UW Law Week to Examine Death Penalty, Hate Crimes, Domestic Violence

Oct. 23, 2003 -- A panel discussion on the death penalty, a session of the Wyoming Supreme Court in Laramie and a lecture on hate crimes are among highlights during Law Week Oct. 27-31 at the University of Wyoming.

Law Week, sponsored by the UW College of Law, begins Monday, Oct. 27, in Room 144 of the College of Law building, with a showing of the Academy Award-winning film "Defending Our Lives," narrated by Sarah Buel, director of the Domestic Violence Clinic at the University of Texas Law School. Buel will lead a domestic violence presentation at 7 p.m. Monday in the College of Arts and Sciences auditorium.

In 1996, NBC profiled Buel as one of the five most inspiring women in America. In 2002, she received the Harvard Law School Gary Bellow Public Service Award and in 2003 she was given and Outstanding Teacher Award from Harvard Medical School.

Other Law Week events, all free and open to the public, will be held in Room 144 of the College of Law building:

Tuesday, Oct. 28, noon -- UW's nationally-ranked speech and debate team will debate "The Law Does Not Adequately Deal with Domestic Violence."

Wednesday, Oct. 29, noon -- Leigh Anne G. Manlove, executive director of the Wyoming State Bar Foundation, will discuss, "More Than Lip Service: Making Equal Justice a Reality in the Practice of Law."

6 p.m. -- Panel discussion, "A Life or Death Decision." Panelists are Diane Courselle, director of UW Defender Aid Clinic, formerly senior attorney at the Office of Appellate Defender in New York; Randall Coyne, University of Oklahoma College of Law professor and co-author of "Death Without Justice: A Guide for Examining the Administration of the Death Penalty in the United States"; Michael Radelet, University of Colorado professor of sociology, author of "On Botched Executions," forthcoming in "Capital Punishment: Strategies for Abolition," Cambridge University Press; and Robert Schopp, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, professor of law and psychology, "Reconciling 'Irreconcilable' Capital Punishment Doctrine as Comparable and Noncomparable Justice," Florida Law Review. Jerry Parkinson, dean and professor of law at UW, will be moderator.

Thursday, Oct. 30, 3 p.m. -- Oral arguments before the Wyoming Supreme Court.
Friday, Oct. 31, noon -- "Hate Crimes," a talk by Heidi Hurd, dean of the University of Illinois College of Law who testified before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on the Hate Crime Prevention Act of 1999.

Visit the Web site www.uwyo.edu/Law/ for more information about Law Week.

Posted on Thursday, October 23, 2003