TEMPLETemple University James E. Beasley School of LawAlumni News •November 2015Meet Joel Michel ’16Winner of theinaugural ProfessorEdward D. OhlbaumScholarship 46087 Temple_ESQ_Nov15_5th.qxp_Layout 1 11/12/15 8:59 AM Page 1It is always exciting for me to be back in the classroom teaching first-year law students. This semester the students are so totally engaged and committedto learning the law that I am energized by their passion for our profession. With the financial help of our graduates and friends listed in this DevelopmentReport for 2015, we have accomplished much in the past year and have exciting goals for 2016.Faculty hiringThe addition of Professor Jules Epstein as Director of Advocacy at Temple Lawhas been electric for both our students and the program. Professor CatherineDunn, our new director of the law library, has quickly hired new researchlibrarians while providing the faculty with enhanced technology skills for theirteaching. Our Sheller Center had a remarkable year with the publication of four position papers. Professor Colleen Shanahan’s appointment doubles thenumber of students who will participate in the activity of the center this year.Visiting Professor Nan Feyler, who holds the Phyllis W. BeckChair in Law, is leading a new Sheller Center project with a focus on healthy homes in our North Philadelphia community.Visiting Professor Pamela Bookman is teaching J.D. courses incivil procedure and international business. With the scheduledretirements of Professors David Sonenshein and Muriel Morisey at the end of June 2016, we are searching for newfaculty for next year.J.D. programWe welcome 218 new students this semester. The median LSAT is 160 (top 20%); the median GPA is 3.5. The studentscome from 22 different states, 3 different countries and 94different undergraduate colleges. 52% are male; 48% female;28% minority; 71% PA residents and 29% out of state. Theaverage age is 25.The Center for Regulatory Compliance and EthicsWe are off to a fast start with our new center in gathering animpressive advisory board, offering substantive courses to J.D. students this semester, increasing internship opportunities,and engaging the larger legal community in a Continuing Legal Education Program. Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will be featured in a program sponsored by thecenter in Spring 2016.Social justice lawyering at the Sheller Center The Sheller Center does work that has an important impact on public policy in Pennsylvania. The publication of four major white papers last year createdimportant paths to new policies. A Changing Landscape: Pennsylvania CountiesReevaluate Policies on Immigration Detainersled to revised policies in manycounties. Barriers to Justice: Limited English Proficient Individuals andPennsylvania’s Minor Courtshas been used by the Administrative Office ofPennsylvania Courts in its efforts to improve language access. A report on wagetheft gave Community Legal Services a powerful tool to take action to protectworkers. Driver’s Licenses for All: The Key to Safety and Security in Pennsylvaniaadded significantly to the research on this issue to assist the Pennsylvanialegislature while it considered a bill to change the law and to inform the publicon the benefits that the state could anticipate if the law were changed. Thank you for your support of Temple Law School.JoAnne A. Epps, DeanDean JoAnne A. Epps with Bryan Stevenson(see page 7) Message from Dean JoAnne A. Epps46087 Temple_ESQ_Nov15_5th.qxp_Layout 1 11/12/15 8:59 AM Page 2The Professor Edward D. Ohlbaum FundThe Professor Edward D. Ohlbaum Fund is a flexiblefund that was established following the death of thefounder and longtime leader of Advocacy Programsat Temple Law. The Fund is used to support all facetsof the Advocacy Program. This year marks theinaugural award of the Ohlbaum Scholarship toNational Trial Team member Joel Michel ’16. To join in honoring Professor Ohlbaum andsupporting excellence in Advocacy Programs atTemple Law, go to www.law.temple.edu and click on“Make a Gift.”OCTOBER 31, 2015Joel Michel ’16 spent Halloween night celebrating,but not in the kind of costume you might imagine. Joel Michel was inSan Juan, Puerto Rico, sporting a suit and tie and coming off a long dayof arguing a case in a simulated courtroom. By Halloween night, Michelhad been declared Best Advocate at the Puerto Rico Trial AdvocacyCompetition. Michel led Temple Law’s National Trial Team as theyprevailed over a field of 14 law schools