0:00:01.160,0:00:02.536
Two weeks ago,

0:00:02.560,0:00:07.936
I was sitting at the kitchen table[br]with my wife Katya,

0:00:07.960,0:00:11.720
and we were talking about[br]what I was going to talk about today.

0:00:13.040,0:00:15.696
We have an 11-year-old son;[br]his name is Lincoln.

0:00:15.720,0:00:19.200
He was sitting at the same table,[br]doing his math homework.

0:00:20.240,0:00:23.816
And during a pause[br]in my conversation with Katya,

0:00:23.840,0:00:25.576
I looked over at Lincoln

0:00:25.600,0:00:28.560
and I was suddenly thunderstruck

0:00:29.640,0:00:32.474
by a recollection of a client of mine.

0:00:33.080,0:00:35.856
My client was a guy named Will.

0:00:35.880,0:00:38.329
He was from North Texas.

0:00:38.920,0:00:40.656
He never knew his father very well,

0:00:40.680,0:00:45.360
because his father left his mom[br]while she was pregnant with him.

0:00:46.520,0:00:50.696
And so, he was destined[br]to be raised by a single mom,

0:00:50.720,0:00:52.197
which might have been all right

0:00:52.221,0:00:56.901
except that this particular single mom[br]was a paranoid schizophrenic,

0:00:57.840,0:01:00.776
and when Will was five years old,

0:01:00.800,0:01:02.800
she tried to kill him[br]with a butcher knife.

0:01:04.280,0:01:09.336
She was taken away by authorities[br]and placed in a psychiatric hospital,

0:01:09.360,0:01:12.616
and so for the next several years[br]Will lived with his older brother,

0:01:12.640,0:01:15.720
until he committed suicide[br]by shooting himself through the heart.

0:01:17.080,0:01:21.896
And after that Will bounced around[br]from one family member to another,

0:01:21.920,0:01:25.640
until, by the time he was nine years old,[br]he was essentially living on his own.

0:01:26.960,0:01:29.576
That morning that I was sitting[br]with Katya and Lincoln,

0:01:29.600,0:01:36.480
I looked at my son, and I realized[br]that when my client, Will, was his age,

0:01:37.480,0:01:39.640
he'd been living by himself for two years.

0:01:41.640,0:01:43.976
Will eventually joined a gang

0:01:44.000,0:01:48.376
and committed a number[br]of very serious crimes,

0:01:48.400,0:01:50.680
including, most seriously of all,

0:01:51.760,0:01:53.400
a horrible, tragic murder.

0:01:55.440,0:02:00.760
And Will was ultimately executed[br]as punishment for that crime.

0:02:02.600,0:02:08.455
But I don't want to talk today[br]about the morality of capital punishment.

0:02:08.479,0:02:12.336
I certainly think that my client[br]shouldn't have been executed,

0:02:12.360,0:02:15.256
but what I would like to do today instead

0:02:15.280,0:02:20.336
is talk about the death penalty[br]in a way I've never done before,

0:02:20.360,0:02:24.360
in a way that is[br]entirely noncontroversial.

0:02:25.600,0:02:27.256
I think that's possible,

0:02:27.280,0:02:31.496
because there is a corner[br]of the death penalty debate --

0:02:31.520,0:02:33.816
maybe the most important corner --

0:02:33.840,0:02:36.576
where everybody agrees,

0:02:36.600,0:02:40.856
where the most ardent[br]death penalty supporters

0:02:40.880,0:02:46.280
and the most vociferous abolitionists[br]are on exactly the same page.

0:02:47.520,0:02:49.800
That's the corner I want to explore.

0:02:51.240,0:02:54.136
Before I do that, though,[br]I want to spend a couple of minutes

0:02:54.160,0:02:57.736
telling you how[br]a death penalty case unfolds,

0:02:57.760,0:02:59.936
and then I want to tell you two lessons

0:02:59.960,0:03:05.016
that I have learned over the last 20 years[br]as a death penalty lawyer

0:03:05.040,0:03:09.000
from watching well more[br]than a hundred cases unfold in this way.

0:03:10.680,0:03:15.360
You can think of a death penalty case[br]as a story that has four chapters.

0:03:15.960,0:03:20.462
The first chapter of every case[br]is exactly the same, and it is tragic.

