Last night upper school students and faculty at my school listened to Bryan A. Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative ( www.eji.org/eji ), as he spoke to us about the 8th Amendment, which prohibits the government from imposing cruel and unusual punishments. This evening Forum is part of a series of lectures we are hosting this year on the Bill of Rights.
Specifically, Mr. Stevenson talked about the plight of children as young as 7 years of age who have been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Incredibly, there are hundreds - if not thousands - of such cases in the United States today. Mr. Stevenson and his organization are also active in a number of capital punishment cases, and he has successfully won the freedom of people wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death.
Mr. Stevenson is graduate of Harvard Law School and is a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Award recipient.
We have had many impressive people speak in our Forums at Tower Hill over the years, but few have captivated and moved the audience the way Mr. Stevenson did last night. It would be very hard for me to overstate the impact of his message on our upper school students and faculty.
Please take a look at the video clip below and you will get a sense of the intellect and strength of this remarkable man.
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