Bryan Stevenson

Our criminal justice system is a system that seems very much rooted in this idea that you can only be the crime you've been accused of.

And I think that leads to a lot of injustice.

It leads to a lot of

misjudgment about who people are.

I mean, for me, it's been important to commit to this concept that we're all more than the worst thing we've ever done, because I don't want to be judged by the worst things I've done.

But I also realize I have to share that with other people.

It's interesting, in this country, for a long time, we had legislators that

When you listen to them talk about creating new sentences and punishments, they talk as if they can put crimes in prison.

I hate that crime, so I want to give that 20 years.

I hate that crime.

I want to give it 50 years.

And they're talking as if they have the ability to put a crime in prison, to put it in there for life and all of these other things.

But we don't have the ability to put crimes in prison.

We can only put people in prison, and people are not crimes.

They can commit crimes, and we could want to hold them accountable for the crimes they've committed, but there's a difference between a person and a crime.

And when we focus on the person, the conversation tends to shift.

We tend to think differently.

A woman who's been abused...

for 20 years and suffered just unimaginable pain and humiliation at the hands of someone who just thought they could do whatever they want, who finally reacts, even violently, is not just a violent offender.

She is someone who is trying to manage decades of abuse and mistreatment.