from across the country,defeating Yale in the semi-final round and Barry in the final round.Best Advocate is a fitting description for Michel, who has been astandout at Temple Law, and a leader on the trial team since day one.The victory comes shortly after Michel learned that he had been namedthe inaugural recipient of the Professor Edward D. OhlbaumScholarship, which will substantially help fund his tuition during this,his last year of law school.Michel’s unlikely trajectory to law school began in a rough area ofWest Philadelphia, where he was the eleventh of 16 children in aHaitian-American family. “I think early on I got exposed to the realitiesof an impoverished African-American community,” says Michel. Thereality he describes includes drugs, guns, violence, and time served. Ifyou talk with African-American children in these communities, saysMichel, they think that path is normal. What they lack is an exposure toan alternative path. For Michel, that alternative path was shown to him by his olderbrother David. David is the third oldest sibling in the family, and the firstto attend college. “The exposure I got through David helped me think‘wait, there’s something wrong here,’” he says. “Seeing that outsideworld, as it was for me at the time, helped me realize that this track wasnot supposed to be the norm.”After graduating from Central High School, Michel went on to studyReligion at Haverford College, where he also played varsity basketball.He remembers it was his brother, David, who first planted the seed oflaw school in his mind. “I wanted to save the world,” Michel recalls.“Particularly, I wanted to change our criminal justice system and how itdeals with young, African-American juveniles.” Michel arrived at Temple Law with no idea of what law school mightbe like and just one goal: To earn a place on Temple’s nationally-rankedtrial team and learn to try cases. Two years later, he is a star on theNational Trial Team and on track to join the prestigious law firm ofBlank Rome after graduation. Michel credits Temple Law students and faculty for helping expandhis understanding of how he could effect change in many arenas. “Mycareer doesn’t have to be my life’s work,” says Michel, who adds thattoo many people see their career as their only contribution to society. “Joel Michel represents all that is best at Temple Law School,” saysDean JoAnne A. Epps. “He has excelled both in the classroom and onthe National Trial Team. Even more importantly, he has let his charactershine through in all he does. “For those of us who knew and loved Eddie Ohlbaum—and reverehis accomplishment in building the advocacy program at Temple—it isa fitting tribute to award the first Professor Edward D. OhlbaumScholarship to Joel Michel.” Joel Michel ’16 Ohlbaum Scholarship Recipient is ‘Best Advocate’ScholarShip fundS at temple law46087 Temple_ESQ_Nov15_5th.qxp_Layout 1 11/12/15 8:59 AM Page 32 • TEMPLE ESQ. NOVEMBER 2015‘Access to Justice’THE JOYCE S. KEAN ACCESS TO JUSTICESCHOLARSHIPwill be awarded tostudents who demonstrate acommitment to serving the publicinterest, exhibit leadership qualities,and express a commitment to worktowards access to justice for all.Established in 2015 by Joyce S.and Herbert Kean, the fund allows thelaw school to award one three-yearscholarship each fall to a day orevening student in the next threeentering classes. After three years, thefund will award an additionalscholarship each year until it willmaintain three annually. As theendowment grows, the scholarshipawards will increase accordingly.Joyce S. Kean ’79 served as a judgeon the Court of Common Pleas inPhiladelphia until retiring in 2008. Shenow resides with her husband in KeyBiscayne, Florida.Scholarship honors Eddie Ohlbaum and advocacyLois and Larry Goldberg ’55 chose to establish THE ALAN P. GOLDBERG ’89 AND MITCHELL S. GOLDBERG ’86 ADVOCACY SCHOLARSHIP FUNDat the law school that educated Larry and his sons Alan and Mitchell, and in memory of Professor Edward Ohlbaum. Larry Goldberg says thescholarship that he and his wife Lois have funded is ‘a way to give back’ to the law school and tocommemorate an extraordinary member of the faculty—Eddie Ohlbaum— who had meant somuch, especially to his older son Mitchell. The scholarship will be awarded to a student excellingin the field of advocacy. Ohlbaum, who died in 2014, is credited with building and sustaining Temple Law’s trialadvocacy program and a championship trial team which has earned the school a