FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (1/05)
Contact: Dr. Christopher Ciocchetti, 318-869-5246, or Lynn Stewart or Jennifer Hayes, Centenary News Service, 318-869-5120

Social, Philosophical Forum to Address the Death Penalty Feb 4, 10 & 24 in Public Sessions at Centenary College

	Stuart Banner, legal historian and UCLA law professor

SHREVEPORT, LA — The Forum, a joint project of three Centenary College organizations, will address the death penalty during a three-part public series beginning Feb. 4 at Centenary.

It will begin with a presentation by legal historian Stuart Banner and will be followed Feb. 10 with a pro-con session featuring local lawyers Hugo Holland and Henry Walker. On Feb. 24, Centenary students will present responses. All three sessions are free and open to the community and high school sutdents.

“Each year, for a month, the campus turns its attention to a social issue. We choose the topic and invite speakers to present opposing points of views, but in the end, the students have the last word,” said Dr. Christopher Ciocchetti, assistant professor of philosophy.

The three public events will address key issues regarding the death penalty: Does the death penalty serve a useful purpose in modern society or is it a relic of a less civilized past? Does the death penalty express our worst impulses to hatred, revenge and violence or is it a necessary part of doing justice to both criminals and victims?

Banner, professor of law at the University of California in Los Angeles and author of The Death Penalty: an American History, will discuss the historical aspects of the death penalty at 11 a.m. Feb. 4 in Kilpatrick Auditorium in the Smith Building.

Holland, chief of the Caddo district attorney's Homicide and Sex Crimes Investigations Section, and Henry Walker, past president of the State Criminal Defense Bar, will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 in the Anderson Auditorium located in the Hurley Music Building.

Centenary students voice their responses to the speakers’ theories during the Student Response Forum at 11 a.m. Feb 24 in Kilpatrick Auditorium.

The Forum at Centenary is a joint project of the Sociology Honor Society, Alpha Kappa Delta; the Philosophy Discussion Group; and the History Honor Society, Phi Alpha Theta, with assistance from the Convocations Subcommittee and the Women’s Endowment Quorum. The previous Forum examined “Race.”

For further information, contact Dr. Ciocchetti, Department of Philosophy; Dr. Karin Breuer, Department of History; or Dr. Michelle Wolkomir, Department of Sociology at Centenary, 318-869-5011.

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