Rolando Cruz, who spent 11 years on death row and had two murder convictions overturned before he was acquitted at his third trial, will speak at Cornell Law School at 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19 in Room G90 of Myron Taylor Hall.

Note: this event was originally scheduled for Feb. 12, but was postponed due to an airline connection problem.

Cruz's visit to Cornell is sponsored by the Law School's Death Penalty Project and is free and open to the public.

Cruz and two other men were charged with the murder of a 10-year-old DuPage County (Ill.) girl, Jeanine Nicarico, in 1985; and Cruz and one other man were convicted and sentenced to death. Shortly thereafter, another man, Brian Dugan, was arrested and charged in a similar case and subsequently admitted to three murders, including that of Jeanine Nicarico. Dugan never formally confessed to the Nicarico killing, because prosecutors were unwilling to drop the death penalty as punishment for the crime.

The convictions of Cruz and his co-defendant were overturned in 1988 because of trial error. The two were then retried, convicted and sentenced to death again. In 1994, the second conviction was overturned and a third trial was ordered. During that trial, a key state witness admitted having perjured himself at the previous trials, and the government's case against Cruz vanished. After Cruz was acquitted, the state dropped all charges against his co-defendant as well. The judge set Cruz free in November 1995.

Cruz's visit to Cornell follows the November visit, also sponsored by the Cornell Death Penalty Project, of the death penalty-phase attorneys for Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.

"These lectures and presentations are part of what the Death Penalty Project is about, raising awareness and fostering discussion of the issues surrounding capital punishment," said project director John Blume, a South Carolina lawyer and visiting Cornell law professor.

The recent execution of pickax murderer Karla Faye Tucker in Texas further intensified debate and has been the focus of considerable classroom discussion, Blume said. The fact that her case received such widespread media attention, as opposed to other death penalty cases, was part political and part physical, he noted.

"I believe it's partly because she was an articulate, attractive white female that people could identify with," Blume said. "On top of that we had her word of a religious conversion as well as interest from conservative quarters that usually support the death penalty. The fact that Pat Robertson was coming to her aid was considerable."

The project's Death Penalty Clinic pairs students with defense attorneys who are representing death row inmates in an appeal of their convictions. The work of the clinic centers primarily around the post-conviction process, immersing students in investigative work and, where possible, taking them to crime scenes. Aside from the educational aspects of the clinic, it also aims to provide death-row inmates with qualified counsel and other resources.

There are also plans for the Death Penalty Project to work in collaboration with other law-related associations, such as the American Bar Association, to develop training programs for court-appointed counsel in capital cases, as well as assist in the development ofamicus curiae strategies. Future projects include producing a national litigation manual and developing new relationships between academics and attorneys.

The visit by Cruz to Cornell underscores one of the chief arguments against the death penalty: that an innocent person may be executed.

"I think we're going to hear a lively discussion," Blume said.