nationalreputation. Mitchell Goldberg spoke at a tribute for Ohlbaum organized by the law school. “Eddiewas the inventor, he was the general, he was the genius behind it all,” said the U.S. District CourtJudge, who was coached by Ohlbaum on Temple Law’s first trial team. “There is no attorney in the Philadelphia legal community who has taught more young lawyers about how justice plays out in a courtroom. His legacy will endure through all the careers he touched and enriched.”The Goldberg family holds Temple University dear. Larry and Lois Goldberg met as children in the Wynnefield neighborhood of Philadelphia, where Lois’ home was on Larry’s paper route.Larry says he chose Temple as an undergraduate because “it gave me an opportunity I don’t thinkI would have otherwise had” to keep working while earning his degree. Lois joined him there toearn a degree in education. Larry enrolled at Temple Law, where he says he was motivated by his hardworking classmates,many of whom were Korean War veterans. After graduating in 1955, he developed a privatepractice that eventually grew to represent many small businesses in the Philadelphia area. He and Lois raised Alan and Mitchell and a daughter, Aileen Kantor (now a health consultant), inLower Merion Township.Both sons followed Larry’s career choice and earned degrees from Temple Law. Today, Mitchell’86 is a U.S. District Court Judge. Alan ’89 is a partner at K&L Gates in Chicago, with a specialty insecurities law. Larry has retired and he and Lois are living in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. SCHOLARSHIPS REFLECTDONORS’ PASSIONSLGBTQ Scholarship:Diversity will ‘foster abetter place to live’ THE BRUCE E. LAROCHE, ESQ. AND LEE J.HELWIG, ESQ. SCHOLARSHIPwill beawarded to a Temple Law student whois active in the OUTLaw studentorganization at Temple Law, or asubsequent LGBTQ organization.Bruce E. LaRoche ’91 and Lee J.Helwig ’99 chose to make a legacy giftto establish the fund because of theirbelief that “recognizing and embracingdiversity will foster a better place tolive.” Preference will be given tostudents who are residents of, grew upin, or were born in, Hartford,Connecticut.Bruce E. LaRoche ’91 and Lee J.Helwig ’99 reside in West Hartford,Connecticut, where LaRoche is vicepresident and associate counsel atAspen Insurance, and Helwig is anattorney and supervisor with the Stateof Connecticut Judicial Department.ScholarShipfundS at temple law46087 Temple_ESQ_Nov15_5th.qxp_Layout 1 11/12/15 8:59 AM Page 4ScholarShipfundS at temple lawTEMPLE ESQ. NOVEMBER 2015 • 3Scholarship to be awarded toa law review memberThe inaugural DR. ROBERT P. WOLF SCHOLARSHIPwill be awarded inNovember 2015 to a member of the Temple Law Review.Thescholarship honors a man who never attended law school, but whose“whole world was the law,” says daughter MELISSA WOLF RAND ’08.As a vocational-economic consultant, Dr. Robert P. Wolf was amuch sought-after expert witness in personal injury and medicalmalpractice trials in the greater Delaware Valley. When he died ofpancreatic cancer in 2013, his wife, Paula Wolf, and daughters,Melissa Wolf Rand ’08 and Kimberly Altschuler, decided they couldbest honor his legacy by establishing a scholarship to benefit aTemple Law student.Wolf grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, where his parents owneda pizza shop. After graduating from Northeast High, Wolf eventuallyearned two degrees from Temple: A BA in psychology and adoctorate in education in vocational rehabilitation. In addition, heearned an MBA from Rutgers University and certificates in rehabili-tation management, actuarial science and divorce mediation fromvarious east coast universities. Wolf’s initial career was working with individuals with disabilities,serving for twenty years as the executive director of the AbilitiesCenter of Southern New Jersey. Increasingly, he was drawn into the legal world as an expert witness. His practice grew rapidly due to his knowledge of disability and rehabilitation issues, coupledwith his understanding of the economics of job loss. “For the lastthirty years of his life, his whole world was the legal world. He wasknown in South Jersey as the go-to expert to quantify damages incivil litigation,” Rand says. “Where often the defense would need to hire two expert witnesses, with my father you got two experts rolled into one.” The Wolf family in 2006, from left: Kimberly Altschuler, Robert Wolf, PaulaWolf, Melissa Wolf Rand ’08ScholarshipsEach year, dozens ofTemple