0:03:21.040,0:03:24.936
It begins with the murder[br]of an innocent human being,

0:03:24.960,0:03:26.696
and it's followed by a trial

0:03:26.720,0:03:29.696
where the murderer[br]is convicted and sent to death row,

0:03:29.720,0:03:33.360
and that death sentence is ultimately[br]upheld by the state appellate court.

0:03:34.640,0:03:37.536
The second chapter consists[br]of a complicated legal proceeding

0:03:37.560,0:03:40.400
known as a state habeas corpus appeal.

0:03:41.200,0:03:44.136
The third chapter is an even[br]more complicated legal proceeding

0:03:44.160,0:03:46.656
known as a federal[br]habeas corpus proceeding.

0:03:46.680,0:03:50.496
And the fourth chapter is one[br]where a variety of things can happen.

0:03:50.520,0:03:53.016
The lawyers might file[br]a clemency petition,

0:03:53.040,0:03:55.536
they might initiate[br]even more complex litigation,

0:03:55.560,0:03:58.016
or they might not do anything at all.

0:03:58.040,0:04:01.880
But that fourth chapter[br]always ends with an execution.

0:04:02.960,0:04:07.096
When I started representing[br]death row inmates more than 20 years ago,

0:04:07.120,0:04:09.776
people on death row[br]did not have a right to a lawyer

0:04:09.800,0:04:13.456
in either the second[br]or the fourth chapter of this story.

0:04:13.480,0:04:15.096
They were on their own.

0:04:15.120,0:04:17.536
In fact, it wasn't until the late 1980s

0:04:17.560,0:04:21.440
that they acquired a right to a lawyer[br]during the third chapter of the story.

0:04:22.440,0:04:27.976
So what all of these death row inmates[br]had to do was rely on volunteer lawyers

0:04:28.000,0:04:29.720
to handle their legal proceedings.

0:04:30.360,0:04:33.736
The problem is that there were[br]way more guys on death row

0:04:33.760,0:04:35.016
than there were lawyers

0:04:35.040,0:04:38.776
who had both the interest[br]and the expertise to work on these cases.

0:04:38.800,0:04:40.460
And so inevitably,

0:04:40.484,0:04:44.416
lawyers drifted to cases[br]that were already in chapter four --

0:04:44.440,0:04:45.816
that makes sense, of course.

0:04:45.840,0:04:47.816
Those are the cases that are most urgent;

0:04:47.840,0:04:50.324
those are the guys[br]who are closest to being executed.

0:04:50.348,0:04:52.165
Some of these lawyers were successful;

0:04:52.189,0:04:54.496
they managed to get[br]new trials for their clients.

0:04:54.520,0:04:57.376
Others of them managed[br]to extend the lives of their clients,

0:04:57.400,0:05:00.296
sometimes by years, sometimes by months.

0:05:00.320,0:05:02.736
But the one thing that didn't happen

0:05:02.760,0:05:06.696
was that there was never[br]a serious and sustained decline

0:05:06.720,0:05:09.496
in the number of annual[br]executions in Texas.

0:05:09.520,0:05:11.456
In fact, as you can see from this graph,

0:05:11.480,0:05:14.856
from the time that the Texas[br]execution apparatus got efficient

0:05:14.880,0:05:16.936
in the mid- to late 1990s,

0:05:16.960,0:05:18.770
there have only been a couple of years

0:05:18.794,0:05:22.274
where the number of annual[br]executions dipped below 20.

0:05:22.920,0:05:24.936
In a typical year in Texas,

0:05:24.960,0:05:28.856
we're averaging about two people a month.

0:05:28.880,0:05:33.056
In some years in Texas,[br]we've executed close to 40 people,

0:05:33.080,0:05:38.096
and this number has never significantly[br]declined over the last 15 years.

0:05:38.120,0:05:41.496
And yet, at the same time[br]that we continue to execute

0:05:41.520,0:05:43.776
about the same number[br]of people every year,

0:05:43.800,0:05:47.656
the number of people who we're[br]sentencing to death on an annual basis

0:05:47.680,0:05:49.280
has dropped rather steeply.

0:05:49.960,0:05:51.896
So we have this paradox,

0:05:51.920,0:05:56.136
which is that the number[br]of annual executions has remained high

0:05:56.160,0:06:00.176
but the number of new[br]death sentences has gone down.

