Part of LCADP’s mission is to educate the public about the actual administration of Louisiana’s death penalty, which does not match up to people’s common conceptions. There is no better way to do this than through the voices of individuals who have personal experiences with murder and our justice system’s response to it.
If you would like one of our speakers to come and address your church, school or organization, please contact:
Calvin Duncan
Education Coordinator
calvin@dpalternatives.org
(504) 616-8964
Speakers
Tom Lowenstein
Tom joined LCADP in 2012 to work on policy issues and with murder victims’ family members. Tom has previously worked on criminal justice reform for the Innocence Project New Orleans and Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty, and as an author and editor. He is affiliated with an international organization for families of murder victims and those executed by the state, Murder Victims Families for Human Rights. Tom’s father, Al Lowenstein, was murdered in New York in 1980.
Sophie Cull
Sophie is the Executive Director of the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. She works alongside families of murder victims, the formerly incarcerated, churches, civic organizations and community members to raise awareness about the ineffectiveness of Louisiana’s capital punishment system and advocate for alternatives that would better prevent crime and support those impacted by murder. She speaks regularly at conferences, schools and churches about LCADP’s mission and the administration of Louisiana’s death penalty.
Michael Admirand
Michael Admirand has been representing individuals on Louisiana’s death row since 2010. While a student at Harvard Law School, he focused on capital defense at various stages of litigation through internships at the Law Office of Robert McDuff in Jackson, Mississippi and the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia. At the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, he worked primarily on clemency proceedings as part of an externship through Harvard’s Capital Punishment Clinic. Mr. Admirand also participated in the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute and the Employment Civil Rights Clinic, and was honored with the Gary Bellow Public Service Award for his commitment to public service.
Calvin Duncan
Calvin was born New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. In 1982, he was arrested for first-degree murder for a crime he didn’t commit. He was found guilty at a trial which lasted no longer than a day and sentenced to life-without-parole. Calvin spent 28 ½ years in prison trying to prove his innocence until he was released in 2011. He served 19 of those as Inmate Counsel to the men on Death Row. In his autobiography, In the Place of Justice, author and award-winning journalist Wilbert Rideau wrote “Calvin Duncan, the most brilliant legal mind in Angola, did the legal research necessary for my case… I thank Calvin for his legal aid, which helped free me.”
Today, Calvin spends his time working for criminal justice reform in a number of different capacities and is studying at Tulane University.
Here’s a video of Calvin giving a talk at Michigan Law.
