The integrity of the American judicial system is being questioned by a group of speakers who presented to students Wednesday night in Swen Parson Hall.

Law students Yvonne Cryns and Melanie Stibick coordinated efforts to bring speakers who have experienced the woes of the justice system to speak to students and faculty in a presentation titled, “Criminal Justice and the Death Penalty Program.”

“Having these kind of speakers talk to NIU students is fundamentally important,” said Stibick, a two-year law student and president of the NIU law school chapter of Amnesty International. “In school, students are usually given the same facts again and again. If students don’t come to see these speakers, they don’t learn anything new.”

NIU law student Mark Harper was a member of the panel of four and spoke on his own experiences with the American justice system.

Harper’s wife Julie was convicted in the 1997 murder of her 10-year-old son Joel and despite evidence to the contrary, has always maintained her innocence. She is in a retrial and also spoke to NIU students last night.

“When the police tell you ‘anything you say can and will be used against you,’ that’s exactly what they mean,” Mark said.

Panel members advocated their dissent with the death penalty and called for social and political change.

“It is incredibly important to remember that in the midst of all of this, there are victims,” said speaker Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins.

The sister and brother-in-law of Bishop-Jenkins were murdered in 1990 by a teenager who broke into their Winnetka home and shot them. Her sister Nancy was pregnant at the time of her shooting. When police arrived on the scene, they found a message that Nancy drew to her loved ones in her husband’s blood before she died. The message was the symbol of a heart and the letter “U.”

Despite the violent crimes committed against her family members, Bishop-Jenkins is a fervent advocator against capital punishment.

“Giving suspects the death penalty does not reduce the murder rate,” she said. “We live in an era with a very convoluted legal system, and this needs to be corrected.”

Many NIU students had a strong reaction to the presentation.

“It really opened my eyes,” said sophomore sociology major Delma White. “I was considering becoming a corrections officer, but I don’t know now. It makes me think that I could either be a part of the problem or the solution.”

The American justice system is the best in the world. However, it is also a system that is greatly flawed, Bishop-Jenkins said.

For more information about Harper’s case, visit justiceforjulieandjoel.org.