The Sturm College of Law held a number of lectures, debates and feature films to examine the death penalty issue.

One of the main events was a debate between lawyer David Lane and Deputy Colorado Attorney General Jeanne Smith.

The debate focused on the ethical and moral questions about capital punishment.

An open discussion followed the debate.

The audience was able to ask the two presenters questions about the issue.

Taking the position against the death penalty, Lane stated that “[the death penalty] is not simply an equation of justice equaling vengeance.”

Lane added, “The capital punishment system is a system filled with incompetence, inequity and arbitrariness.”

Lane said there is no prosecution check in the court system, and that many of the death penalty decisions are made on a basis of race.

As he stated at one point during his opening statement, “Convicts that end up on death row are invariably minorities accused of killing whites.”

Jeanne Smith gave with her personal reflections of having spoken with crime victims’ families, and how they felt about seeing their sons’ or daughters’ murderers go free.

Smith stated that we must “accept the fact that some killings [like capital punishment] are celebrated and even encouraged.”

“We as a community accept killing in many situations,” continued Smith. “Bad behavior has a consequence.”

She presented was that the punishment of life in prison is no guarantee to the safety of the public, citing numerous examples of prisoners who attacked and murdered prison guards in order to escape.

During the debate, Lane stated that too much money is spent on putting people to death, for example, $50-$75 million was spent one the execution convicted murderer and rapist Gary Davis.

In Lane’s opinion, not only is it wrong financially, but it is wrong ethically, to either spend huge sums on execution or no legal costs to achieve an execution.

In a closing statement, Lane said “the debt owed can never be repaid [back to families]. We become the people we are trying to punish.”

Smith’s stand was that by not making the death penalty accessible, “we devalue to lives of the victim.”

She added, “It also doesn’t do anything for the community or society.”

In her closing statement, Smith said that capital punishment “ought to be available for extreme cases in order to say that we value human life.”

Other events throughout the week included keynote speaker David Dow from the University of Houston and a presentation of the play “Dead Man Walking.”