Archive for Friday, April 10, 2009
Death penalty critic, KU program to receive peace and justice awards
April 10, 2009
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One of the state’s biggest death penalty critics and a Kansas University program dedicated to resolving human conflict among world cultures will receive peace and justice awards this month.
The Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice will give the 2009 Tom and Ann Moore Peace and Justice Awards to Rebecca Woodman, an attorney with the Kansas Capital Appellate Defender Office, and KU’s peace and conflict studies program.
“I think it’s very fitting that Lawrence is the home of the peace and justice award, given the city’s roots in the abolitionist movement against slavery,” said Woodman, a Lawrence resident since 1998.
The coalition will present the awards during a public potluck dinner and ceremony from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 23 at the Lawrence Union Pacific Depot, 402 N. Second St.
Through the peace and conflict studies program, where KU students can earn a minor, faculty from different departments teach courses.
“Its aim is to offer a concentrated program of study of one of the most central and urgent of human issues: the causes and consequences of human conflict and the achievements and possibilities of building peaceful and equitable forms of social coexistence,” the peace and justice coalition wrote in a statement about the award.
Woodman has dedicated her career to trying to abolish the death penalty, and she has argued capital punishment cases before the Kansas and U.S. supreme courts.
The Kansas Senate this year sent a bill to in effect abolish the state’s death penalty back to committee, and it could come up again next year. Woodman said the capital punishment system has several problems including its cost and being “applied disproportionately towards minorities and other disadvantaged groups.”
“It doesn’t really contribute to justice because of all the problems associated with it,” she said.
The awards recognizes community members for their efforts to promote peace and justice on a local, national or international level. All Douglas County residents are eligible for nomination.
More like this
- Kansas attorney general opposes efforts to abolish death penalty 25 comments / February 18, 2009
- Death sentence is overturned May 17, 2008
- Kansas death penalty survives but will be studied for possible repeal 5 comments / March 16, 2009
- Lawrence attorneys to fight death penalty 39 comments / November 21, 2005
- Death penalty opponents introduce bill to abolish executions based on cost 44 comments / February 5, 2009
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