Law studentsbenefit from thegenerosity of donorswho have establishedscholarship funds tohelp defray the cost ofa legal education.Here are just three ofthe many scholarshipsavailable to eligiblestudents. Wolf was a frequent writer for the Legal Intelligencer,penningsuch articles as “Earnings Loss Experts Can Document Damages”and “Determining Economic Consequences of Loss ofMarriageability.” He also volunteered as an expert witness for mocktrials for Temple’s Trial Advocacy program. Melissa Rand’s father encouraged her to go to law school, whereshe graduated at the top of her class and was selected for the lawreview. Today, she is a corporate attorney at Fortis Legal, a smallfirm in King of Prussia, PA. Her mother, Paula Wolf, who worked asher husband’s office manager while raising her children, now livesin Florida. Kimberly Altschuler lives outside Boston, where sheworked in the hospitality industry and is now the office manager atFacing Cancer Together,a non-profit dedicated to providing supportservices to people with cancer. NELSON DIAZ SCHOLARS IN LAWwasestablished by the PNC Foundation in 2012 to honor Judge Diaz’s contribution to the legal world and the community. Thescholarship provides financial support to lawstudents whose summer work experiencesreflect Judge Diaz’s commitment to the Latino community.Sara Manzano-Diaz; scholarship recipientsMatthew Gomez ’16 and Tiffany Feria ’16; andHon. Nelson Diaz ’72Brad Ingerman withscholarship recipient BethAnn Orzeck ’17Scholarship recipient MiriamAbaya ’17 with Benjamin D.Goldman ’72THE MORRIS H. GOLDMANSCHOLARSHIP IN LAW is a full-tuition scholarshipawarded annually to a first-year Temple Law student who demonstratesacademic achievement andfinancial need.THE JUSTIN MICHAELINGERMAN SCHOLARSHIPwasestablished to perpetuate thememory of Justin Ingerman,who died in 2009. Establishedby Justin’s parents, Brad andLaurie, and his sister Danielle,this scholarship provides fulltuition for an incoming lawstudent.46087 Temple_ESQ_Nov15_5th.qxp_Layout 1 11/12/15 8:59 AM Page 54 • TEMPLE ESQ. NOVEMBER 2015Empowerment vs. Protection for youth is topic of symposiumIs cyberbullying a legal problem, a culturalproblem, or both? It’s complicated, according toEmily Bazelon, a panelist at this year’s Temple LawReviewsymposium entitled “Court Involved Youthin the 21st Century: Empowerment vs. Protection.” The 2015 symposium honored the 40thanniversary of the Juvenile Law Center, the TempleLaw alumni who co-founded the center, RobertSchwartz ’75 and Marsha Levick ’76, and the newexecutive director Susan V. Mangold. Schwartzrecently retired from the position of executivedirector after serving since 1982. The symposium featured speaker Bazelon, whois a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine,and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writingand Law at Yale Law School. Robert Schwartzinterviewed Bazelon about the findings of her newbook, Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture ofBullying and Rediscovering the Power of Characterand Empathy,which Schwartz described as havinga “nuanced understanding of the battles we fight.” Bazelon said she decided to write the book whenher kids were “tweens” and entering the world of technology. She was intrigued by the alarmistlanguage she was observing around the issue ofcyberbullying. Her findings: Physical bullying—typical playground intimidation—is way down, butthe “mean girl” phenomenon and online humiliationis way up. But her exploration also led her to conclude that—whilebullying is alive and well—some of the alarmism is not warranted, andcriminalizing the behavior might not be the solution. Sticks and Stonesincludes a story of a girl in South Hadley, MA whohad been the target of online bullying, and subsequently committedsuicide. Local law enforcement brought criminal charges against theaccused bullies that could have resulted in ten-year prison sentences.Bazelon’s research uncovered documented issues with depression andexacerbating stressors in the deceased’s family. Her concern for the sixaccused teens—coupled with the desire to prevent future tragedies— led Bazelon to weigh the use of legal solutions versus other behavioralstrategies to prevent similar tragedies. One of the more dispiriting statistics, said Bazelon, is that whenstudents inform a school adult about bullying, it often makes it worse.Jacob, a “gender-bending” youth living in upstate New York, felt school administrators were not protecting him