Looking for a hero? Consider Bryan Stevenson
Cuts to NEA mean you need to support the arts more than ever before
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The young woman in the aisle seat on my flight from Washington to New Orleans had just come out from underneath her hoodie.
"That's the best book I have ever read," she said, nodding at the volume in my hands.
You rarely see people reading books on airplanes any more and rarer still is a comment on the quality of your choice.
"Did you see him speak at the book festival," she asked.
It was making sense now. She was a Tulane University student and she was talking about Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, who I had just seen speak a few weeks earlier at the New Orleans Book Festival.
Stevenson was supposed to be the main attraction for opening night at the book festival, but then those idiots in the Trump administration included Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg in a national defense chat about an attack in the Middle East and that's all anyone wanted to talk about.
An hour after Goldberg started speaking to a packed auditorium, I was finally allowed into the auditorium in time to hear the introduction for Stevenson.
He had an impressive resume.
His presence was even more impressive.
A Harvard graduate, he moved to Alabama after law school and founded the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama and went to work defending men and women on death row who had, at best, incompetent representation during their trials, and at worst were railroaded for murders they did not commit.
But before the interviewer could even get started, before he could delve into Stevenson's book, or the documentary film about his work or the feature film - Hey, Michael B. Jordan played the young Stevenson - the lawyer interrupted the interviewer and asked if any of the men or women who had been freed from incarceration by ECI were in the room.
One by one, they stood up all over the auditorium. Many had been incarcerated for decades for crimes they did not commit.
Real people!
And everyone applauded.
Stevenson explained that ECI had freed some 150 prisoners from death row who had been mistakenly convicted.
How was this possible, I wondered?
Mistakes happen, maybe once, possibly twice, but 150 times?
Considering there were 1,500 executions, that was a 1 in 10 incidence of wrongful convictions in death cases.
Stevenson's team of lawyers had also addressed life sentences for 13 and 14-year-olds and convictions for inmates who were mentally challenged and not capable of contributing to their own defense.
Stevenson is soft spoken, articulate and an artful story-teller who leaves you shocked and indignant over this failure of justice.
Beyond the legal work, Stevenson has redressing history - from slavery and reconstruction to the Civil Rights movement.
"The North won the Civil War, but the South won the narrative," Stevenson says now.
He talks about a "false narrative that Black People are not as good as White people.
"That is the great evil of slavery," Stevenson said, and then directly addresses the most recent attempts to eliminate diversity initiatives in the federal government. "Are we going to accept a new era that women and people of color are not competent?"
Stevenson was the driving force behind The Legacy Museum in Montgomery and the establishment of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. You might know it better as "The National Lynching Memorial" where the number of lynchings in each county are memorialized in a shocking display.
Between 1890 and 1950, there were over 4,000 lynchings in the United States and Stevenson makes the case that these "outdoor lynchings" eventually gave way to "Indoor lynchings" as poor Blacks were convicted of crimes - this time legally - and sentenced to die.
In a review of the documentary of Stevenson's work - True Justice (Amazon) - Steve C. Kostoff points out that Stevenson is "responsible for five pivotal Supreme Court decisions that redressed the legal and moral failings of the Supreme Court."
By the time I finished reading Just Mercy, I had a new hero.
And I don't say that lightly, especially since Stevenson is a lawyer.
The documentary enhanced those beliefs as did the 2019 feature film Just Mercy that starred Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.
Stevenson is 65 now, but he doesn't look it, and his work is far from over.
In Wednesday's New Orleans Times Picayune, the Louisiana Supreme Court was about to hear arguments from a death row inmate whose guilt has been in question.
Louisiana began executing prisoners again this year.
Bryan Stevenson is the true definition of a crusading attorney.
When I was watching the documentary this week, I called up the Equal Justice Initiative website and made a donation.
Support the arts
Reminder that the final tickets to the dramatic reading of The Last American Newspaper are going fast.
My play is part of the four-production lineup at Adirondack Theater Festival this summer and with cuts to the arts by the federal government, it has never been more important to support theater in our small community.
Single tickets are on sale for each of the performances, including three dramatic readings for The Last American Newspaper from July 25-27 in Glens Falls.
Domestic violence
After Laurie DiLorenzo was shot to death by her estranged husband the Cumberland Farms on Bay Road in 2005, we at The Post-Star mobilized our reporters for a series on domestic violence.
Led by a young Australian named Konrad Marshall, we produced a three-part series where 23 local victims came forward to tell their stories of abuse.
It was a startling omission that Hometown, USA had a problem. It was covered in Chapter 11 of The Last American Newspaper.
I was reminded that those problems don't ever really go away with a front page story on The Post-Star this week about a Warren County correction officer, Stephen A. Frank, who was sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison for multiple domestic violence convictions.
“I want to commend the victim for her strength and courage throughout this year and a half-long process which finally culminated with sentencing today,” Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen said in a statement The Post-Star published. “The sentence imposed in this case ensured that the victim and her children can finally feel safe again and serves as a reminder to the community that domestic abusers can and will be held accountable for their actions.”
The bigger story here is the reminder of the bravery of the victims to see these cases through to fruition.
The Post-Star reported the victim spoke in court "about how her husband's violence and abuse had not only caused physical injuries to her body, but how they had a lasting impact on her emotional and mental wellbeing" on her and their two children.
Consider that the victim's 11-year-old son also testified about the pattern of abuse.
Frank also took the stand with The Post-Star reporting that Frank said he was the true victim.
It took the jury less than two hours to reach a verdict.
Stefanik complaint
The Albany Times Union reported Wednesday that based on a complaint by Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Department of Education has begun an investigation of the Saratoga Springs School Board's resolution to protect transgender students.
Oddly, the school district is not even in Stefanik's district.
Considering the number of problems her district faces, it seems odd this is how she is spending her time.
Saratoga Springs reaffirmed a resolution passed in March showing support for immigrant and transgender students.
"The Saratoga Springs City School District remains committed to fostering a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment for every student,” Saratoga Springs spokesperson Maura Manny said in a statement. “We are confident that our district’s policies are fully in compliance with New York state law.”
The Trump administration recently withheld money to the state of Maine for a similar stand in protecting transgender students. Maine won that case in court.
Fearful poll
It's hard to know how accurate any poll is these days, but New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote about one poll that found 52 percent of Americans believe that “President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.”
That should get your attention.
Health fears
Vaccine skepticism appears to be taking hold all across the country.
The Times reported this week that the flu vaccination rate for U.S. children has dropped from 64 percent five years ago to 49 percent this season.
As someone who was a late convert to flu vaccines, I can attest to their effectiveness.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
The contrast between the goodness one person, Bryan Stevenson, can affect through his commitment to positively influence humanity, and the evil another (trump) can have to senselessly wreck domestic and global order could not be more stark. This story of courage, compassion and the pursue of justice makes me feel hopeful. Thank you, Ken.
Inspiring stuff. “I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.” - Charles Dickens
Keep hope alive. 🖖