Arcadia University Holds Community Discussion on the Death Penalty, Jan. 16
A Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Event
Glenside, Pa.—Jan. 4, 2012—Arcadia University’s Office of Institutional Diversity in collaboration with The Jewish Social Policy Action Network (JSPAN) and the Cheltenham Branch of the NAACP hosts “A Community Discussion on the Death Penalty” on Monday, Jan. 16, from 7:30 to 9 p.m., in Murphy Hall Stiteler Auditorium. This Arcadia MLK day event is free and open to the public. Arcadia University is located at 450 S. Easton Road, Glenside, Pa.
E. Steven Collins, Director of Urban Marketing and External Relations and the host of Philly Speaks at Radio One, will moderate the discussion. The panelists are Michael Coard, Esq., Dr. John Noakes and Marc Bookman.
Michael Coard, Esq., a Philadelphia private criminal defense attorney, specializes in capital murder cases and is philosophically opposed to the death penalty. He is a founding member of Avenging the Ancestors Coalition. He is the president of the Philadelphia Millions More Movement, a state board member of the ACLU, and a founding member of Judging the Judges.
Dr. John Noakes is Associate Provost of Academic Improvement and Interim Dean of Graduate Studies at Arcadia University. At Arcadia, Noakes taught courses in surveillance, social inequality, policing, and wrongful convictions and exonerations. He continues to teach Theories of Deviance and Criminality for the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice.
A specialist in the state response to political dissent, Noakes serves on the policy committee of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, and a internationally recognized scholar of the relationship between police and protesters. He also has written on the effects of surveillance on political activists, FBI surveillance of Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s, the origins of the FBI and has begun research on wrongful convictions and exoneration.
Marc Bookman is Executive Director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, a non-profit death penalty resource center located in Philadelphia, Pa. Bookman served as a public defender for 27 years and worked in the Homicide Unit of the Defenders Association of Philadelphia. ACCR provides pre-trial consultation to capital defense practitioners and defense teams in Pennsylvania and Delaware. The ACCR is led by Bookman and Dana Cook, formerly of the Homicide Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia.
“Each year’s MLK program has a specific focus, and this year the focus will be on the death penalty,” says Judith I. Dalton Associate Dean of Institutional Diversity. “Please save the date and make plans to attend what is expected to be a very informative and thought-provoking event.”
About Arcadia University: Arcadia University is a top-ranked private university in metropolitan Philadelphia and a national leader in study abroad and international education. The 2011 Open Doors report names Arcadia University a top leader in undergraduate students studying abroad. U.S. News & World Report ranks Arcadia University among the top regional universities in the North and as one of the top study abroad programs. U.S. News also ranks Arcadia’s Physical Therapy program 7th in the nation. Arcadia University promises a distinctively global, integrative and personal learning experience that prepares students to contribute and prosper in a diverse and dynamic world.
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