UNiMUT aktuell: When the state kills

Mit Studiengebühren gegen die Todesstrafe

When the state kills (12.05.2008)

Michael Schiffmann führt bereits zum zweiten Mal ein Seminar gegen die Todesstrafe durch und bittet darum, die Informationen über das Seminar zu verbreiten.

Nachfolgend findet sich die Beschreibung des Workshops "When the State Kills - Live From Death Row II." Vermutlich, dies klärt sich in den nächsten Tagen, gibt es für den Besuch der Veranstaltunge auch einen Proseminarschein. Allerdings - so Michael Schiffmann - muss man dafür auch wirklich arbeiten (ist das in der Anglistik nicht in allen Workshops üblich?). Das Treffen zur Konstituierung der Arbeitsgruppe findet am Freitag, 16.Mai, 16.00 im Anglistischen Seminar, Raum 114 statt. Auf diesem Treffen wird der weitere Zeitplan festgelegt. Die Verantaltung findet offenbar auf Englisch statt, die Ankündigung liegt der Redaktion nur auf Deutsch vor.

Last winter, means approved by the Studiengebührenkommission allowed for the first screening in Germany of the film "In Prison My Whole Life,” a British documentary on the ordeal of the U.S. death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The number of visitors -- over 140 -- clearly showed the amount of interest in the topic, as did my seminar "Live From Death Row” in the preceding summer.

This summer, thanks once more to the commission mentioned above, I'm able to offer an intensive follow-up workshop on the death penalty in the United States -- "Live From Death Row II, so to speak, which, since it begins right in the semester, will both take place at a regular date to be determined and include several block seminars.

In this workshop, students interested in the reality of the death penalty in the United States will be assigned the task -- and have the opportunity -- to

to do own original research concerning actual death penalty cases

assemble and by themselves evaluate existing research

think about ways to convey their findings to a larger public

Even though this workshop will employ the scientific method to sift through and evaluate all the relevant facts, in one sense it will not be "neutral.” Just as the European Union and, by now, the majority of the world's states, it takes a stance against the death penalty. The specific cases we will be researching and evaluating in order to finally think about ways to bring them to the attention of the public are not cases taken from the 15th century. The will include the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal in Pennsylvania, who was just denied a new trial despite mounting evidence of innocence, the case of Troy Davis in Georgia whom the state intends to kill even though almost all the witnesses against him recanted, the case of Kevin Cooper in California where the state repressed crucial exculpatory evidence, and the case of Jesse Gerardo in Texas who doesn't deny his guilt but was treated like a piece of meat in court and didn't even have a competent lawyer. Final court decisions on them are pending. Their lives are in the balance -- not in the 15th century, but right now!

However tiny it may be, participants in this workshop might be able to make a difference.

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