Facing Conflict / Making Peace:

Meditations on Activism

We would like to thank Bespoke Cuisine and Calihan Catering for their generous donations of food and beverages for this event.

Death Penalty Forum - April 13, 2005 

with Jane Bohman and Gary Gauger

Jane Bohman

Jane Bohman, Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP), brings to her position extensive experience in organizing and administering a grassroots campaign. From 1993-1998, she represented the United Auto Workers union in its historic labor dispute with Caterpillar, which resulted in the prosecution of the greatest number of unfair labor practices against a single employer in National Labor Relations Board history. Her commitment to activism and to ending the death penalty led her to serve on the ICADP Board and then the staff of the Coalition and its Moratorium Project. From August 2000 until her October 2001 appointment as Executive Director, Jane served as Program Director for the Moratorium Project and Coalition. She implemented the education and organizing work of the organizations, concentrating on initiating and strengthening ties with other grassroots criminal justice reform and anti-death penalty organizations. She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. 

Jane is an Order of the Coif graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law (1993) and received her Bachelor’s Degree with honors in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago (1988). She was President of the National Lawyers’ Guild at Kent and served on the Chicago Board of Directors of the organization from 1991-1993. In June 2004, Jane was named by Crain's Chicago Business as one of Chicago's 100 most influential women.

Gary Gauger

Gary Gauger was falsely accused and convicted of the murder of his parents in 1993. His conviction was based on perjured testimony of three police officers who fabricated a confession based on distortion of the events that occurred during an 18 hour interrogation and the testimony of a jailhouse snitch who received early release in exchange for testifying that Gauger had twice confessed to him. An independent investigation by the Federal government revealed that two members of the Wisconsin Outlaws motorcycle club had murdered the Gaugers in a botched robbery. They have since been tried and convicted.

Since his arrest and wrongful conviction, Gary has given the death penalty considerable thought. Death for death is an escalation and continuation of society's murderous domination of the weak and disenfranchised. If we desire to transcend our murderous past and grow as enlightened and loving beings that we have the potential to be, we must demonstrate forgiveness and compassion to all our members, and recognize that we are all fundamentally one. How one member of society treats another affects everyone. We must break the chain of violence.

Gary currently farms his family's land with his wife Sue.