Love Lived on Death Row

"Love Lived on Death Row" Film Screening
Thursday, November 2, 2023
7:00 pm

Duke University
Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Room C105
114 S. Buchanan Blvd.
Durham, NC 27701

Join the Duke Human Rights Center for a screening of the film "Love Lived on Death Row," the third film in the 2023-2024 Rights! Camera! Action! Film Series. Love Lived on Death Row tells the story of the four Syriani siblings whose father was sentenced to die for the murder of their mother in 1990, and Meg Eggleston, who became their father’s friend and spiritual advisor through letters to him in prison. Orphaned and estranged, the Syriani children raised themselves while they lived with hate, anger and confusion as the man they could only refer to as “Him Him” lived on death row. But in 2004 they collectively decided to visit him in prison, seeking answers so they could move on with their adult lives. What transpired that day was a miracle of forgiveness followed by a journey of healing, restoring family memories and then a battle for his clemency.

Love Lived on Death Row is more than an incredible story of forgiveness and love. It is a story of tragic loss, transformation, hope and how capital punishment affects the families of death row inmates.

Co-Sponsored by the NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, and The Center for Death Penalty Litigation. 

Post-Screening Panelists

Image	Meg Eggleston is a retired public school teacher who lives in Greensboro, NC. She became a pen pal, friend, and spiritual adviser to Elias Syriani, who spent fifteen years on North Carolina’s death row. She helped facilitate a reunion with his four children before he was executed in 2005, and was with them as they pleaded with the governor to spare his life. She loves to walk in nature and spend time with her twelve grandchildren.
Image	Henderson Hill was the founder and first director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. He previously worked as a public defender in Washington, DC, a partner at the civil rights law firm, Ferguson Stein Chambers, and as director of the Federal Defenders of Western NC. He served as founding director of the 8th Amendment Project, and currently serves as Senior Counsel at the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, and co-director of the initiative RedressNC.
Image	Andy Van Pachtenbeke is a political counselor at the Embassy of Belgium in the United States. His portfolio includes Human Rights issues. Previously he was Belgium’s Deputy Permanent Delegate to UNESCO in Paris. Before embarking on a diplomatic career, Andy spent over ten years as an attorney specialized in Constitutional Law and a Human Rights lecturer at Ghent University in Belgium. He (co-)authored several articles and book contributions with a focus on the European Convention on Human Rights. As a lecturer, he also coached Ghent University’s team for the Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition.