The City Sentinel of Oklahoma City reports, "Rob Warden, co-founder of Center on Wrongful Convictions, believes death penalty abolition is possible." It's written by Darla Shelden. Here's an extended excerpt from the beginning:
The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP) and the University of Central Oklahoma’s American Democracy Project recently co-hosted two events on the UCO campus in Edmond.
The Coalition’s 23rd Annual Membership Meeting and Awards Dinner featured guest speaker Rob Warden, executive director and co-founder of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law.
An award-winning legal affairs writer, Warden is the author of numerous books, articles and commentaries on criminal justice issues. He joined with Northwestern University Law Professor Lawrence C. Marshall to start the Center on Wrongful Convictions in 1999.
“In November of 1998, we got 29 people together from around the country that had been released from death rows,” Warden said. “The highlight of the conference was this plenary session when we had each of these people walk across the stage and say something like ‘My name is Greg Wilhoit, and if the state of Oklahoma had its way, I’d be dead today.’
“When it was over Marshall said, ‘Let them tell us that their death penalty works.’ The audience came to a standing ovation. I was sitting on the front row with my wife and I said, ‘I think we’re going to abolish the death penalty.’”
The Center identifies and works to rectify wrongful convictions. It has been instrumental in more than 30 exonerations. Under Warden’s leadership, the Center led the public education effort that culminated in Governor George Ryan’s decision to grant clemency to all Illinois death row prisoners in 2003.
Earlier coverage from Oklahoma begins at the link. Related posts are in the activism and exoneration category indexes.
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