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Crimson Letters: Voice from Death Row, Tessie Castillo with special guest Dr. Frank Baumgartner and co-author Terry Robinson
June 16, 2020 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
FREEJoin us in a critical four-part conversation on criminal justice and death penalty reform, racial and socio-economic inequality, and quite simply, the human dignity that each of us deserves.
Each of Tessie’s four co-authors and a special guest will join us for a live call-in four successive events.
How to Watch
Visit zoom.us
Meeting ID: 858 3167 8194
Password: 3367631919
JUNE 16
Topic: Should Police Who Kill Unarmed Civilians Get the Death Penalty?
Discussion: In the aftermath of the murders of Ahmaud Aubrey and George Floyd at the hands of police and armed vigilantes, some people (including the victims’ families) have called for the death penalty. Is this justice? We will discuss how the capital punishment system actually works (which is very different than how most people think it works), explaining the flaws and brokenness within the death penalty system that make it an unjust system of punishment, regardless of who is on the receiving end of the sentence.
Special Guest: Dr. Frank Baumgartner, Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at UNC Chapel Hill and Author of Deadly Justice: A Statistical Portrait of the Death Penalty + co-author Terry Robinson
About Crimson Letters: What started as a volunteer journaling class in late 2013 would grow into genuine, sincere, and heartfelt friendships with several men on North Carolina’s Death Row. Tessie Castillo’s collaborative work, Crimson Letters: Voices from Death Row, gives readers stark insight into the utter agony and dehumanization of long-term incarceration, as well as stories of friendship, family, and finding life after a death sentence.
Get your copy of Crimson Letters: Voices from Death Row along, with Dr. Baumgartner’s Deadly Justice: A Statistical Portrait of the Death Penalty, at Scuppernong Books.
TESSIE CASTILLO is a freelance journalist based in Raleigh, North Carolina. She specializes in criminal justice , drug policy, and harm reduction. In 2014 she became one of the first members of the public invited inside North Carolina’s Death Row. This extraordinary opportunity, as well as the correspondence she developed with several death row residents, helped launch her passion for criminal justice reform. Crimson Letters: Voice from Death Row is her first book.
Dr. FRANK BAUMGARTNER is known for his work on lobbying, policymaking, agenda-setting, and racial dynamics in the criminal justice system. He has published scores of articles in the major political science journals, and had held various offices in numerous political science associations. He regularly teaches classes at all levels ranging from large lectures to small graduate and undergraduate seminars and contributes to UNC in various service capacities, with a particular focus on faculty diversity.
TERRY ROBINSON, also known as Chanton, is incarcerated on North Carolina’s Death Row. He is a proponent for social justice and a voice against recidivism. Chanton has a passion for learning and is dedicated to reform. He participated Toast Masters, Psychology, Drama, and other classes to improve his social skills. When not writing stories to challenge the stereotype of people on Death Row, Chanton unwinds in the pages of fantasy books or hosts Dungeons and Dragons roll-playing games. He is currently working on an urban fantasy novel and his memoir.
His writing can be found on the blog Walk In Those Shoes.