Syl Schieber ’72 M.A., ’74 Ph.D., and his wife, Vicki, have made a generous gift to support Notre Dame Law School’s Death Penalty Abolition Week for the next five years. Their contribution will help ensure the event’s continuation and support the Law School’s efforts to raise awareness of the tragic miscarriages of justice caused by wrongful convictions, affirm the sanctity of human life, and advocate for the abolition of the death penalty. This latest gift builds on a previous gift from the Schiebers in fall 2025 supporting Death Penalty Abolition Week.
In March 2025, Notre Dame Law School hosted its inaugural Death Penalty Abolition Week, a four-day series of events aimed at confronting the realities of wrongful convictions and sparking critical conversations about the use of the death penalty. Organized by the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic and the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights, the inaugural program brought together a range of institutional partners and student organizations. The second annual Death Penalty Abolition Week, held in March 2026, expanded this collaboration further, with the Notre Dame Institute for Social Concerns joining as a sponsor and additional student organizations participating as co-sponsors.
Distinguished speakers—including death row exonerees, abolition advocates, and experts in criminal justice reform—shared firsthand accounts and discussed systemic issues tied to wrongful convictions and capital punishment, such as racial bias and the fundamental violation of human dignity inherent in the death penalty.
Featured speakers have included Dr. Yusef Salaam, Central Park Five exoneree and New York City Councilman; Ohio death row exonerees Lamont Hunter and Elwood Jones, both represented by attorney Erin Gallagher Barnhart ’05 J.D. in separate cases; Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States; the Honorable Bob Morris, Indiana Representative; Anthony Ray Hinton, death row exoneree and author of the novel The Sun Does Shine; Donna Schneweis, director of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty; and Sarah Craft, interim director of the Indiana Abolition Coalition.
Syl Schieber also spoke at both the inaugural and second annual Death Penalty Abolition Week, sharing a powerful testimony rooted in faith, forgiveness, and justice. After his 23-year-old daughter, Shannon, was raped and murdered in 1998, Schieber and his wife made the decision to oppose capital punishment for her killer. Guided by their Catholic faith and belief in the sanctity of human life, the Schiebers have since become leading voices in the national movement to abolish the death penalty. He shared his story at the inaugural Death Penalty Abolition Week last year and, this year, moderated a panel discussion titled “A Call to Action” with panelists Schneweis and Craft, reflecting on how he turned his grief into action.
Through their gift supporting Death Penalty Abolition Week at Notre Dame Law School over the next five years, the Schiebers reaffirm their commitment to faith, forgiveness, and the abolition of the death penalty. Professor Jimmy Gurulé, director of the Exoneration Justice Clinic, stated that “while the generous gift from Syl and Vicki Schieber will continue to support the Death Penalty Abolition Week for the next five years, the ultimate goal is to abolish the death penalty in Indiana within that period of time, if not sooner.”
Originally published by at law.nd.edu on May 13, 2026.