Getting the right justice

Sometimes, students don’t know what they don’t know — until they get to class. Over the past two decades, Campus Minister Nick Cardilino and Professor William Trollinger have found their discussions on capital punishment to be profoundly enlightening for students, many of whom begin with little understanding of the subject. Now, they’re inspiring future generations to take action.

WT: After spending a lot of time in the classroom, it is really striking how much [about capital punishment] is not known by our students. It's just amazing to me — it’s not been a part of their education. So, when I start walking through how the death penalty actually works and doesn't work, I've had many students who were just genuinely shocked. They start hearing how many people are on death row who are innocent, and how some of those people are executed before their innocence could be firmly established, and they start to see the injustice in the system. And I also point out how if [the accused] have money, they’re much less likely to be executed. But poorer people, who have an overworked public defender, they’re more likely [to be executed].

NC: Some of the reasons why people support the death penalty include some falsities, such as the cost of it compared to keeping a violent offender in jail — it's far more expensive to execute someone. Secondly, a lot of people say the death penalty deters people from committing crimes. But surveys have shown that in many states where there is capital punishment, the murder rate is much higher. And a lot of people talk about how the death penalty gives family members a sense of closure. That has not been shown to be true at all. We have heard from countless family members over the years … many have said there is no closure that comes from it — it doesn't make you feel any better.

I am a campus minister and the Director of our Center for Social Concern here on campus. I always try to find ways in which we can connect faith with action for justice. Capital punishment is one of the many issues we try to get students to think about more deeply from a faith perspective — what the Catholic Church calls a consistent ethic of life perspective.

WT: I was the director of the CORE program for 11 years. As part of that I taught (and still teach) first-year CORE, a yearlong course combining English, history, philosophy and religious studies. The death penalty sometimes comes up in my seminar when we get into the 19th and 20th century. I’m a historian of American religion, and capital punishment is not exactly in my academic wheelhouse, but I have a very personal investment in the topic. I became pen pals and then great friends with a man on Missouri’s death row, Samuel McDonald. He was found guilty of murder. He asked me to witness his execution, which I did in 1997.

NC: Bob Stoughton has been a leader in the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative for many decades and he suggested we collaborate with an organization called the Catholic Mobilizing Network. They are in a Catholic anti-death penalty organization in Washington, D.C., that promotes an end to capital punishment. They recently, in 2023, started a program called Next Gen for Justice where they are building events in partnership with Catholic schools around the country. We wanted UD to be one of those schools and I knew the perfect person to be involved — Bill Trollinger. We were a great fit, as we started holding academic forums on the topic back in 2002. 

WT: Our latest will be a panel held in the Kennedy Union ballroom on Sept. 24.

NC: It will include Father Neil Kookoothe who was a spiritual adviser to a death row inmate, Joe D'Ambrosio, who later was exonerated thanks to him. He’s a priest and also a lawyer.

WT: Another person on the panel is Kwame Ajamu, a death row exoneree. Our third panelist is the Rev. Crystal Walker, mother of a murder victim, but she is opposed to the death penalty. Like her, there are people in that situation where you would think they want revenge. But instead, they understand that the capital punishment system is so flawed and so brutal, that they oppose it. And many of them are operating out of faith.

NC: I've had students in my Faith and Justice classes who have said, “I was always for the death penalty.” But then, after learning all of these practical reasons why the death penalty doesn’t work — the lack of equity, the cost, etc. — they think opposing it makes a lot more sense. Plus, they’re seeing it is rooted in the faith-based principle of the dignity of all human life.

WT: I can't say that they convert to opposition to the death penalty. I have no idea. But I can say, the response I often get is, “Why wasn’t I told this?” I do think some ended up changing their minds and getting involved, but I don't want to overstate that.

NC: But our hope is, some do. In the state of Ohio, there is bipartisan legislation that has been sitting in committees for a few years now. If this legislation makes its way to the floor for a vote, it will pass. The state of Ohio is very, very close to ending capital punishment. Since 1999, 56 executions have been carried out in Ohio. Our hope is for students and members of the community to take action — write a letter, send an email or call legislators in Ohio to encourage them to move this forward.

WT: It should be pretty obvious why Nick and I work together so well. We’ve been doing this for more than two decades. I think our work can be particularly moving and powerful, especially for our students.