Glen Edward Chapman, an innocent man recently released from North Carolina’s death row, will speak at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, April 2, at UNC Asheville’s Humanities Lecture Hall. He will be joined by UNC Asheville Psychology Department Chair Pamela Laughon who served as a mitigation specialist on his case. The free talk is sponsored by UNC Asheville’s Psychology Department.

Erroneously charged the murder of two women, Chapman spent 14 years on death row. Laughon and her students worked for years to secure Chapman a new trial. In December of 2007, the court determined that Chapman's first trial was flawed and unfair, vacating both of his death sentences. In April of 2008, the district attorney of Catawba County declined to retry Chapman for either murder and dismissed both murder charges against him. Chapman was released from death row on April 2, 2008, becoming the seventh exonerated death row inmate in North Carolina. Because he was released without any compensation from the state, Laughon stepped in again. She has helped provide housing and job opportunities for Chapman since his release.

Laughon and Chapman continue to work together raising awareness of the complexity of death penalty issues. Their story has been featured in national and local media and they have spoken widely, including at Elon College of Law and UNC Chapel Hill College of Law. Laughon’s work on the case served as a forum for UNC Asheville students, who lent a hand to the mitigation and continue to learn from it.

For more information about Chapman and Laughon’s talk, call UNC Asheville’s Psychology Department at 828/251-6422.