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Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan will deliver a keynote address at Northwestern University School of Law during a day-long symposium that will bring together a diverse group of professors and practitioners to discuss the impact of wrongful convictions on the capital punishment debate.

The symposium, titled "Innocence in Capital Sentencing" and hosted by the student-run Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (JCLC), will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, at the School of Law, 357 E. Chicago Ave. It is free and open to the public.

Ryan will deliver his address, "From Death to Life," at 12:30 p.m.

Ryan changed the course of death penalty history and rose to national prominence in 2002 when he instituted the nation's first moratorium on state executions, pending a thorough review of the capital judicial process. He later commuted the sentences of all of Illinois' death row inmates to life in prison without parole.

Center on Wrongful Convictions Executive Director Rob Warden and Northwestern law professor Ronald Allen will be among symposium participants from around the country who will present papers for review and respond to questions from the audience. The papers will be published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology in spring 2005.

One of the most widely circulated law journals in the country, JCLC was founded by former School of Law Dean John Henry Wigmore in 1910 to articulate and promote criminal justice reform. The journal continues to provide a unique forum for dialogue and debate on current criminal law and criminology issues and remains one of the most widely read and cited publications in the world.

For more information, including a schedule of presentations, article abstracts and biographies of participants, visit JCLC

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