from harassment. When a group of supportive students formed a gay/straight alliance, they were shut down in their attempt to be officially recognized. Jacobeventually sued his school district for what he said was discriminationagainst LGBT youth. “Change the culture of the school. Encourage kids to be kind to eachother,” implored Bazelon.Other symposium panels:•Justice Policy and the New Science of Adolescence•Criminalizing Adolescence: Older Youthin the Child Welfare System•Aligning the Juvenile and Family Courtwith Adolescent Development–Rethinking Current Approaches•Advancing the Rights of Young PeopleWorldwide: The Impact of Juvenile Law Center•Older System-Involved Youth: Emerging Issues•Ethical Issues in Representing Older Youth•Pathways for Juvenile Justice Reform Juvenile Law founder Robert Schwartz ’75with Emily BazelonTemple Law ReviewSymposium Honors Juvenile Law Center at 4046087 Temple_ESQ_Nov15_5th.qxp_Layout 1 11/12/15 8:59 AM Page 6TEMPLE ESQ. NOVEMBER 2015 • 5‘Culture of health’ is focus of $25 millionRobert Wood Johnson initiativeMAY 2015The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced a$25 million grant to support its “culture of health vision.” Through itsCenter for Health Law, Policy and Practice, Temple Law will be an integralcomponent of the nationwide effort to research policies, laws, systeminterventions and community dynamics that will build what the Princeton-based foundation calls a “culture of health.”The Temple component of the Culture of Health initiative is the NationalCoordinating Center for Policies for Action. The Policies for Action programand its grantees will explore how policies, laws, and other regulatory tools,and how they are put into practice in both the public and private sectors,can support a Culture of Health. The program builds on the work of theRWJF Public Health Law Research (PHLR) program, directed by ScottBurris. Both programs are housed within the Center for Health Law, Policyand Practice, based at Temple Law and co-directed by Temple LawProfessors Scott Burris and Frank McClellan. In 2009, the Center’s PublicHealth Law Research program was selected by RWJF to manage a $19million national program that explored legal and regulatory solutions tohealth issues. The Policies for Action program is one of three programs that will sharethe Foundation support and work to build a Culture of Health. Templescholars will collaborate with Evidence for Action, based at the University ofCalifornia, San Francisco, and Systems for Action, based at the Universityof Kentucky. Recent PIP success stories•On August 13, 2015, Lewis James “Jim”Fogle walked out of prison after serving morethan 34 years for a murder he did notcommit. Newly available DNA testingexcluded Fogle and pointed to anotherunidentified male as the person whomurdered a 15 year-old girl in 1984. Thesuccessful appeal was a collaborationbetween PIP and David Loftis, the managingattorney of the The Innocence Project, whichis based in New York and affiliated withCardozo School of Law.•On October 2, 2015, PIP, with volunteerlawyers Jeff Bresch and Katie Matscherz ofJones Day, won a new trial for Crystal Weimerwho spent almost 11 years incarcerated asan innocent woman. Ms. Weimer waswrongly convicted of participating in the2001 murder of a Connellsville, Pennsylvaniaman. The conviction was based, in large part,on bite mark evidence and the testimonyof an expert forensic dentist. The sameexpert from trial told Judge Wagner at thepost-conviction hearing his previous methodsfor matching bite marks to suspects were“junk science” and that he would not givethe same testimony today.Pennsylvania Innocence Project: Larger offices and expanded staffSUMMER 2015With the support of the Beasley School of Law, thePennsylvania Innocence Projecthas moved to a new—andlarger—center city office toaccommodatean expanded staffand an ever-growing workload. As of July, the PennsylvaniaInnocence Project (PIP)continues its work to exoneratethose convicted of crimes theydid not commit, and to prevent innocent people from being convicted, in a newly-renovated office space at Temple University’s Center City Campus located directly acrossfrom City Hall.Since its founding in 2009, PIP has flourished under the leadership of two Temple Lawalumni, Executive Director Richard Glazer ’69 and Legal Director Marissa Bluestine ’95.Under the supervision of PIP legal staff, Temple Law students work with volunteerattorneys and students from other universities to