You do not want to miss NADP’s Annual Event and Silent Auction this year!
When: Thursday, September 26th 7:00-8:30pm Where: Harper Center at Creighton University 602 N. 20th Street Omaha, NE 68178
Keynote Address:
Bud Welch became an ardent spokesperson against the death penalty after his daughter, Julie, along with 167 others, was killed in the bomb blast that destroyed the Murray Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Welch has testified before 22 state legislative bodies, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, the Russian Duma, and the British and European Parliaments, in addition to addressing numerous groups at universities, law schools, and religious organizations across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He serves as the President of the board of directors of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights and was a member of the board of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation. For his work as an anti-death penalty activist, he has received several “abolitionist of the year” awards and other honors and been interviewed for numerous print and broadcast news stories.
C.A. Sorensen Award:
Steve Lathrop was born and raised in Omaha. After graduating from Roncalli High School, he attended Creighton University where he earned a degree in Business Administration and a Juris Doctorate. Senator Lathrop is currently a Partner with the law firm of Hauptman, O’Brien, Wolf, and Lathrop. He is a member of the Nebraska State Bar Association, the Omaha Bar Association, and the American Association for Justice.
Senator Lathrop was elected to the Unicameral in 2006 and reelected in 2010. He serves as Chair of both the Business & Labor and the Developmental Disabilities Special Investigative Committees. Senator Lathrop has demonstrated his enduring commitment to death penalty repeal by helping advance the repeal bill to the Unicameral floor several times in his role as vice-chair of Judiciary Committee. He has also helped organize and lead a coordinated effort to educate his colleagues in the body about the need to repeal this failed, broken policy.
Angel of Mercy Award:
Bill Thornton has served in local church ministry as a pastor for 35 years and recently began teaching full-time at a Christian college in the area of pastoral ministry. He and his wife, Marcia, are the parents of four adult children and grandparents of four grandsons. They live in Lincoln, Nebraska, where they are actively involved in a community development non-profit, Jacob’s Well, that seeks to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the marginalized who live downtown.
Bill became a key player in NADP’s work in the last year by using his voice as an evangelical leader to speak out against the injustices inherent in the death penalty system. He was the first evangelical leader to speak before the judiciary committee in support of the death penalty repeal bill. His instrumental role helped drive the committee to advance the bill to the floor with an historic 7-0 vote.