Two Texas Events

MVFHR will be represented at two interesting events in Texas this week. Today, Jeanne Bishop will be one of the speakers at the Media and Human Rights Symposium in America at Dallas's Southern Methodist University. The description says that the symposium "will feature themed sessions concerning justice in journalism; new media and human rights; media and the death penalty; and media, race, ethics and justice."

On Saturday, Renny Cushing will be among the speakers at a conference that the Capital Punishment Center at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin is hosting, titled "The American Death Penalty in the Twenty-first Century: the Direction of Legislative Change and the Prospects for Legislative Abolition." The description says, "State legislatures have been reevaluating the emotionally and politically charged issue of capital punishment. While national public opinion polls show broad support for the death penalty in the abstract, states like New Mexico and New Jersey have abolished capital punishment outright within the last three years, and other states have seen similar proposals closely contested and only narrowly defeated. ... The symposium will explore this newly active legislative foment around capital punishment, closely examining the experience in particular states to see whether any broader lessons may be drawn with respect to the future of state legislative efforts to abolish, limit, and reform the death penalty."

Both these events are free and open to the public.