Death penalty forum at Fairfield University | Press Releases

With the recent multiple shootings at a Wisconsin church service and a Georgia Courthouse, the issue of the death penalty has again come up for debate. On Wednesday evening (March 16) at 7:30 p.m., John Connelly, Connecticut State's Attorney for the Waterbury Judicial District, and Karen Woodrow, Public Defender for the Tolland Judicial District, will head a forum at Fairfield University, moderated by Gerard Smyth, Chief Public Defender of the State of Connecticut. An open mike session will permit students and others to express their own views or question the principal speakers. The forum will be held in the lower lobby of the John A. Barone Campus Center and is being sponsored by the Program in Catholic Studies.

The continuing case of Michael Ross has brought renewed attention to the death penalty this year in Connecticut, where it remains, as always, an issue for the Catholic community. The Catholic bishops in general are adamantly opposed to the death penalty, and the Pope has spoken against it on many occasions, sometimes attempting to intervene in particular cases in the United States. Still, the Catholic community as a whole seems to remain quite divided on whether or not the death penalty is moral.