Bryan Stevenson

You couldn't get me out of the law school library after that because I needed to know everything about federalism and comedy and appellate procedure and criminal procedure and habeas corpus and all of the procedural doctrines.

I needed to become a master of the law and

Because I wanted to help condemned people get to higher ground.

And now 40 years later, sometimes people say, well, how have you helped all these people get relief?

How have you won these cases at the Supreme Court?

And I know they want me to say it's because I'm hardworking.

We try to be smart.

We try to be tactical.

And we do try to be tactical and smart and work hard together.

But the truth is, is that if I've helped anybody during my 40 years as a lawyer, it's not because I'm hardworking or smart or tactical.

It's because I got close enough to a condemned man to hear his song.

And I believe that there are songs still being sung in jails and prisons all across this country.

I think in places where there's poverty and despair and oppression, there are songs still being sung.

And when we get close enough to hear those songs...

Those melodies teach us something about what being human is about.

They teach us something about what justice is about.

And I think we should get proximate, not just to help other people, I think we should get proximate to help ourselves.

Because it's been the greatest gift that someone could give to me, to be in the midst of justice and condemnation, to stand next to the condemned and the hated and disfavored, and to see the power of love create something beautiful, which is what happens

when we are committed to proximity, when we're committed to seeing the humanity and dignity of every human being.

I do believe that when we are proximate to the poor, to the excluded, to the marginalized, we hear things we won't otherwise hear.