Scales of Justice: Jewish Justices and the Death Penalty

The death penalty is still a debated subject today, as it has been for much of American history. Bipartisan legislation to ban the death penalty is presently pending before the Ohio legislature, in SB 103 and HB 183. How would Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg approach this life or death issue, were she a legislator? How did she approach it as a Justice?

Join Professor Marge Koosed, the Aileen McMurray Trusler Professor Emeritus at The University of Akron School of Law and the Board Chair of Ohioans to Stop Executions, for a talk on the legacy of Justice Ginsburg and other Jewish Supreme Court Justices, including Justices Felix Frankfurter, Arthur Goldberg, and Stephen Breyer, in shaping and questioning America’s death penalty system. Professor Koosed examines judicial opinions issued by Justice Ginsburg and other Jewish justices, historic and contemporary, to discuss how values central to Judaism guided these opinions and what we can learn from these opinions today.

We are proud to present this program in connection to the special exhibition, Notorious: RBG: The Life & Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, presented locally by PNC Bank.

Thank you to our programming partner: ACLU of Ohio