshop for Youth
Devlin 218
Presenters: Kristi
Smith, MVFR member
Tina Chery, Founder, Louis D. Brown
Peace Institute and MVFR member
This workshop
is provided for youth to explore issues pertaining to children and violence and
ways to embrace peaceful living.
12:15-1:00pm Lunch—on your own
1:15-2:00pm Afternoon
Plenary—Beyond Oklahoma City
Robsham Theatre
Presenter: Bud Welch, father of Julie Marie Welch, who
was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing
2:15–4:00pm SESSION 7 WORKSHOPS
7A—Walking the Last Mile: Lessons from Companioning the Executed
Robsham Theatre
Facilitator: Marie
Deans, Founder of MVFR, Death penalty mitigation specialist
Presenters: Rev. Joe Ingle, United Church of Christ
chaplain, Nashville, TN
Sister Helen Prejean, Spiritual advisor to death row inmates
Presenters
will share their experiences and the gifts they’ve received as spiritual
advisors and/or friends to those on death row.
7B—Survivors Creating Alternative
Models for Healing and Remembrance
Devlin 008
Facilitator: Prof. Vincent Lynch, Boston
College Department of Social Work
Presenters: Tina Chery, Founder of the Louis D.
Brown Peace Institute and MVFR member
Clementine
Barfield-Dye, Founder, ,SOSAD (“Save Our Sons and Daughters”) and MVFR member
Steve Young, activist, Million Mom
March
This workshop will focus on
ways family members of murder moved beyond their
grief to create positive ways to honor their loved ones.
7C—The Journey of Forgiveness: An
Experiential Workshop
Gasson 305
Presenter: Carolyn Baker,
author of the book The Journey of
Forgiveness
This workshop will focus on what is forgiveness? Is it the
same as forgetting? What are the right
reasons to forgive? How do I know if I
have truly forgiven? Is forgiveness something I can “will” to make happen or is
it a gift? Is it a one-time event or a process? What if the offender is not
willing to be accountable? What if I
don’t want to forgive? The workshop
explores our questions and fears regarding the issue of forgiveness and offers
supportive, healing options for the journey of forgiveness.
7D---Healing Art - The creation of
wheel of life mural: the work continues (open to everyone)
Mezzanine/Cabaret
Room/Vanderslice Hall
7E—Building the
Effective MVFR Chapter
Devlin 026
Facilitator: Kate
Lowenstein, MVFR National Organizer
Presenters: Renny
Cushing, Executive Director, MVFR
Michelle
Giger, CEO, Center for Civic Values, New Mexico MVFR
Betsy
Fairbanks, Board Member MVFR
Doris Macha, Kansas MVFR
7F—Supporting and Helping Victims
Through the Legal System: Protecting
Families from a Second Trauma
McGuinn 121
Facilitator: Jeanne Bishop, Public defender
and MVFR Board member
Presenters: Gus
Lamm, MVFR member
Bill Jenkins,
author of What to do When the Police Leave
6:00pm BANQUET
A CELEBRATION OF THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF MVFR
McElroy Dining Room
Piioneer Voice Awards: Honoring
MVFR founder, incorporators and past board members
GUEST SPEAKER: Sr. Helen
Prejean, CSJ “Walking Through the Fire”
Music by
Charlie King and Karen Brandow provide
Sunday, June 10, 2001
8:00am Continental
breakfast
In dorm and Robsham Theatre
Lobby
9:30-11:00am Closing Ceremony—A Time for Remembrance, Recommitment
and Hope
Bapst Lawn (Rain location: Gasson 100)
·
Concluding
Remarks—Renny Cushing
·
Dedication of the
Conference Mural—Suzanne Boucher
Resource People include:
Tim and Myrna Bullock, Spiritwalkers
Sister
Clare Carter-Buddhist Peace Pagoda
Cantor Jim Levinson
John
and Karrie Schushardt