0:06:00.200,0:06:01.576
Why is that?

0:06:01.600,0:06:04.456
It can't be attributed[br]to a decline in the murder rate,

0:06:04.480,0:06:08.056
because the murder[br]rate has not declined nearly so steeply

0:06:08.080,0:06:10.520
as the red line[br]on that graph has gone down.

0:06:11.080,0:06:13.416
What has happened instead

0:06:13.440,0:06:17.736
is that juries have started to sentence[br]more and more people to prison

0:06:17.760,0:06:21.056
for the rest of their lives[br]without the possibility of parole,

0:06:21.080,0:06:23.760
rather than sending them[br]to the execution chamber.

0:06:24.880,0:06:26.536
Why has that happened?

0:06:26.560,0:06:29.696
It hasn't happened[br]because of a dissolution

0:06:29.720,0:06:31.896
of popular support for the death penalty.

0:06:31.920,0:06:34.776
Death penalty opponents[br]take great solace in the fact

0:06:34.800,0:06:39.256
that death penalty support in Texas[br]is at an all-time low.

0:06:39.280,0:06:41.416
Do you know what all-time low[br]in Texas means?

0:06:41.440,0:06:43.656
It means that it's in the low 60 percent.

0:06:43.680,0:06:46.456
Now, that's really good[br]compared to the mid-1980s,

0:06:46.480,0:06:49.136
when it was in excess of 80 percent,

0:06:49.160,0:06:52.056
but we can't explain[br]the decline in death sentences

0:06:52.080,0:06:55.296
and the affinity for life[br]without the possibility of parole

0:06:55.320,0:06:57.696
by an erosion of support[br]for the death penalty,

0:06:57.720,0:06:59.936
because people still support[br]the death penalty.

0:06:59.960,0:07:02.040
What's happened to cause this phenomenon?

0:07:03.320,0:07:07.976
What's happened is that lawyers[br]who represent death row inmates

0:07:08.000,0:07:11.576
have shifted their focus[br]to earlier and earlier chapters

0:07:11.600,0:07:13.000
of the death penalty story.

0:07:13.560,0:07:16.896
So 25 years ago,[br]they focused on chapter four.

0:07:16.920,0:07:19.256
And they went from[br]chapter four 25 years ago

0:07:19.280,0:07:22.256
to chapter three in the late 1980s.

0:07:22.280,0:07:24.776
And they went from chapter three[br]in the late 1980s

0:07:24.800,0:07:27.216
to chapter two in the mid-1990s.

0:07:27.240,0:07:29.296
And beginning in the mid- to late 1990s,

0:07:29.320,0:07:32.296
they began to focus[br]on chapter one of the story.

0:07:32.320,0:07:35.216
Now, you might think[br]that this decline in death sentences

0:07:35.240,0:07:37.496
and the increase[br]in the number of life sentences

0:07:37.520,0:07:39.016
is a good thing or a bad thing.

0:07:39.040,0:07:41.536
I don't want to have a conversation[br]about that today.

0:07:41.560,0:07:44.816
All that I want to tell you[br]is that the reason that this has happened

0:07:44.840,0:07:47.816
is because death penalty lawyers[br]have understood

0:07:47.840,0:07:50.603
that the earlier you intervene in a case,

0:07:50.627,0:07:54.040
the greater the likelihood that[br]you're going to save your client's life.

0:07:54.520,0:07:56.416
That's the first thing I've learned.

0:07:56.440,0:07:58.536
Here's the second thing I learned:

0:07:58.560,0:08:02.440
My client Will was[br]not the exception to the rule;

0:08:03.160,0:08:05.240
he was the rule.

0:08:06.200,0:08:09.776
I sometimes say, if you tell me[br]the name of a death row inmate --

0:08:09.800,0:08:11.456
doesn't matter what state he's in,

0:08:11.480,0:08:13.616
doesn't matter[br]if I've ever met him before --

0:08:13.640,0:08:15.212
I'll write his biography for you.

0:08:16.040,0:08:18.416
And eight out of 10 times,

0:08:18.440,0:08:22.160
the details of that biography[br]will be more or less accurate.

0:08:23.080,0:08:26.736
And the reason for that is that 80 percent[br]of the people on death row

0:08:26.760,0:08:30.976
are people who came from the same sort[br]of dysfunctional family that Will did.

