Inaugural Death Penalty Abolition Week Brings Together Exonerees, Advocates, and Faith Leaders

From conversations on wrongful convictions and systemic failures to reflections on faith, justice, and mercy, Notre Dame Law School’s inaugural Death Penalty Abolition Week invited the Notre Dame and broader South Bend community to engage deeply with one of the most urgent human rights issues of our time. The four-day series of events, held in March 2025, aimed to confront the realities of wrongful convictions and spark critical conversations about the use of the death penalty, marking the beginning of an annual event.

During Death Penalty Abolition Week, distinguished speakers—including exonerees, advocates, and experts committed to criminal justice reform—shared firsthand accounts and examined the systemic issues tied to wrongful convictions and capital punishment, including racial bias against defendants of color and the fundamental violation of human dignity.

Notre Dame Law School was honored to feature as speakers Dr. Yusef Salaam, Central Park Five exoneree and New York City Councilman; Ohio death row exoneree Lamont Hunter and his attorney, Erin Gallagher Barnhart ’05 J.D.; Syl Schieber ’72 M.A., ’74 Ph.D., a leading voice for the abolition of the death penalty; and Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States.

The events throughout the week were organized by the Notre Dame Law School Exoneration Justice Clinic and the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights, and co-sponsored by several student organizations.

A man in a dark blue suit and red tie speaks with a serious expression, hands clasped. A wooden crucifix hangs on the beige wall behind him.
Dr. Yusef Salaam shares his story with a packed audience at Notre Dame Law School.

Yusef Salaam, Central Park Five Exoneree and New York City Councilman, Delayed But Not Denied

Dr. Yusef Salaam, one of the Exonerated Five and a New York City Councilman, opened Notre Dame Law School’s inaugural Death Penalty Abolition Week with a deeply personal and urgent reflection on his wrongful imprisonment. At just 15 years old, Salaam was falsely accused of a brutal crime in Central Park in New York City, tried as an adult, and sent to prison at 16. “They looked at the color of my skin and not the content of my character and deemed me guilty,” he told a packed room, highlighting how racism and media-driven narratives shaped his fate and that of four other Black and Latino boys. He described his case as a “love story between God and His people”—a reminder that while the truth can be buried, it cannot be destroyed.

Salaam closed with a challenge to students: to live with purpose, reject apathy, and see themselves as part of a long generational fight for justice. “I need you to be a master strategist in your approach, because this is not a short-term game,” he said. Urging them to treat their lives as a baton passed to future generations, Salaam emphasized that vision, resistance, and intention are the true cure for a broken system.

A smiling woman in a dark floral dress stands between two men against a wooden wall. A bearded Black man on her left, wearing a "STOP EXECUTIONS NOW!" t-shirt, smiles. A man in a dark suit and purple tie stands on her right.
Exoneree Lamont Hunter, Erin Gallagher Barnhart ’05 J.D., and Professor Jimmy Gurulè

Death Row Exoneree Lamont Hunter and His Attorney Erin Barnhart

On the second day of Death Penalty Abolition Week, Ohio death row exoneree Lamont Hunter and his attorney, Erin Gallagher Barnhart ’05 J.D., shared the emotional and legal journey that led to his release after nearly 18 years behind bars. Hunter was convicted in 2007 in connection with the death of his 3-year-old son. He was ultimately freed in 2023 after new­ly dis­cov­ered evi­dence cast doubt on the original forensic conclusions, leading the state to vacate his capital convictions. He then accepted a plea deal to lesser charges and was released with time served.

Hunter spoke candidly about the emotional toll of incarceration and the decision to accept the plea deal—not for financial restitution, but for the sake of truth and family. Now free, Hunter continues to rebuild his life and speak out against the flaws of a system that failed him at every turn, costing him nearly everything.

A woman with long dark hair and a broad smile wears a dark floral top with pink, red, and green patterns, gold paisley details, and a ruffled neckline against a wood panel background.

Erin Gallagher Barnhart ’05 J.D. serves as the assistant federal public defender for the Southern District of Ohio’s Capital Habeas Unit. In her work, she represents death row inmates in federal habeas, civil rights litigation, and state clemency matters. While at Notre Dame Law School she was an editor of the Notre Dame Law Review and earned the Farabaugh Prize for High Scholarship in Law.

An older man with glasses, wearing a gray suit, blue shirt, and red striped tie, speaks at a wooden podium with microphones. A dark blue banner to his right reads "Notre Dame Law School welcomes you."
Syl Schieber ’72 M.A., ’74 Ph.D. speaks in the McCartan Courtroom about how his faith and principles guide his advocacy against the death penalty.

Syl Schieber, When the Death Penalty Got Personal

On the third day of Death Penalty Abolition Week, Syl Schieber ’72 M.A., ’74 Ph.D., shared a powerful testimony rooted in faith, forgiveness, and justice. After his 23-year-old daughter, Shannon, was raped and murdered in 1998, Schieber and his wife, Vicki, made the decision to oppose capital punishment for her killer—a decision grounded in their Catholic faith and belief in the sanctity of human life. In the years since, Schieber has become a prominent voice in the movement to abolish the death penalty nationwide.

Dean G. Marcus Cole opened the event by affirming the Church’s call to oppose the death penalty, saying, “I’m proud that Notre Dame Law School stands with our Church and with Syl Schieber in following the command of Christ to fight for the abolition of the death penalty and to recognize the human dignity of every human life as created in the likeness and image of God.”

Schieber echoed Cole’s message, underscoring the central role that faith and forgiveness play in his life. “If you can’t stand by your principles when it’s difficult, then they’re not your principles,” said Schieber.

A man in a blue suit holds a maroon folder, speaking next to a Notre Dame Law School banner. An older woman in a colorful scarf and a man with dreadlocks in a brown suit sit smiling in chairs, facing each other, on a stage in a wood-paneled lecture hall.
Dean G. Marcus Cole engaged in a conversation with Sister Helen Prejean before a full audience in the McCartan Courtroom.

Sister Helen Prejean, The Sanctity of Human Life

Sister Helen Prejean closed Death Penalty Abolition Week with a powerful story of how she was unexpectedly drawn into her life’s mission. What began as volunteering to write letters to a death row inmate, Patrick Sonnier, ended with her accompanying him to his execution as his spiritual adviser. “I came out after watching Pat be killed and the first thing I did was throw up. But that’s also when the mission to talk to all of you about this issue began. I’m a witness,” she said.

Since that moment, Sister Helen has become one of the world’s most influential voices against capital punishment. Calling it “an extreme physical and mental assault on someone who’s been rendered defenseless,” she described death row as a form of torture and challenged students to confront its moral implications: “The death penalty is about us. We should not identify a human being solely with the worst act of his or her life.”

Sister Helen’s talk capped a powerful week of events that brought together exonerees, lawyers, advocates, students, faculty, and the broader South Bend community to confront the moral and legal challenges of the death penalty.