During the TED Talk “We Need to Talk About an Injustice” by Bryan Stevenson, he talks about how he was raised, his decisions, and his career. He relates social injustice to the fact that one in six people put on trial and sentenced to the death penalty is actually innocent. After being sentenced, the case is later brought back up to find people to be innocent, thus wasting however many years that person spent in jail when they could be exercising their rights as a working class citizen. I agree with the fact that this is a social injustice. I’m sure a majority those innocent people who are founded guilty for a crime are those that cannot afford to choose their lawyer. Instead they are appointed a pro bono lawyer that may not be able to argue their case as well as any other lawyer could have.
He also discusses the abuse of the mentally ill people who are incarcerated. This is also an injustice in society because those people did not choose to be mentally ill. It is what life handed them, and they may not know how to deal with it. This fact should not lead to unfair and unjust treatment while incarcerated. They have not made the choice to be mentally ill, and should not receive unfair treatment for something that cannot be prevented.
Another point discussed in this TED talk was the trial of children as adults. As a lawyer, Stevenson has represented a thirteen year old black child who was being tried just the same as a seventy five year old white male would have been. I believe this is also an injustice. Although the child’s crime may have been severe, they are still a child. Oftentimes a trial for children is altered to where it does not scare the child, and the people in the courtroom are friendlier. There is a reason for this. I feel that a trial for a child being tried for the crime of an adult should still be altered for the sake of the child. Although the punishment may be more severe, they should not be tried the same as a 75 year old man. It may be seen as a way to scare the child into shape, however the child should not be scarred for the rest of their life from the events occurring during their trial and punishment. This opinion can also be altered based on the crime committed by the child.
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