FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 22, 2001 CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119 DRAKE TO HOST DEBATE ON DEATH PENALTY APRIL 5 As America prepares to execute the most notorious death row inmate in a quarter century, two celebrated lawyers will debate the merits of the death penalty on Thursday, April 5, at Drake Law School. The debate, which is free and open to the public, will start at 3 p.m. in room 213 of Cartwright Hall, 27th Street and Carpenter Avenue. Advocating the abolition of the death penalty will be Stephen B. Bright, a visiting lecturer at Harvard and Yale law schools and director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which provides legal representation to persons facing the death penalty. Arguing in favor of the death penalty will be Paul G. Cassell, the Jerome I. Farr professor of law at the University of Utah College of Law. Drake law professor David McCord, who teaches and writes about the death penalty, will moderate the debate. The program is sponsored by Drake Law School's Constitutional Law Center. The debate is designed to improve public understanding of the controversy over capital punishment while the country braces for the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh scheduled for May 16. Television crews are already building sets near the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the network anchors who will chronicle McVeigh's deathwatch. Thousands of reporters and demonstrators are expected to flock to Terre Haute for the most-watched execution in decades. McVeigh's execution, which will mark the federal government's resumption of capital punishment after a 38-year hiatus, already has generated extensive news coverage. An article in USA Today on March 19, for example, stated that McVeigh's appointment with a lethal injection "is shaping up as the Next Big Show in a world of 24-hour news cycles, saturation coverage and heightened competition for ratings and readers." "There couldn't be a better time for Drake Law School's Constitutional Law Center to sponsor a debate on the death penalty," said law professor Thomas E. Baker, director of the center. "This debate will bring to campus two nationally known lawyers and scholars to engage students and faculty on one of the most fundamental issues facing the nation." Baker expects "the McVeigh execution will once again focus public attention on this constitutional, political and moral issue. It is sure to be part of the debate." Bright has been director of the Southern Center for Human Rights since 1982. The nonprofit center, based in Atlanta, provides legal representation to persons facing the death penalty and to prisoners challenging unconstitutional conditions in prison and jails throughout the South. Bright has represented persons facing the death penalty at trial, on appeals and in post-conviction proceedings since 1979. He argued Amadeo v. Zant before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988, in which the death sentence was set aside because of racial discrimination. His work and that of the Southern Center for Human Rights have been featured in two books, "Proximity to Death" by William McFeely and "Finding Life on Death Row" by Kayta Lezin. Cassell, a death penalty proponent, served as a federal prosecutor and an associate deputy attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice before joining the faculty at the University of Utah College of Law. He has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on abolishing the Miranda v. Arizona decision. Cassell is one of the nation's leading scholars in the areas of criminal justice reform and is a nationally known crime victims' advocate. He served as counsel for 89 victims of the Oklahoma City bombing in their efforts to obtain the right to observe court proceedings. In that role, he lost an appeal in the Tenth Circuit and then successfully sought passage of legislation from Congress reversing the loss just days before the start of the trial. For more information about Drake's Debate on the Death Penalty, call (515) 271-2988