The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky and the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will bring national advocacy group Journey of Hope to WKU on Nov. 5.
The program, sponsored by WKU’s Department of History, will examine personal experiences surrounding executions and homicide as well as their implications for setting policy. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Mass Media and Technology Hall Auditorium.
Journey of Hope is an advocacy organization led by murder victim family members joined by death row family members, family members of the executed, the exonerated, and others with stories to tell.
Kentucky’s Journey of Hope will feature JOH founder Bill Pelke, who supported the death penalty until his grandmother’s murder. The retired steelworker experienced a spiritual transformation in 1986 and worked to eventually save his grandmother’s assailant from execution.
Joining Pelke will be Shujaa Graham, who was exonerated from death row after he was framed in the 1973 murder of a prison guard in Stockton, Calif.; and Terri Steinberg, mother of Justin Wolfe, Virginia’s youngest death row resident.
Contact: Kate Miller at (502) 581-9746 or Patricia Minter at (270) 745-5098.
