A fraction of the law school's student body voted Thursday to support a national moratorium on executions-a move that makes it one of the first to support such a statement. But attention has shifted from the outcome itself to whether the Duke Bar Association, which oversaw the vote, should hold votes on controversial political issues.
"There's been a move recently in the country for organizations, churches, schools to come out and officially support a moratorium," said Kevin Paul, the law student who arranged for the referendum. "We as future lawyers are going out into this system that is not serving justice."
But several law students were concerned that the vote was not representative: Only about 200 students-or about one-third-voted.
Sixty four percent of them supported the resolution.
According to the DBA's constitution, a referendum will be called if any member collects 10 percent of the student body's signatures supporting an issue.
All law school students are required to become dues-paying members of the organization.
DBA President Miriam Goldsmith, a second-year law student, said the organization will probably take a new look at whether it should take political stances.
"The DBA doesn't want to isolate any students. We don't want students to feel like we're speaking from another perspective than theirs...," she said, adding that she does not remember a referendum on any other controversial issue. "I don't want to see the DBA be the place where people can bring their issues and get Duke law school's name attached."
Opponents of the vote argued that the low voter turnout could misrepresent the student body's position.
"I don't want it to be seen that we were taking a solid stance on this issue...," said Gideon Moore, chair of Duke Law Republicans, "especially when you deal with such a divisive issue of heart like the death penalty."
But Paul maintained that students had an opportunity to vote and that the moratorium's opponents could have campaigned against it.
Even with the controversy around the DBA's role, national proponents of the moratorium said the vote has some significance.
In 1997, the American Bar Association passed a resolution supporting a death penalty moratorium and has since encouraged other organizations to do the same.
"The significance of the ABA's resolution was that this is a group of lawyers commenting about dysfunction in the legal system," said Liz Semel, director of the ABA's death penalty representation project, stressing that the resolution was not meant as a religious or moral statement.
She added that she knew of no other law school where the student body voted to support the resolution. "Because it's a great school, it matters," she said.
Still, even DBA officials downplayed the vote. "I wouldn't put too much significance [on it]...," said DBA Vice President Mark Simmelkjaer. "This is a very, very unique instance."
Richard Rubin contributed to this story.
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