develop appeals for individuals fromacross the Commonwealth. This summer, the legal staff grew to three attorneys when T.C. Tanski joined Bluestineand staff attorney Nilam Sanghvi. Prior to joining PIP, Tanski was an appellate and post-conviction attorney for a private criminal defense firm in Harrisburg, PA and worked on theteam that freed Pennsylvanian James Hugney after 35 years of wrongful incarceration. The Temple University Center for Health Law,Policy and PracticeBased at Temple Law, the Temple University Center for Health Law, Policy and Practice was established in 2009 with a major goal of breaking down silosbetween departments at Temple that focus on healthand health care. Today, faculty, researchers andstudents at the law school collaborate with colleaguesfrom other Temple schools and colleges on research,policies and information that support the work ofcommunity organizations working to solve health and healthcare problems. Professor Scott Burris, Center Director 46087 Temple_ESQ_Nov15_5th.qxp_Layout 1 11/12/15 8:59 AM Page 7Professor Marina Angel interviewing Justice Ginsburg in 2014PROFESSOR MARINA ANGEL has been selected to be the 2016recipient of the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime AchievementAward by the Women in Legal Education (WILE) section ofthe Association of American Law Schools. Wendy Greene,the 2016 WILE chair, lauds Angel for her “pioneering work… done on behalf of so many.” Angel’s feminist teachingand scholarship focus on a range of issues, includingwomen in legal education and the profession, violenceagainst women, school shootings, and abused women who kill their abusers. Angel has taught at Temple Law since 1979. DEAN JOANNE A. EPPShasbeen selected as one of fournationally to receive the2016 Spirit of ExcellenceAward from the AmericanBar Association Commissionon Racial and EthnicDiversity in the Profession.DUNCAN HOLLIS, AssociateDean for Academic Affairsand James E. BeasleyProfessor of Law, was aninvited participant at theGlobal CyberspaceCooperation Summit VI atthe East-West Institute inNew York City. As part of thesummit, he participated inthe Munich SecurityConference Cyber SecurityRoundtable.6 • TEMPLE ESQ. NOVEMBER 2015Did ‘confirmation bias’ playa role [in] espionage case?Written by Professor Jules Epstein,Director of Advocacy Programs NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: This articleoriginally appeared as an op-ed atPhilly.com on September 23, 2015. Itwas republished on Voices, an editedweb series featuring essays and articles.To view more writing by Temple Lawfaculty and students, visitVoices@Templelaw. The report that all espionage chargesagainst Temple University physicistXiaoxing Xi have been withdrawn raises the obvious question: How couldthings have gone so wrong?According to published accounts, prosecutors and agents sawdocuments that appeared to be suspicious and concluded – erroneously– that they were schematics for a particular device.Reading the story raises a concern about cognitive biases at work.The term biasesdoes not refer to a prejudice or dislike, but rather aprocess in which the brain biases the observer to favor a particularconclusion. One particular type, “confirmation bias,” is common andparticularly human: What a person expects to see colors the perceptionof what is then examined.Confirmation bias is no stranger to criminal and forensicinvestigations. It played a part in the misidentification of a suspect in a2004 terrorist train bombing in Madrid, and its effect has been shownrepeatedly in research. Whether it is a DNA analyst or a fingerprintexaminer, erroneous information or our expectations can cause theperson to see what is not actually there, or miss what is present.The concern about cognitive biases is neither illusory nor academic.It is now a subject of discussion at the National Commission on ForensicScience, and forensic labs and police agencies around the country areoffering training on cognitive bias and potential systems responses toreduce its effect.There is no easy antidote. But depending on the type of investigation,different tools may be used to reduce its effect. In a lab, keepingirrelevant information, such as whether the suspect has a prior record orconfessed, from the analyst to avoid influencing judgment can solve anypotential problem; and in a criminal investigation, an independent fact-checker who plays “devil’s advocate” and challenges the workinghypothesis can protect the investigator.In the