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Fighting From the Inside Out: Ending the Death Penalty
December 10, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
A free event with author Todd C. Peppers and Martha Conley that reflects on the groundbreaking work of Marie Deans and Russ Ford. Ms. Deans, founder of Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, was forced into the world of capital punishment through personal tragedy. “My mother-in-law’s killing was the crucial element, the key that motivated me to get into this work… I don’t want to see anyone ignored or thrown away by society, whether they’re the victims or the murderers.” she said.
Reverend Ford served as the head chaplain of Virginia’s death row for eighteen years. He stood watch with twenty-eight men, sitting with them in the filthy death house during the final days and hours of their lives. Ford himself almost became an unintended victim of the death chamber in July 1990 as he comforted Ricky Boggs in his last moments.
Deans and Ford have forced us to recognize the humanity in those that we condemn to death.
Todd C. Peppers is the co-author of A Courageous Fool: Marie Deans and Her Struggle Against the Death Penalty (2017) and Crossing the River Styx: The Memoir of a Death Row Chaplain, (2023). Martha Conley will be interviewing Mr. Peppers.
