Corrections or additions?
This article by Henry Innes MacAdams was prepared for the
September 27, 2000 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights
reserved.
Centurion Ministries’ Mission
The most celebrated Princeton figure active in the death
penalty issue is James C. McCloskey III, once an international
management consultant, now executive director of Centurion Ministries.
Working on his own at first but now heading a team of five employees
and a
staff of volunteers based at 32 Nassau Street, he has helped secure
the release of 21 Americans and one Canadian who were imprisoned for
crimes they did not commit.
On Saturday, September 30, at 11 a.m. at Nassau Presbyterian Church,
McCloskey will moderate a panel that includes two former death row
inmates and the parents of a murdered girl.
Twenty-two years ago McCloskey could not have predicted what lay
ahead for him. That’s when he began to sense that his life in the
business world, where he worked introducing Japanese businessmen to
American markets, was coming to an end. "In the fall of 1978 it
occurred to me that the career I’d chosen since high school wasn’t
giving me what I needed in the spiritual realm," he says. "I
decided to renew my religious roots by becoming a minister in the
Presbyterian Church."
McCloskey informed his employer, the Hay Group, a Philadelphia-based
consulting firm, that he wanted a change. He was accepted into the
Master of Divinity program at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1979.
The next summer, while fulfilling his course work, he stumbled into
his first prison work, serving as a student chaplain at Trenton State
Prison.
Because he was an older student, then 38, McCloskey was assigned to
the maximum security unit, housing both the criminally insane, and
the lockdown area ("the Vrooom Room" in prison parlance).
"It’s for prisoners who have difficulties living with the regular
population of inmates," McCloskey says. "They’re placed in
it for punishment."
One of the inmates in the lockdown was Jorge de los Santos, serving
his sixth year of a life sentence for murder. "Jorge proclaimed
his innocence from the moment I met him," says McCloskey.
"He
got my immediate attention. I couldn’t believe someone innocent could
be sentenced to life. I had no prior experience with this kind of
thing."
The case of the wrongful conviction of Rubin `Hurricane’ Carter,
released
after 21 years in prison, made McCloskey think that perhaps something
could be done. He got hold of the trial transcripts and learned that
de los Santos had been convicted on the testimony of a professional
criminal and jailhouse "snitch." Investigating that case took
one year, which meant that study at the seminary was put on hold while
McCloskey formed a defense committee of jurists, attorneys, and
clergy,
secured the services of a defense lawyer, and conducted his own
investigation.
At the same time he raised $25,000 for legal expenses.
De los Santos was freed in 1983, the same year McCloskey completed
his masters of divinity degree. And by then he knew what his true
vocation would be.
Centurion Ministries was launched in 1983, on barely more than "a
wing and a prayer." The organization’s name, says McCloskey, is
taken from the New Testament’s Gospel of Luke (23:47), the passage
in which a Roman centurion acknowledges the innocence of Jesus at
the moment of the latter’s public execution for a capital offense.
"We help out where we can, when we can, however we can," says
McCloskey. "Our work doesn’t stop once we’ve helped to free
someone
who’s innocent of a crime. We also try to help reintegrate that person
into a life they might not have known for as many as 25 years."
— Henry Innes MacAdam
Centurion Ministries, 32 Nassau Street,
Princeton
08542. 609-921-0334; fax 609-921-6919. E-Mail: cenmin@aol.com.
For the review of a death penalty drama on Broadway, go to
www.princetoninfo.com/200009/00927p06.html
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Auditions
the musical, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,"
on Sunday, October 1, at the Ritz Theater, 915 White Horse Pike,
Oaklyn.
Performances will be January 18 through February 17. Bring a song
and be prepared to dance. To schedule, call 856-858-5230.
open auditions for the holiday musical, "’Twas the Night Before
Christmas," directed by Dan Spalluto, on Monday and Tuesday,
October
23 and 24, at 7 p.m. There are roles for adults and children ages
10 and up. Be prepared to sing and present a one-minute monologue.
Performances will be at Kelsey from December 15 through 17. No
appointments
needed.
through
60 for "Agnes of God." Auditions will be Monday and Tuesday,
October 23 and 24, at 7 p.m. Be prepared to sing a hymn of your choice
without accompaniment. No appointments.
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Participate Please
fundraiser at political satirist Mark Russell’s performance Saturday,
October 28, at State Theater, New Brunswick. The event celebrates
the 80th anniversaries of women’s right to vote and the league’s
founding.
Corporate and individual sponsorships are also needed to help the
League reach voters with nonpartisan information before Election Day.
Reception and show tickets are $80; deadline is September 29. Website:
www.LWVNJ.org or call 609-799-6272.
calendar
for the 2000-2001 season listing 21 professional theaters and 10
affiliate
theaters throughout the state. NJTG also offers its Theater Sampler
Series of any three plays for $60. Website:
For a free calendar call 973-593-0189 or e-mail: njtg@nj.com.
pointe,
jazz, tap, and pre-school dance in studios in Pennington and
Titusville.
Call Nancy Warner, 609-737-7596.
area clubs and organizations free space for meetings. The Residence
is located on Route 32, one mile from New Jersey Turnpike Exit 8A.
Call Carolann Koerner, 732-656-1000.
brochure for sighted people to understand how to interact with
visually
impaired people. For a copy of the brochure, "Assisting People
with Vision Loss," write to Public Relations Department, Jewish
Guild for the Blind, 15 West 65th Street, New York 10023; or call
212-769-6268.
Team Training Class beginning Saturday, October 7, at the Lawrence
Library. Community members volunteer their time to provide
companionship
and other services to maximize the quality of life for people with
terminal illnesses in Mercer County. Call Caryl Tipton at
609-815-3658.
to New York City, Thursday, October 19. Tour includes Grand Central
Terminal and the American Museum of Natural History. $50. Call
609-394-5310.
test kits are available for $8 at County Extension offices. To
purchase
a kit, call 609-989-6830. For soil testing information, call
732-932-9295.
multi-media learning boxes as an educational outreach effort to area
schools and youth organizations. Each box includes books, videos,
CDs, musical instruments, dolls, toys, games, that can be adapted
to meet the needs of students from K to 12. Native Technology boxes
include a seven-foot tepee. Call 610-797-2121.
the Asian Society in America (ASIA) have released ASIA’s first
membership
directory, also available in Braille and large-type editions. ASIA
is also working on a directory of Asian artists, arts groups, and
arts organizations. For a copy of the membership directory or
guidelines
for inclusion in the arts directory, call 732-745-4489.
concert trips to New York City, with round-trip bus transportation
between either Princeton or North Brunswick and New York, and time
for lunch or visiting before each performance. Saturday, November
4, the New York Philharmonic performs Brahms’ Symphony No. 1; on
January
27, the Philharmonic performs Strauss’s "Also sprach
Zarathustra";
and on April 14, it performs Kodaly’s "Variations on a Hungarian
Folksong"; tickets are $54 per person. Also, a February 17 outing
to the Metropolitan Museum of Art features music by Gershwin,
Ellington,
and Poulenc; tickets are $41 per person. Call 5609-921-7104.
head 12 = Volunteer Call
Team Training Class, beginning Saturday, October 7. at the Lawrence
Library. Community members volunteer their time to provide
companionship
and other services to maximize the quality of life for people with
terminal illnesses in Mercer County. Call Caryl Tipton at
609-815-3658.
County
seeks volunteers to service as mentors for juveniles referred by
Family
Court. They will work closely with the youth and his family under
the guidance and supervision of court officers. Training is provided.
Call Joelyn Bobin at 732-249-6330.
Donations Wanted
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