2010-2011 SULC Speaker Series

Southern University Law Center's 2010-11 Speakers Series will open at noon Friday, September 24, with New York author Gilbert King.

King will speak on, "Race, Murder and Capital Punishment in Louisiana, and the Execution of Willie Francis," in Room 129 of A. A. Lenoir Hall.

He is author of The Execution of Willie Francis: Race, Murder, and the Search for Justice in the American South, published by Basic Books in 2008.

His book tells the true story of a 16-year-old boy in southwestern Louisiana who survived his own execution in 1946.

Willie Francis's case made front-page headlines around the country and came before the U.S. Supreme Court three times after the governor insisted the youth return to the electric chair.

King has written for the New York Times, Washington Post and Playboy, and he lives in New York City.

He is currently at work on a book about Thurgood Marshall to be published in 2011 by HarperCollins.

Jane E. Cross, director of Caribbean Law Programs at Nova Southeastern University Law School, will featured in the series on Friday, October 15, at noon, in 129 A. A. Lenoir Hall.

Professor Cross will present "A Life and Death Constitutional Compromise: The Mandatory Death Penalty in the Commonwealth Caribbean." Cross is currently the vice president, an executive committee member, and an advisory board member for the American and Caribbean Law Initiative (ACLI). ACLI, a collaborative project of four Caribbean and four American law schools, allows students to conduct research and prepare memoranda for Caribbean governments on legal issues these governments face.

For the speakers series closing lecture, Mike Oeser, a visiting assistant professor at Florida A&M University College of Law, will present "Tribal Citizen Participation in state and national politics: Welcome Wagon or Trojan Horse?" at noon Friday, February 25, in 129 A. A. Lenoir Hall.

This presentation examines whether the right to vote is ever a bad thing and whether there are situations in which a group of people might be better served by rejecting the right to vote.

According to Oeser, participation by reservation-resident tribal citizens in state and federal elections is diametrically at odds with the assertion of tribal sovereignty as a defense to state and federal authority within reservation borders. He will discuss this counter-intuitive situation and the implications it has had, and will have, to tribal sovereignty over time.

All lectures in the series are free and open to the public.

For more information, call:

Professor Stanley Halpin

Chairperson, Speakers Series

225-771-4900