Death penalty symposium to include former Illinois governor

The free public symposium titled “Innocence and the Death Penalty” will bring to Madison a panel of individuals closely connected to the issue of the death penalty, including former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who last year historically commuted the death sentences of all 167 people on Illinois’ death row.

Legislation has been introduced to reinstate the death penalty in Wisconsin, which has not had the death penalty since 1853.

The symposium, which is sponsored by the Wisconsin Innocence Project of the Frank J. Remington Center at the UW Law School and the Criminal Law Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin, is scheduled for 4:30-6:30 p.m., Monday, April 28, at the Orpheum Theatre, 216 State St. Joining Ryan will be Christopher Ochoa, a wrongly convicted Texas man who served 12 years of a prison term for a crime he did not commit. Ochoa was exonerated and released from prison with the help of UW–Madison Law School students working on his case.

The symposium will examine the fairness and efficacy of the death penalty, the lessons to be learned from the experiences of other states that impose the ultimate punishment, and the implications of those lessons for the criminal justice system.