By Daily Press staff
The talk of death and its associated penalties will come to Santa Monica this weekend. The LA Chapter of Death Penalty Focus and the LA Coalition Against the Death Penalty will be sparking some debate at a performance event on Saturday, Aug. 20, at 7 p.m.
The event will be held at the Track 16 gallery at 2525 Michigan Ave. in building C1. The groups will present an evening of art and discussion, including artists from various disciplines ranging from fine art, to acting, writing and music.
The panel will discuss their perspectives on capital punishment and will be available to answer questions from the audience.
Mike Farrell, president of Death Penalty Focus and moderator of the panel, will set the context for the evening by speaking briefly about the study commissioned by the State Senate to examine how the death penalty is used in California, and on AB 1121, a bill recently introduced to the State Assembly that calls for a moratorium on executions until that study is completed.
Also participating will be Barbara Becnel, a writer and activist who coauthored a series of anti-gang books for children with Stanley Tookie Williams, a California death row inmate, co-founder of the Crips, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and one of the men in the state facing a last appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court this fall.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 17, 2005. Read the original PDF.