<p>*Carolina students, faculty and staff:</p>
<p>I write you on behalf of the 2007 Summer Reading Program Book Selection Committee, which I have had the pleasure of chairing since early autumn. It has been our challenge and our honor to select a book that we believe will be well read and provide much to discuss as new students prepare for their first year at Carolina.</p>
<p>With input from a wide array of Carolina students, faculty and staff, our nine-member committee of students, faculty and staff has chosen "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions," by Sister Helen Prejean, for incoming students to read and discuss.</p>
<p>This was the committee's clear choice from the list of 218 books, types of books or general topics with which we began.</p>
<p>Of the five books that made it to the final round of our selection process, only "The Death of Innocents" was in the top three on every
member's list. Other finalists were "Honky" by Dalton Conley, "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan, "The Wal-Mart Effect" by Charles Fishman, and "With These Hands: The Hidden World of Migrant Farmworkers Today" by Daniel Rothenberg.</p>
<p>Committee members praised "The Death of Innocents" as a narrative that, while compelling and moving, is told calmly and with tolerance for all sides of the contentious issue of the death penalty in the United States.</p>
<p>As a staff member serving on the committee said: "(`The Death of Innocents') raises critical issues that everyone should think about,
including choice, trust, responsibility, justice, belief. It will take readers beyond their current selves."</p>
<p>A student committee member wrote: "Prejean takes a strong stance against the death penalty but handles the opposing viewpoint with sensitivity and professionalism. Students on both sides of the argument will be forced to reevaluate and defend their ideology and will be empowered by Prejean's characters."</p>
<p>Published in 2005, "The Death of Innocents" is Prejean's nonfiction account of her relationships with two death-row convicts, their families and individuals on either side of the death-penalty debate during the time leading to the convicts' executions. She maintains that both were wrongfully given the death penalty.</p>
<p>We believe the reading and discussion of this book by incoming students and other members of the Carolina community will help advance a climate in which students can come to their own conclusions and articulate their views effectively. We found this book to be an engaging read and hope that others will as well.</p>
<p>Many thanks to all of those who submitted suggestions this year and have otherwise made this process possible. We have enjoyed the challenge and we hope that everyone finds the book and the topics it addresses engaging, challenging and thought-provoking. Additional information about this year's program will be added over the coming months a <a href="http://www.unc.edu/srp/%5B/url%5D">http://www.unc.edu/srp/</a>.</p>
<p>-- Douglas G. Kelly, committee chairman and professor of statistics and operations research, College of Arts & Sciences*</p>