0:08:31.000,0:08:33.176
Eighty percent of the people on death row

0:08:33.200,0:08:36.760
are people who had exposure[br]to the juvenile justice system.

0:08:38.039,0:08:40.440
That's the second lesson[br]that I've learned.

0:08:41.320,0:08:45.256
Now we're right on the cusp of that corner

0:08:45.280,0:08:47.080
where everybody's going to agree.

0:08:48.240,0:08:50.016
People in this room might disagree

0:08:50.040,0:08:52.696
about whether Will[br]should have been executed,

0:08:52.720,0:08:55.056
but I think everybody would agree

0:08:55.080,0:08:58.696
that the best possible[br]version of his story

0:08:58.720,0:09:02.920
would be a story[br]where no murder ever occurs.

0:09:04.480,0:09:05.680
How do we do that?

0:09:06.520,0:09:11.256
When our son Lincoln was working[br]on that math problem two weeks ago,

0:09:11.280,0:09:13.576
it was a big, gnarly problem.

0:09:13.600,0:09:17.056
And he was learning how,[br]when you have a big old gnarly problem,

0:09:17.080,0:09:21.016
sometimes the solution[br]is to slice it into smaller problems.

0:09:21.040,0:09:22.896
That's what we do for most problems --

0:09:22.920,0:09:25.056
in math, in physics,[br]even in social policy --

0:09:25.080,0:09:27.960
we slice them into smaller,[br]more manageable problems.

0:09:28.400,0:09:32.136
But every once in a while,[br]as Dwight Eisenhower said,

0:09:32.160,0:09:35.720
the way you solve a problem[br]is to make it bigger.

0:09:37.560,0:09:39.936
The way we solve this problem

0:09:39.960,0:09:43.080
is to make the issue[br]of the death penalty bigger.

0:09:43.800,0:09:46.136
We have to say, all right.

0:09:46.160,0:09:50.200
We have these four chapters[br]of a death penalty story,

0:09:50.920,0:09:54.760
but what happens before that story begins?

0:09:55.520,0:09:58.680
How can we intervene[br]in the life of a murderer

0:09:59.400,0:10:01.600
before he's a murderer?

0:10:02.240,0:10:07.976
What options do we have[br]to nudge that person off of the path

0:10:08.000,0:10:11.376
that is going to lead[br]to a result that everybody --

0:10:11.400,0:10:14.176
death penalty supporters[br]and death penalty opponents --

0:10:14.200,0:10:17.336
still think is a bad result:

0:10:17.360,0:10:19.320
the murder of an innocent human being?

0:10:22.240,0:10:27.816
You know, sometimes people say[br]that something isn't rocket science.

0:10:27.840,0:10:31.136
And by that, what they mean[br]is rocket science is really complicated

0:10:31.160,0:10:34.656
and this problem that we're[br]talking about now is really simple.

0:10:34.680,0:10:36.096
Well that's rocket science;

0:10:36.120,0:10:41.160
that's the mathematical expression[br]for the thrust created by a rocket.

0:10:42.040,0:10:45.840
What we're talking about today[br]is just as complicated.

0:10:46.480,0:10:50.960
What we're talking about today[br]is also rocket science.

0:10:51.800,0:10:55.960
My client Will and 80 percent[br]of the people on death row

0:10:56.800,0:10:59.776
had five chapters in their lives

0:10:59.800,0:11:04.016
that came before the four chapters[br]of the death penalty story.

0:11:04.040,0:11:07.696
I think of these five chapters[br]as points of intervention,

0:11:07.720,0:11:09.376
places in their lives

0:11:09.400,0:11:12.976
when our society[br]could've intervened in their lives

0:11:13.000,0:11:15.976
and nudged them off of the path[br]that they were on

0:11:16.000,0:11:18.616
that created a consequence that we all --

0:11:18.640,0:11:21.536
death penalty supporters[br]or death penalty opponents --

0:11:21.560,0:11:23.240
say was a bad result.

