UNION – Senator Raymond Lesniak will re-enact his international award-winning speech on how the death penalty violates fundamental human rights and conduct a book signing for his speech tonight at the Kean University Conference Center from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.
The event will be hosted by former Senator Robert Martin and the Board of Trustees for the Road to Justice and Peace, a non-profit organization which aims to advance the abolition of the death penalty around the globe, to support the families of murder victims and to promote alternatives to incarceration.
Senator Lesniak’s efforts to overturn New Jersey’s death penalty have received international acclaim. In 2007, when New Jersey became the first state in the nation to repeal the death penalty after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, the Colosseum in Rome was lit up in honor of the achievement. And earlier this year, Senator Lesniak won the prestigious Memorial de Caen International Human Rights competition for his speech entitled, “The Road to Justice and Peace.”
The competition, sponsored by the Caen Memorial Museum for Peace, regarded as one of the best World War II museums in France, was judged by an elite international panel of judges, including former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Senator Lesniak was only the second American in the 20-year history of the competition to win.
WHO: Senator Raymond J. Lesniak
WHAT: Speech Re-enactment and Book Signing
WHERE: Kean University, Kean Hall Conference Center, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ
WHEN: Tonight, Tuesday, April 21, 2009
TIME: 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM