We need to talk about an injustice Bryan Stevenson

this is a really extraordinary honor for

me I spend most of my time in jails and

prisons on death row I spend most of my

time in very low-income communities and

the projects in places where there’s a

great deal of hopelessness and being

here at Ted and and seeing the

stimulation hearing it has been very

very energizing to me and one of the

things that’s emerged in my short time

here is that ted has an identity and you

can actually say things here that have

impacts around the world and sometimes

when it comes through Ted it has meaning

and power that it doesn’t have when it

doesn’t and I mention that because I

think identity is really important we’ve

had some fantastic presentations and I

think what we’ve learned is that if

you’re a teacher your words can be

meaningful but if you’re a compassionate

teacher they can be especially

meaningful if you’re a doctor you can do

some good things but if you’re a caring

doctor you can do some other things and

so I want to talk about the power of

identity and I didn’t learn about this

actually practicing law and doing the

work that I do I actually learned about

this from my grandmother I grew up in a

house that was the traditional African

American home that was dominated by a

matriarch and that matriarch was my

grandmother

as she was tough she was strong she was

powerful she was the end of every

argument in our family she was the

beginning of a lot of arguments in our

family she was the daughter of people

who were actually enslaved her parents

were born in slavery in Virginia in the

1840s she was born in the 1880s and the

experience of slavery very much shaped

the way she saw the world and my mother

and my grandmother was tough but she was

also loving when I would see her as a

little boy she’d come up to me and she’d

give me these hugs and she’d squeeze me

so tight I could barely breathe and then

she’d let me go

and an hour or two later if I saw her

she’d come over to me to say Brian do

you still feel me hugging you and if I

said no she’d assault me again and I’ve

had to say yes she’d leave me alone and

then she just had this quality you

always wanted to be near her and the

only challenge was that she had ten

children my mom was the youngest of her

ten kids and sometimes when I would go

in

spend time with her it’d be difficult to

get her time and attention my cousins

would be running around everywhere and I

remember when I was about eight or nine

years old waking up one morning going

into the living room and all of my

cousins were running around and my

grandmother was sitting across the room

staring at me and at first I thought we

were playing a game and I would look at

her and I’d smile but she was very

serious and after about 15 or 20 minutes

of this she got up and she came across

the room and she took me by the hand and

she said come on Brian you’re not gonna

have a talk and I remembered this just

like it happened yesterday I never will

forget it she took me out back and she

said Brian I’m gonna tell you something

but you don’t tell anybody what I tell

you I said okay mama she said now you

make sure you don’t do that I said sure

then she sat me down and she looked at

me and she said I want you to know I’ve

been watching you and she said I think

you’re special she said I think you can

do anything you want to do I will never

forget it and then she said I just need

you to promise me three things Brian I

said okay mama she said the first thing

I want you to promise me is that you’ll

always love your mom she said that’s my

baby girl you have to promise me now

you’ll always take care of her well I

adored my mom so I said yes mama

I’ll do that then she said the second

thing I want you to promise me is that

you’ll always do the right thing even

when the right thing is the hard thing

and I thought about it and I said yes

mama I’ll do that then finally she said

the third thing I want you to promise me

is that you’ll never drink alcohol well

I was nine years old so I said yes mama

I’ll do that I grew up in the country in

the rural south and have a brother

you’re older than me and a sister you’re

younger when I was about 14 or 15 one

day my brother came home and he had this

six-pack of beer I don’t know where he

got it and he grabbed me and my sister

we went out in the woods and we were

kind of just out there doing the stuff

we crazily did and he had a sip of this

beer and he gave some to my sister and

she had some and they offered it to me I

said no no no no that’s okay y’all go

ahead I’m not gonna have any beer and my

brother said come on we’re doing this

today you always do what we do I had

some your sister had some have some beer

I said no I don’t feel right about that

y’all go ahead y’all go ahead and then

my

that started staring at me he said what

is what’s wrong with you have some beer

then he looked at me real hard he said

oh I hope you’re not still hung up on

that conversation mama had with you I

said well what are you talking about he

says oh mama tells all the grandkids

that they’re special I I was devastated

and I’m going to admit something to you

I’m gonna tell you something I probably

shouldn’t I know this might be broadcast

broadly but I’m I’m 52 years old and I’m

gonna admit to you that I’ve never had a

drop of alcohol I don’t I don’t say that

because I think that’s virtuous I say

that because there is power in identity

when we create the right kind of

identity we can say things to the world

around us that they don’t actually

believe makes sense we can get them to

do things that they don’t think they can

do when I thought about my grandmother

cart of course she would think all her

grandkids were special my grandfather

was in prison during Prohibition my male

uncle’s died of alcohol related diseases

and these were the things she thought we

needed to commit to well I’ve been

trying to say something about our

criminal justice system this country is

very different today than it was 40

years ago in 1972 there were 300,000

people in jails in prisons today there

are 2.3 million the United States now

has the highest rate of incarceration in

the world we have 7 million people on

probation and parole and mass

incarceration in my judgment has

fundamentally changed our world in poor

communities and communities of color

there is this despair there is this

hopelessness that is being shaped by

these outcomes but one out of three

black men between the ages of 18 and 30

is in jail in prison on probation or

parole in urban communities across this

country Los Angeles Philadelphia

Baltimore Washington 50 to 60 percent of

all young men of color in jail or prison

or on probation and parole our system

isn’t just being shaped in these ways

that seem to be distorting around race

they’re also distorted by poverty we

have a system of justice in this country

that treats you much better

if you’re rich and guilty than if you’re

poor and innocent wealth not culpability

shapes outcomes and yet we seem to be

very comfortable the politics of fear

and anger has made us believe that these

are problems that are not our problems

we’ve been disconnected it’s interesting

to me we’re looking at some very

interesting developments in our work my

state of Alabama like a number of states

actually permanently disenfranchise us

you if you have a criminal conviction

right now in Alabama 34 percent of the

black male population is permanently

lost the right to vote

we’re actually projecting in another 10

years the level of disenfranchisement

will be as high as it’s been since prior

to the passage of the Voting Rights Act

and there is this stunning silence I

represent children a lot of my clients

are very young the United States is the

only country in the world where we

sentenced 13 year old children to die in

prison we have life imprisonment without

parole for kids in this country and

we’re actually doing some litigation

only country in the world I resent

people on death row it’s interesting

this question of the death penalty in

many ways we’ve been taught to think

that the real question is do people

deserve to die for the crimes they’ve

committed and that’s a very sensible

question but there’s another way of

thinking about where we are in our

identity the other way of thinking about

it is not do people deserve to die for

the crimes they commit but do we deserve

to kill means fascinating death penalty

in America is defined by error for every

nine people who have been executed we’ve

actually identified one innocent person

who’s been exonerated and released from

death row a kind of astonishing error

rate one out of nine people innocent I

mean it’s fascinating in aviation we

would never let people fly on airplanes

if for every nine planes it took off one

would crash but somehow we can insulate

ourselves from this problem it’s not our

problem it’s not our burden it’s not our

struggle well I talk a lot about these

issues I talk about a race and this

question whether we deserve to kill and

it’s interesting when I teach my

students about african-american history

I tell them about slavery

I tell them about terrorism the era that

began at the end of Reconstruction that

went on to World War two we don’t really

know very much about it but for African

Americans in this country that was an

era defined by terror in many

communities people had to worry about

being lynched they had to worry about

being bombed it was the threat of terror

that shaped their lives and these older

people come up to me now

and they say mr. Stevenson you give

talks you make speeches you tell people

to stop saying we’re dealing with

terrorism for the first time in our

nation’s history after 9/11 they tell me

to say no tell them that we grew up with

that and that era of terrorism of course

was followed by a segregation a decades

of racial subordination and apartheid

and and yet we have in this country this

dynamic where we really don’t like to

talk about our problems we don’t like to

talk about our history and because of

that we really haven’t understood what

it’s meant to do the things we’ve done

historically and we’re constantly

running into each other we’re constantly

creating tensions and conflicts we have

a hard time talking about race and I

believe it’s because we are unwilling to

commit ourselves to a process of truth

and reconciliation in South Africa

people understood that we couldn’t

overcome or part time without a

commitment to truth and reconciliation

in Rwanda even after the genocide there

was this commitment but in this country

we haven’t done that I was giving this

lecture in Germany some lectures in

Germany about the death penalty it was

fascinating because one of the scholars

stood up after the presentation and said

well you know it’s deeply troubling to

hear what you’re talking about I said we

don’t have the death penalty in Germany

and of course we can never have the

death penalty in Germany and the room

got very quiet and this woman said

there’s no way with our history we can

ever engage in the systematic killing of

human beings it would be unconscionable

for us to intentional deliberate way set

about executing people but I thought

about that what would it feel like to be

living in a world where the nation-state

of Germany was executing people

especially if they were

disproportionately Jewish I couldn’t

bear it it would be unconscious

and yet in this country in the states of

the old South we execute people where

you’re 11 times more likely to get the

death penalty if the victim is white

than if the victim is black 22 times

more likely to get it if the defendant

is black and the victim is white in the

various states where there are buried in

the ground the bodies of people who were

lynched and yet there is this disconnect

well I believe that our identity is at

risk that when we actually don’t care

about these difficult things the

positive and wonderful things are

nonetheless implicated we love

innovation we love technology we love

creativity we love entertainment but

ultimately those realities are shadowed

by suffering abuse degradation

marginalization and for me it becomes

necessary to integrate the two because

ultimately we are talking about a need

to be more hopeful more committed more

dedicated to the basic challenges of

living in a complex world and for that

mean for me that for me that means

spending time thinking and talking about

the poor the disadvantaged those who

will never get to Ted but thinking about

them in a way that is integrated in our

own lives you know ultimately we all

have to believe things we haven’t seen

we do as rational as we are as committed

to intellect as we are innovation

creativity development comes not from

the ideas in our mind alone they come

from the ideas in our mind that are also

fueled by some conviction in our heart

and it’s that mynhardt connection that I

believe compels us to not just be tended

attentive to all the bright and dazzling

things but also the dark and difficult

things

václav havel the great Czech leader

talked about this he said when we were

in Eastern Europe and dealing with

oppression we wanted all kinds of things

but mostly what we needed was hope an

orientation of the spirit a willingness

to sometimes be in hopeless places and

be a witness well that or

Taoiseach of the spirit is very much at

the core of what I believe even Ted

communities have to be engaged in there

is no disconnect around technology and

design that will allow us to be fully

human until we pay attention to

suffering to poverty to exclusion to

unfairness to injustice now I will warn

you that this kind of identity is a much

more challenging identity than ones that

don’t pay attention to this it will get

to you I have the great privilege when I

was a young lawyer meeting Rosa Parks

and Miss parks used to come back to

Montgomery every now and then and she

would get together with two of her

dearest friends these older women a

Johnny car who was the organizer of the

Montgomery bus boycott amazing

african-american woman and Virginia

Durrell white woman whose husband

Clifford Durr I represented dr. King and

these women would get together and just

talk and every now and then this car

would call me and she’d say Brian miss

parks is coming to town we’re gonna get

together and talk do you want to come

over and listen and I’d say yes ma’am I

do and she said well what are you gonna

do when you get here I said I’m gonna

listen and I’d go over then I would I

would just listen it was be so

energizing and so empowering and one

dime I was over there listening to these

women talk and after a couple of hours

miss parks turned to me and she said no

Brian tell me what the equal justice

initiative is tell me what you’re trying

to do

I began giving her my rap I said well

we’re trying to challenge injustice

we’re trying to help people have been

wrongly convicted we’re trying to

confront a bias and discrimination the

administration of criminal justice we’re

trying to end life without parole

sentences for children were trying to do

something about the death penalty we’re

trying to reduce the prison population

we’re trying to end mass incarceration I

gave her my whole rap and when I

finished she looked at me and she said

mmm she said that’s gonna make you tired

tired tired

and that’s what miss Carlene Ford she

put her finger my patient says that’s

why you’ve got to be brave brave brave

and I actually believe that the Ted

community needs to be more courageous we

need to find ways to to embrace these

challenges these problems the suffering

because ultimately our humanity depends

on everyone’s humanity I’ve learned very

simple things doing the work that I do

it’s just taught me very simple things

I’ve come to understand and to believe

that each of us is more than the worst

thing we’ve ever done I believe that for

every person on the planet I think if

somebody tell us a lie they’re not just

a liar I think if somebody takes

something that doesn’t belong to them

they’re not just a thief I think even if

you kill someone you’re not just a

killer and because of that there’s this

basic human dignity that must be

respected by law I also believe that in

many parts of this country and certainly

in many parts of this globe that the

opposite of poverty is not wealth I

don’t believe that I actually think in

too many places the opposite of poverty

is justice and finally I believe that

despite the fact that it is so dramatic

and so beautiful and so inspiring and so

stimulating we will ultimately not be

judged by our technology we won’t be

judged by our design we won’t be judged

by our intellect in reason ultimately

you judge the character of a society not

by how they treat the rich and the

powerful and the privileged but by how

they treat the poor the condemned the

incarcerated because it’s in that Nexus

that we actually begin to understand

truly profound things about who we are I

sometimes get out of balance all in with

this story I sometimes push too hard I

do get tired as we all do sometimes

those ideas get ahead of our kind of

thinking in ways that are important and

I’ve been representing these kids who

have been sentenced to do these very

harsh sentences and I go to the jail and

I see my client who’s 13 and 14 and he’s

been certified to stand trial as an

adult I keep start thinking well how did

that have

then how can a judge turn you into

something that you’re not and the judge

is certified him as an adult but I see

this kid and I and I was up too late one

night I started thinking well gosh if

the judge can turn you into something

that you’re not the judge must have

magic power

so yeah Brian the judge had some magic

power you should ask for some of that

and because I was up too late and wasn’t

thinking real straight that started

working on a motion and I had a client

it was 14 years old a young poor black

kid and start working on this motion

within the head of the motion was a

motion to try my poor 14 year old black

male client like a privileged white 75

year old corporate executive and I’ve

put in my motion that there was

prosecutorial misconduct and police

misconduct and judicial misconduct it

was a crazy line in there about how

there’s no conduct in this county it’s

all misconduct and at the next morning I

woke up and I thought did I dream that

crazy motion or did I actually write it

into my horror not only had I written it

but I had sent it to court

couple months went by and I just had

forgotten all about it

and I finally decided oh gosh I got to

go to the port and do this crazy case

and I got in my car and I was feeling

really overwhelmed overwhelmed and I got

in my car and I went to this courthouse

and was sitting what this is gonna be so

difficult so so painful I finally got

out of the car and I started walking up

to the courthouse and as I was walking

up the steps of this courthouse there

was an older black man who was the

janitor in this courthouse when this man

saw me he came over to me and he said

who are you I said I’m a lawyer he said

you a lawyer I said yes sir and this man

came over to me and he hugged me and he

whispered in my ear he said I’m so proud

of you and I have to tell you it was

energizing it connected deeply with

something in me about identity about the

capacity of every person to contribute

to community to perspective that is

hopeful well I went into the courtroom

soon as I walked inside the judge saw me

coming and he said mr. Stevenson did you

write this crazy motion I said yes sir I

didn’t we started arguing people started

coming in because they were just

outraged I had written these crazy

things and police officers were coming

in and system prosecutors and clerk

workers before

the court was filled with people angry

that we were talking about race that we

were talking about poverty that we were

talking about inequality

and out of the corner of my eye I could

see this janitor pacing back and forth

and kept looking through the window and

he could hear all of this hot air he

kept pacing back and forth and finally

this older black man with this very

worried look on his face came into the

courtroom and sat down behind me almost

a council table

about ten minutes later the judge said

we would take a break and during the

break there was a deputy sheriff who was

offended that the janitor had come into

court and this deputy jumped up and he

ran over to this older black man he said

Jimmy what are you doing in this

courtroom this older black man stood up

and he looked at that deputy and he

looked at me and he said I came into

this courtroom to tell this young man

keep your eyes on the prize hold on I’ve

come to Ted because I believe that many

of you understand that the moral arc of

the universe is long but it bends toward

justice that we cannot be full evolved

human beings until we care about human

rights and basic nigde T that all of our

survival is tied to the survival of

everyone that our visions of technology

and design and entertainment and

creativity have to be married with the

divisions of humanity compassion and

justice and more than anything for those

of you who share that I’ve simply come

to tell you that to keep your eyes on

the prize hold on thank you very much

so you heard and saw an obvious desire

by this audience this community to help

you on your way and to do something on

this issue other than writing a check

what what could we do well there are

opportunities all around us if you live

in the state of California for example

there is a referendum coming up this

spring where actually there’s going to

be an effort to redirect some of the

money we spend on the politics of

punishment for example here in

California we spend we’re going to spend

1 billion dollars on the death penalty

in the next 5 years 1 billion dollars

and yet 46% of all homicide cases don’t

result in arrests 56% of all rape cases

don’t result so there’s an opportunity

to change that and this referendum would

propose having those dollars go to law

enforcement and safety and I think that

opportunity exists all around us now

there’s been this huge decline in crime

in in America over the last three

decades and part of the narrative of

that is sometimes that it’s about

increased incarceration rates what would

you say to someone who believe that well

actually the violent crime rate has

remained relatively stable you know the

the great increase in mass incarceration

in this country wasn’t really in violent

crime categories it was this misguided

war on drugs now that’s where the

dramatic increases have come in our

prison population and we got carried

away with the rhetoric of punishment and

so we have three strikes laws that put

people in prison forever for stealing a

bicycle for low-level property crimes

rather than making them give those

resources back to the people who they

victimized I believe we need to do more

to help people who are victimized by

crime not do less and I think our

current punishment philosophy does

nothing for no one and I think that’s

the orientation that we have to change

Brian you’ve you’ve struck a massive

chord here you’re an inspiring person

thank you so much for coming to talk

you