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.