Last night, students, faculty and community members gathered at the Eisenhower Chapel to engage in "A Discussion About the Death Penalty."

The program, which was presented by Amnesty International Penn State and the Center for Ethnics and Religious Affairs, featured keynote speaker Nicholas Yarris.

Yarris, 42, was exonerated from death row on September 3, 2003, after being convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of Linda Craig, and serving 22 years in prison. Yarris was the 112th person exonerated in the United States and the sixth in Pennsylvania.

Yarris talked about his time spent in a jail cell and at court hearings.

"I was perceived as every broken [person] in the newspaper you see today," Yarris said.

Yarris recalled not feeling the touch of a human being for 14 years and having no one to believe in him, but in 1988, Yarris said he found hope in a newspaper article about DNA testing.

Yarris said when he spoke up, a lot of people were scared and began destroying evidence from his case. After Yarris wrote 22 letters and a plea to be executed to judges and prosecutors, it was announced on July 2, 2003, that the DNA evidence did not match Yarris'. He said his lawyers finally believed him.

"That's crazy because I stopped saying I was innocent 10 years ago," Yarris said. "It became a sour taste in my mouth."

Yarris said the time he spent in prison was a gift and helped him grow educationally and spirituality.

"Locking me in a cell 23 hours a day was a blessing in disguise," Yarris said. "I went to prison with an eighth grade education. My growth -- whether it be educationally or spiritually -- was all man-made because there was no humanity."

Yarris shared about the day he left the prison and the gratitude and support he received from the prison guards.

"Guards from all over the compound came to shake my hand for how I held myself," he said. "I remember what it was like to be silent, to be treated like a rapist. I'm a good and decent man, and I deserve that right."

After Yarris spoke, a panel, including Amnesty International Penn State coordinator Matthew Cullen, political science professor James Eisenstein, Amnesty International Penn State death penalty coordinator Eric Liddick, and crime, law and justice and political science assistant Professor Lisa Miller, discussed the death penalty.

Eisenstein said the death penalty is consistent with the values of American society.

"We have a very violent culture. Putting people to death goes with that. It's not consistent, but it is consistent with other values way back when," Eisenstein said.

Liddick said the one thing uncivilized countries and the United States have in common is the death penalty.

"None of these countries value life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," Liddick said.

Yarris said many of the audience's views on the death penalty may differ, but until one experiences death row, his or her views may change.

"You can have the luxury to believe in the death penalty or not, but it doesn't touch you until it becomes personal," he said.

Yarris said the United States has the best judicial system, but it needs a more uniform death penalty.

"I was going to be professionally killed," Yarris said. "The more we make it humane, the more we make a mock out of it."

"The only way to stop the fallacies in the death penalty is in the colleges today," he said. "In 10 years, someone's going to have the decency to say, 'I can't support it any longer.' "