Lindy Lou Wells, the subject of the 2017 documentary “Lindy Lou, Juror Number 2,” will attend a free screening of the film at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12 in the Kemper Recital Hall inside Spratt Hall at Missouri Western State University. A reception in the Walter Cronkite Memorial in the Spratt Hall Atrium precedes the screening at 6 p.m., and Wells will make a brief presentation after the film. The event is free and open to the public.
Lindy Lou, a woman from rural Mississippi, always thought she could easily give the death penalty. Then she sat on a jury that handed down a death sentence to a man convicted in a double homicide. Twenty years later, Lindy traveled through Mississippi and interviewed 11 jurors alongside whom she sentenced a man to death.
“Every citizen in Missouri faces the possibility of participating on a capital jury, and it is a part of civic education to understand the full ramifications of this process,” said Staci Pratt, executive director of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, one of the organizations hosting the screening. “Every death sentence has a lasting human cost and impacts every individual in its proximity, including jurors.”
The event is co-hosted by the Legal Studies Association at Missouri Western.
Missouri Western State University is a comprehensive regional university providing a blend of traditional liberal arts and professional degree programs. The university offers student-centered, high quality instruction that focuses on experience-based learning, community service, and state-of-the-art technology. Missouri Western is located in St. Joseph, Mo., and is committed to the educational, economic, cultural and social development of the region it serves. Visit www.missouriwestern.edu.