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Death penalty opponents present interactive capital punishment

"Sociodrama" yields varying emotions from participants

About 20 people walked into the UA College of Law yesterday as students and teachers but soon took on the roles of murderer, victim and even lethal injection syringe.

These people were actors in an experiential "sociodrama," or an interactive exercise, illustrating the death row procedure from crime committal to the final moments of an execution.

Kathy Norgard, a local psychologist and co-founder of the Coalition of Arizonans to Abolish the Death Penalty, moderated the activity.

Norgard has been conducting death penalty sociodramas for about eight years and said she has seen participant reaction ranging from distance to tears.

By role-playing, Norgard said participants gain a first-person perspective of the execution process.

"It's becoming more personal," she said. "I think a lot of times we make decisions without putting our person into it."

The forum's attendees rotated roles of criminal, victim, witness, police officer, lawyer, judge, jury, family, victims' rights advocates - even motive, weapon and execution room gurney.

The initial breeziness of the role-playing game turned dramatic, though, the closer the prisoner got to his execution.

John Oestermann, a University of Arizona law student who portrayed the death row inmate, said he was surprised by the emotions that overcame him while he acted out the role of condemned prisoner.

Oestermann said he felt "terrified, alone (and) forgotten" when he took over the part of the murderer. He said he wanted to imagine how he would react if he were in a similar situation.

Oestermann, an opponent of the death penalty, likened capital punishment to the crimes that it is designated for.

"I think it's criminal," he said. "I don't want to be a murderer, and every time an execution occurs ... it's the same as if I am pulling a trigger myself."

Kristen Stanford, a UA law student, said she feels empathy for death row inmates but is undecided on the death penalty.

"I can understand both positions," Stanford said. "I think it's unrealistic to really have definite feelings until you're in their shoes."

The event was part of the College of Law's death penalty education week, which is offered in conjunction with the annual Arizona Civil Liberties Union Tucson dinner next week.