Speaking to Student Groups

Renny Cushing is representing MVFHR today at a conference on human rights at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. Titled Human Rights: Right Here Summit, the conference will look at human rights in a variety of contexts. Renny is participating in a panel called "Placing Philadelphia in the national and global human rights dialogue."

Haverford College is the school that Laura Wilcox - daughter of MVFHR members Amanda and Nick Wilcox -- attended, and it happens that the Wilcoxes are also speaking to student groups this weekend, at a conference organized by Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. MVFHR member James Staub is also part of that event. Here's the description:

Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty’s fifth annual Student Conference on the Death Penalty will take place this Saturday at Middle Tennessee State University. The conference will feature nationally-renowned activists Nick and Amanda Wilcox. Nick and Amanda’s world was turned upside-down when their daughter, Laura, was killed in a rampage shooting by a man with severe and persistent mental illness. Feeling compelled to dedicate themselves to the goal of reducing violence, Nick and Amanda began advocating for improved mental health care and death penalty repeal. “Laura’s Law”, which allows for court ordered assisted outpatient treatment for persons with severe and persistent mental illness, was named after their daughter and was enacted in California in 2002.

The keynote address will begin at 10:00 a.m., followed by workshops, letter writing, and time for planning events to be held on participants’ campuses following the conference. This year’s workshops include Death Penalty 101 with special guests Joyce and Paul House (House was Tennessee’s 2nd death row exoneree); Mental Illness and the Death Penalty; and Murder Victim’s Families Speak, featuring James Staub, whose mother was murdered when he was 12 years old.