CHOSING MERCY

 The University of Connecticut Litchfield County Writers Project will host the controversial writer Antoinette Bosco on October 18 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM.  As part of the Writers Project’s fall lecture series “Writers of Litchfield County: Nonfiction and Memoir,” Bosco will discuss her book Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty . The event will take place in the Francis W. Hogan Lecture Hall within the M. Adela Eads Classroom at the University of Connecticut Torrington Campus . The event is free and open to the public. A reception and book signing will follow.

  Antoinette Bosco’s son and daughter-in-law were murdered in 1993 yet, in time, her grief transformed into forgiveness.  Widely known as the leading proponent against the death penalty, she has forgiven her son’s killer and, for over a decade, visited regional prisons to speak to inmates about the consequences of action and the personal fight against recidivism.  As a syndicated columnist with the national Catholic News Service for years, Bosco has penned over 200 magazine articles and several thousand newspaper stories, mostly on the subject of capital punishment.   

   Antoinette Bosco was honored with the Wisdom Award sponsored by the Wisdom House retreat and conference center in Litchfield , CT for her contribution to the community.  A Brookfield resident, Bosco was Executive Editor at The Litchfield County Times from 1982 to 1995.  When she last spoke at UConn Torrington, Bosco described the murder of her son and daughter-in-law to an English class. Her initial reaction was retribution, but Bosco remarked in an article in The Register Citizen that “In this country of ours we nurture violence and to me the death penalty is another form of violence.  I’d rather have a society where we have punishment, not vengeance and where we don’t kill.”

    “ Choosing Mercy is a book that I regard as one at the intersection of the memoir genre and nonfiction, specifically current affairs, dealing with the issue of capital punishment,” says Litchfield County Writers Project Director and Lecturer Davyne Verstandig.  “I am both honored and delighted to welcome back to the UConn Torrington Campus Toni Bosco, a long time member of the advisory board of the LCWP .

   Recipient of the Walter Everett Humanitarian Award for her work in the advancement of human rights, prize-winning journalist Antoinette Bosco has authored over a dozen books.  She holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the College of St. Rose in Albany, where she received her Bachelor degree.  She was also awarded the college’s Lifetime Achievement Award.  Bosco is a member of several human rights groups, including Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty.  

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