Field Trip Assignment - Learning from a Death Row Survivor

To: Students in the Law, Conscience and Nonviolence class

From: Colman McCarthy

I’ve arranged a lecture on Wednesday at 9:30 to 11 am at the Father McKenna Center at North Capitol and I (Eye) Streets, NW, in the basement of St. Aloysius Catholic Church. It’s a short walk (to the north) from the law school.

The speaker is Joseph Brown, who spent 14 years on Florida’s death row before being exonerated and found innocent. A young public interest lawyer--Richard Blumenthal, now the AG of Connecticut--did the appeals work.

The details of Joseph Brown’s story can be found on p. 249 in “Strength Through Peace.” He is one of 124 men released from death row in the past 20 years.

The possibilities for a paper are certainly here, using the Brown case as a way to explore the larger spectacle of wrongful convictions—plus the gradual shifting in public opinion against the death penalty in recent years, including several Supreme Court decisions regarding underage offenders and the mentally disabled.

I’m bring my high schools and university classes to the lecture. It’s no problem if you can come for only part of the talk and need to leave early.

I’m at 202 537-1372 if you have any questions.