case of the Temple physicist, there is no way yet to knowwhether cognitive bias – the fear that Chinese-born scientists wereengaged in espionage – “made” the investigators see what wasn’t there:the “pocket heater” used in superconductor research that wassupposed to be kept secret. But the question should be asked –internally at the FBI and in the Justice Department, and more generallyin police or prosecutors’ offices.The more we know about the risk of seeing what isn’t there, the better we can reduce the risk of another Xiaoxing Xi being wrongfully charged.Faculty in the neWS46087 Temple_ESQ_Nov15_5th.qxp_Layout 1 11/12/15 8:59 AM Page 8TEMPLE ESQ. NOVEMBER 2015 • 7An urgent plea to “change the narrative” drew an audience of more than 500 to theTemple Performing Arts Center to hear litigator, activist, author and law professorBryan Stevenson speak about race, mass incarceration, wrongful convictions resultingin death penalties, and what he describes as a “broken criminal justice system.”Bryan Stevenson:‘Change thenarrative’ in thecriminal justicesystem OCTOBER 21, 2015 Bryan Stevenson, the author of thebest-selling memoir, Just Mercy,outlined the problemof mass incarceration in the United States: 2.3 millionpeople in prison; 6 million on probation or parole; a 600% increase in the number of incarcerated women over the past 40 years. People of color aredisproportionately represented in these statistics: Ifcurrent trends continue, one in three black malebabies is expected to go to prison. Stevenson says thatin Alabama, where he works, a staggering number ofadults are permanently barred from voting because ofcriminal records. He spoke of the trend in the 1980s, whencriminologists began to categorize some juvenileoffenders as “super predators,” resulting in tryingchildren as adults and the imposition of life sentences.Today, Pennsylvania has the largest population ofchildren who will die in prison of any state.Stevenson stressed that these are bleak statisticsbut he has an action plan, invoking “capable people todo more creative things to improve justice.” In fact, hehas a four-point action plan to change the world.“Get proximate” is Stevenson’s first suggestion:Being close to people makes it hard to dehumanizethem. He described his first proximity to the criminaljustice system, when he spent a summer working withprisoners on death row in Georgia. The experience lefthim forever changed. Second, “change the narrative” from one based onfear and anger (resulting in oppression), to one ofhealing and redemption. For instance, instead oftreating drugs as a criminal problem—resulting in themass incarceration of young men and women—hesuggests treating drugs as a public health issue. The third prong of Stevenson’s plan is hope.“Hopelessness is the enemy of justice,” he said. As a beacon of hope, Stevenson cites the increasing number of states that have outlawed trying juveniles as adults and imposing a sentence of life without parole.Last, “do uncomfortable things.” Stevenson hasbeen doing uncomfortable things for a long time. The 55-year-old lawyer graduated from Harvard LawSchool and Harvard Kennedy School, and practicedfor four years with the Southern Prisoners DefenseCommittee. He has represented those he describesas society’s most vulnerable individuals, some ofwhom have been accused of horrific crimes.Today, he is the executive director of the EqualJustice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama. Stevenson founded EJI in 1989 to provide free legal help to death-row inmates in Alabama, but the organization has grown to tackle nationalissues such as life sentences for juvenile offenders,inadequate access to legal help for poor defendants,and racial bias in the criminal process.For his work, Stevenson has been called one ofthe country’s most visionary legal thinkers and social justice advocates. Bishop Tutu has called him“America’s young Nelson Mandela.” He has beennamed a MacArthur Fellow, won the Olof Palme Prize for international human rights, and teaches atN.Y.U. School of Law.The lecture, book-signing and reception weresponsored by the Temple Law Foundation. The eventwas co-sponsored by The Pennsylvania InnocenceProject, whose legal director, Marissa Bluestine,conducted a brief post-lecture discussion.He has anaction plan,invoking“capablepeople to do morecreativethings toimprovejustice.” In fact, hehas a four-point actionplan tochange theworld.46087 Temple_ESQ_Nov15_5th.qxp_Layout 1 11/12/15 8:59 AM Page 9Next >