The Beginning of the End for the Death Penalty in Louisiana?

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Featuring:

Gary Clements

Director of Capital Post-Conviction Project of La. (CPCPL)

Gary Clements has devoted the majority of his adult life to public interest work.  Before becoming licensed in 1992 by the Texas and Louisiana Bars, Mr. Clements was involved in labor relations as a union organizer and representative with the United Farm Workers of America and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.  Since 1992, he has spent the majority of his 22-year legal career representing indigent clients on Louisiana’s death row.  A common thread runs through his diverse professional experiences: with persistence and devotion, he has found that he can win justice for his clients, despite opponents who command far superior economic resources. 

At Loyola New Orleans Law School, Mr. Clements was a founding member of the Public Interest Law Group which spearheaded the launching of the seventh loan forgiveness program at a law school by 1991. 

His legal work in capital defense began as a summer intern in 1990 financed by a public-interest-fund.  He helped build a constitutional challenge against the electric chair in Louisiana. Although that claim lost in federal court, Louisiana legislators voted to dump the electric chair in 1991 (although they briefly considered reviving it in the 2014 legislative session).  Gary spearheaded the legal challenge of lethal injection in Louisiana, first in state court litigation lasting from 1995 to 2011, and now, assisting others in federal civil rights litigation in the Middle District of Louisiana.  Mr. Clements has trained attorneys in Missouri, Virginia and elsewhere on how to develop effective Eight Amendment challenges to lethal injection.  This lethal injection challenge has contributed in great part to the scarcity of executions in Louisiana in recent times: Louisiana has executed only a single person (a volunteer who abandoned his appeals) in the last 12 years.            

 Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am - Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am - Noon- Featured Presentation

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact Brad Ott at (504) 269-4951 or email to info@thecommunitybreakfast.org.

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983.

What Would a Sensible Health System Look Like?

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Featuring:

  Elmore Rigamer, MD, MPA and Dr. Rade M. Pejic, MD, Co-Chairs
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) New Orleans Chapter

Elmore F. Rigamer, MD, MPA, is Medical Director for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans where he currently directs several disaster relief programs for victims of the Katrina hurricane disaster. He opened first the Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) in New Orleans.

As co-founder and chairman of the Partnership for Access to Total Health (PATH), a coalition sponsored by the four Catholic Health Care organizations in Louisiana to improve systems of care of the medically under-served, he has worked to enhance the exchange of information between community health clinics and the Medical Center of Louisiana, develop organizational partnerships to implement population based health programs in  two pilot communities in New Orleans, and test models of coordinating social services and medical care for the uninsured.
    
Prior to joining Catholic Charities, Dr. Rigamer served the US Department of State as Medical Director advising the Secretary of State on international health issues while overseeing the health care of Foreign Service diplomats and their families.  He also served the US Department of State as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Medical Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Mental Health, Director of Mental Health Services, and Regional Psychiatrist for Europe, the Soviet Union, and South Asia.  Dr. Rigamer has also held positions with Kaiser Permanente Health Maintenance Organization and the Ochsner Clinic as well as served as a Peace Corps Volunteer Physician in Monrovia, Liberia.

Dr. Rigamer is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Board of Child Psychiatry, a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program and Alpha Omega Alpha.  Dr. Rigamer received his training in psychiatry at The New York Hospital- Cornell University an Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He received his MPA from Harvard University.  

------------

Dr. Rade M. Pejic, MD., FACS., is currently a surgeon in private practice and has practiced in various capacities for over forty years. He has a Chemistry degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a M.D. degree from University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Pejic is also a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Pejic spent two years in Viet Nam on two US Navy Hospital ships, the USS REPOSE AND USS SANCTUARY, from 1968 to 1970, performing major trauma surgery on American Marines, Army and Air Force military soldiers. "At that time," said Dr. Pejic, "I basically experienced how a "One payer Health Care System" would function."
Dr. Pejic completed his General Surgery Residency at the PORTSMOUTH NAVAL HOSPITAL in 1972 and became Board Certified in Surgery in 1973. He also completed a Cardiovascular Fellowship in Detroit in 1978 and have been practicing General, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery since 1978. Dr. Pejic said he also "had an opportunity to see how pure socialized medicine was practiced in Yugoslavia (now Serbia)" where he lived for several years (as an American citizen).
 -----

Both Doctors Rigamer and Pejic have been active members of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), the world's leading physician Single-Payer health organization, which recently just had its national conference in New Orleans.

 Location:

First Unitarian Universalist Church

5212 South Claiborne Av. New Orleans 

(Enter via posted signs at Soniat and South Claiborne)

10am - Progressive, Social Justice Community Networking

with Coffee, Juice and Light Breakfast Pastries*

11am - Noon- Featured Presentation

*$3.00 suggested donation

For more information, contact Brad Ott at (504) 269-4951 or email to info@thecommunitybreakfast.org.

Held every second Saturday of each month, the Gillespie Memorial Community Breakfast has been a project of the First Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee 

since May 1983.