Common Reading Experience explores death penalty controversy

The death penalty is a painful, controversial topic that arouses a range of emotions and arguments from a spectrum of angles and points of view.

Which is exactly why Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty that Sparked a National Debate, by Sister Helen Prejean, is this year's choice for the Fort Lewis College Common Reading Experience: because it asks hard questions and doesn't offer easy answers. And so the book inspires reflection, analysis, and discussion.

Sister Prejean, a Roman Catholic nun, will speak and sign copies of her book at the Whalen Gymnasium at 7 p.m., Tuesday, October 21. The FLC Concert Choir will welcome Sister Helen with an original composition by Dr. Charissa Chiaravalloti, Director of Choral Studies at FLC.  The event is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. For students, faculty, and staff, with FLC ID, doors will open at 6:30 p.m. General admission begins at 6:45 p.m. No tickets are required.

Other CRE events will feature showings of Tim Robbins’ Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the book, weekly radio interviews on KDUR, and a panel on restorative justice.

In her book, Sister Prejean describes what it looks and feels like to walk a man on Death Row to his execution. As spiritual advisor to several men convicted of vicious crimes, she comes to know them well. She is horrified by their crimes, and she is horrified that they themselves will be killed. But she accompanies these men to their death so they will not be alone.

Equally important for Sister Prejean is to be sure the victims’ families are not alone. Toward that end, she also founded SURVIVE, a support group that helps families of death penalty convicts cope with their grief.

The Common Reading Experience program, now in its ninth year, gives every incoming freshman a free copy of that year's book selection at the Fall Orientation. The book is then integrated into many courses, and is used as the basis for on-campus films, lectures, panel discussions, concerts, plays, and more throughout the Fall.

"The goal is to provide a common intellectual experience for faculty, staff, students, and community alike," says CRE Coordinator Bridget Irish. "It's a meeting place for ideas, where you can hear a variety of opinions and perspectives. It also introduces freshmen into that world of ideas by providing opportunities to discuss the ideas in the book both inside and outside the classroom."

“This book is also relevant to many of our academic departments and programs on campus,” Irish adds. “No matter what a student majors in, this book will have relevance.”

Other CRE events include:

• “Making a Difference” weekly radio interviews related to the CRE, every Wednesday, 5:30 - 6 p.m., through November 19, on KDUR at 91.9 & 93.9 FM, or at kdur.org. Listen to archived shows here.

• The feature film version of Dead Man Walking, October 8, 4 and 7 p.m. A discussion and trivia competition will follow the film.

• A panel discussion, with Q&A, on "Restorative Justice," in the Student Union Ballroom, October 15, at 7 p.m.

• Talk and book signing with Sister Helen Prejean, October 21, 7 p.m., in Whalen Gymnasium. Also featuring the FLC Choir.

• Dramatic reading of Dead Man Walking, with talk-back, by the FLC Theatre Department, Wednesday, October 22, 4 and 7 p.m., in the Roshong Recital Hall, Jones Hall.

• Documentary film "The Thin Blue Line," 7 p.m  in the Vallecito Room, Student Union.

Find more information about the Common Reading Experience here.