Students host discussion on capital punishment in America
(L-R): Innocence Initiative President Christie Fekany, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Bruce Jacob, Professor Ellen Podgor, Roger L. Weeden and Teodoro Marrero. Photo by Merve Ozcan.
By Bianca Lopez
The Innocence Initiative, Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society held a panel to discuss the death penalty on March 30. Two professors from Stetson Law, Professor of Law Ellen Podgor and Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Bruce Jacob, and two attorneys, Roger Weeden and Teodoro Marrero, answered questions about capital punishment in America.
Both Podgor and Jacob teach courses on criminal law and have worked as prosecutors during their careers. Professor Podgor, a member of the American Law Institute, took part in submitting a motion to remove the death penalty. While the motion was not accepted, the Model Penal Code no longer includes capital punishment. Weeden and Marrero are defense attorneys in Orlando and have worked together on death penalty cases.
“I believe we’re going to see the end of the death penalty in the United States, in my lifetime,” Marrero said.
Marrero and Weeden discussed the death penalty from the viewpoint of the defense: trying to keep their clients alive. Marrero explained to the audience how he manages to put all of his effort into defending clients, even when he has seen the acts that they have been convicted of prior to the penalty determination.
“We try to find the good in the person; there’s almost always something good in them,” Marrero said. “We try to show that they have worth as a person.”
In death penalty cases, the determination of death must be voted on unanimously by the jury. The panel touched on the topic of jury selection, saying that anyone with extreme opinions for or against the death penalty cannot serve.
“We have a fighting chance if we have the right jurors,” Marrero said. “In a death penalty case, life [in prison] is a win.”
Dean Emeritus Jacob, who also teaches constitutional law, spoke on the constitutional rights of defendants in a death penalty case and case law concerning the constitutionality of the death penalty.
After the panel answered prepared questions posed by the Innocence Initiative, Mary Gantert, a student and vice president of the Innocence Initiative, presented a PowerPoint and speech after being inspired by what she learned about the death penalty while interning under the Honorable Barbara J. Pariente of the Florida Supreme Court. Gantert had just begun her internship when the first execution following SCOTUS deeming Florida’s death penalty unconstitutional was about to occur. Gantert focused on learning more about Florida’s death penalty, which she then chose as the topic for her seminar paper.
“As attorney Morrero said [during the panel], working with the death penalty changes you,” Gantert said. “Imagine working with someone’s case for weeks or months, getting to know so much about not only their crime, but their entire life, and then hearing: ‘The sentence of the State of Florida vs. [inmate name] has been carried out at [time of day].’ After that, the phone call ends, and you know that a human being has been executed and you have been a part of it.”
Post date: April 4, 2018
Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
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