Georgetown’s Campaign to End the Death Penalty student group is observing Death Penalty Awareness Week, which began as an idea by Georgetown students two years ago and became a nationally observed event last year.
Two years ago, members of the group had the idea to designate one week of the year as a time to raise awareness about issues surrounding the death penalty. The following year, students saw the realization of this plan with the first ever Death Penalty Awareness Week at Georgetown, described as a success by Ginny Simmons (CAS ‘03), the current chair of the campaign.
After the campus campaign, Simmons presented a proposal to create a National Death Penalty Awareness Week at the National Conference to End the Death Penalty in November 2001. The proposal passed unanimously.
Students at universities such as Columbia University, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago are participating on their respective campuses this year, Simmons said.
At Georgetown, each day of the week centers on a different aspect of the death penalty, ranging from religious and philosophical perspectives to inequality in application of the death penalty.
“We hope people are learning and becoming more aware of the facts. The best thing we can do is heighten awareness,” said Catherine Cayce (CAS ‘04), a member of the Campaign.
On Wednesday night, the campaign hosted “Live from Death Row,” advertised as an opportunity for students to speak with death row inmates.
Maryland inmate Kenny Collins was unable to appear on the program after his warden put him on lockdown, preventing students from talking to a death row inmate. Instead, students heard a pardoned death row inmate speak.
“[The prisons] don’t like the public to know how they treat their prisoners,” Simmons said.
According to Katie Capone (NUR ‘04), an organizer of the week’s events, lockdowns are often unwarranted.
“Prison guards put people in lockdown for kicks. In lockdown, sometimes you don’t get fed, you can’t get any phone calls, and you’re put in solitary confinement,” Capone said.
Georgetown students’ reactions to the week have been mixed.
“Some people thank us, some people debate with us. We want to hear the other side. I enjoy when this happens because a lot of the time, people don’t know the facts,” Capone said.
Students involved in the campaign will end the week at a rally outside the Supreme Court to protest the execution of juvenile offenders. Simmons initiated the rally by suggesting it at a D.C. Death Penalty Meeting this summer.
