Our speakers’ bureau includes people who will make presentations to your organization, faith community or class about the death penalty. Reasons for opposition are as varied as the people who discuss them. Our speakers run the gamut between professionals in law and related fields to folks who have lost a loved one to murder and/or execution.
To request a speaker, call 405-532-5443 and we will follow up with you regarding your request.
Our Speakers
Elizabeth Overman, Ph.D., M.L.S., President of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, serves on the Executive Board of the Conference of Minority Public Administrators, assistant editor of The Journal of Public Management and Social Policy, national treasurer of the American Society for Public Administration Section on Ethics & Integrity. She is author, among other publications, of “Education Oklahoma” and “Education is a Class Issue” (Oklahoma Government & Politics), and The Etiology of Transnational Health Security in the Age of Globalization (Handbook of Globalization, Governance, and Public Administration). In 2015, Overman co-directed the Oklahoma Lynching Project
Bud Welch used to feel that the death penalty was a reasonable way to punish people who took the lives of others. He operated a gas station, went to church, and was a “regular guy.” Then, Bud lost his daughter Julie in the 1995 bombing of the OKC Murray Building, and found that his previous ideas about life, death, and the meaning of forgiveness had changed. He has become friends with the father of Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for the federal building bombing. Bud spends his time spreading the message of reconciliation. Bud is a board member of Murder Victims Families for Human Rights.
Dr. Susan Sharp Crow, PhD, is Emertius Professor of Sociology and L. J. Semrod Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma, and former OK-CADP president/chair. Her book, Hidden Victims, is a compelling glimpse into the lives of family members of people on death row. She offers a scholarly look at the way we try, convict, and execute people, including some possibly innocent, and the effects of our criminal justice system on families, communities, and the rule of law.
A longtime anti-death penalty advocate, Nathaniel Batchelder is a Vietnam veteran with a BA in Biology from Oklahoma City University. After careers in Public Education and Publicity at the Omniplex Science Museum and OKC Zoo, Batch became a volunteer with the Sisters of Benedict at their Peace Center in the 1980s, addressing US military policy in Central America and the nuclear arms race. Director of The Peace House since 1990, he works on its mission of human and civil rights, economic justice, environmental sustainability, and peace.
In 2019, Sue Hosch became an abolitionist while fighting for the life of Julius Jones, an innocent man on death row. Sue is an advocate in touch with most of the prisoners currently serving on Oklahoma’s death row. She also communicated with most who have been executed in recent years. Sue holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Florida State University. She works to humanize every person on death row and to support family members and friends both before and after a loved one’s execution.
Susan Bishop moved from New England to Oklahoma after receiving her Bachelor’s degree to work at the Oklahoma City Veterans Administration Center. After receiving her Master’s degree from University of Oklahoma she expanded the mission of the VA’s Recreation program. She retired after 35 years as a Kinesiotherapist and Chief of Therapeutic Recreation Services. A member of First Unitarian Church of OKC, the principles of Unitarianism called her to become a death penalty abolitionist.
Connie Johnson is a former Oklahoma State Senator and a 33-year veteran of the Oklahoma Legislature. She focuses on issues that affect the economic and social well being of Oklahoma’s poor, minorities, women, children, people with disabilities, and from diverse backgrounds. She advocates for sentencing reform and abolishing the death penalty. She received the Phil Wahl Abolitionist of the Year award in 2013 and, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and Langston University with a Master’s Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling. She is the current Executive Board Secretary.
Rev. Don Heath, a former chair of OK-CADP, has been the pastor of Disciples Christian Church in Edmond since 2007. He received his Masters of Divinity degree with high honors (summa cum laude) from Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa. Heath practices law with the firm of Hirsch, Heath & White, PLLC in Oklahoma City focusing on oil and gas and real property law. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Oklahoma School of Law.