0:11:23.840,0:11:26.496
Now, during each of these five chapters:

0:11:26.520,0:11:28.456
when his mother was pregnant with him;

0:11:28.480,0:11:30.536
in his early childhood years;

0:11:30.560,0:11:32.136
when he was in elementary school;

0:11:32.160,0:11:34.502
when he was in middle school[br]and then high school;

0:11:34.526,0:11:36.818
and when he was[br]in the juvenile justice system --

0:11:36.842,0:11:38.517
during each of those five chapters,

0:11:38.541,0:11:41.596
there were a wide variety of things[br]that society could have done.

0:11:41.620,0:11:43.216
In fact, if we just imagine

0:11:43.240,0:11:45.936
that there are five[br]different modes of intervention,

0:11:45.960,0:11:50.176
the way that society could intervene[br]in each of those five chapters,

0:11:50.200,0:11:52.456
and we could mix and match them[br]any way we want,

0:11:52.480,0:11:56.496
there are 3,000 -- more than 3,000 --[br]possible strategies

0:11:56.520,0:11:57.816
that we could embrace

0:11:57.840,0:12:01.960
in order to nudge kids like Will[br]off of the path that they're on.

0:12:03.160,0:12:07.056
So I'm not standing here today[br]with the solution.

0:12:07.080,0:12:10.560
But the fact that we[br]still have a lot to learn,

0:12:11.520,0:12:15.016
that doesn't mean[br]that we don't know a lot already.

0:12:15.040,0:12:17.816
We know from experience in other states

0:12:17.840,0:12:21.616
that there are a wide variety[br]of modes of intervention

0:12:21.640,0:12:23.256
that we could be using in Texas,

0:12:23.280,0:12:26.056
and in every other state[br]that isn't using them,

0:12:26.080,0:12:29.706
in order to prevent a consequence[br]that we all agree is bad.

0:12:30.400,0:12:31.600
I'll just mention a few.

0:12:32.960,0:12:36.936
I won't talk today[br]about reforming the legal system.

0:12:36.960,0:12:38.216
That's probably a topic

0:12:38.240,0:12:41.696
that is best reserved[br]for a room full of lawyers and judges.

0:12:41.720,0:12:45.696
Instead, let me talk[br]about a couple of modes of intervention

0:12:45.720,0:12:47.816
that we can all help accomplish,

0:12:47.840,0:12:50.602
because they are modes of intervention[br]that will come about

0:12:50.626,0:12:54.696
when legislators and policymakers,[br]when taxpayers and citizens,

0:12:54.720,0:12:56.776
agree that that's[br]what we ought to be doing

0:12:56.800,0:12:59.136
and that's how we ought[br]to be spending our money.

0:12:59.160,0:13:02.176
We could be providing early childhood care

0:13:02.200,0:13:06.360
for economically disadvantaged[br]and otherwise troubled kids,

0:13:07.240,0:13:09.736
and we could be doing it for free.

0:13:09.760,0:13:13.423
And we could be nudging kids like Will[br]off of the path that we're on.

0:13:13.960,0:13:16.960
There are other states[br]that do that, but we don't.

0:13:17.600,0:13:20.176
We could be providing special schools,

0:13:20.200,0:13:22.976
at both the high school level[br]and the middle school level,

0:13:23.000,0:13:25.136
but even in K-5,

0:13:25.160,0:13:28.136
that target economically[br]and otherwise disadvantaged kids,

0:13:28.160,0:13:32.616
and particularly kids who have had[br]exposure to the juvenile justice system.

0:13:32.640,0:13:34.776
There are a handful[br]of states that do that;

0:13:34.800,0:13:36.000
Texas doesn't.

0:13:36.920,0:13:40.936
There's one other thing we can be doing --[br]well, there are a bunch of other things --

0:13:40.960,0:13:43.296
there's one other thing[br]that I'm going to mention,

0:13:43.320,0:13:46.606
and this is going to be the only[br]controversial thing that I say today.

0:13:46.630,0:13:49.976
We could be intervening[br]much more aggressively

0:13:50.000,0:13:53.176
into dangerously dysfunctional homes,

0:13:53.200,0:13:55.136
and getting kids out of them

0:13:55.160,0:13:58.560
before their moms pick up butcher knives[br]and threaten to kill them.

0:14:00.600,0:14:03.680
If we're going to do that,[br]we need a place to put them.

0:14:04.560,0:14:06.216
Even if we do all of those things,

0:14:06.240,0:14:08.416
some kids are going[br]to fall through the cracks

0:14:08.440,0:14:10.696
and they're going to end up[br]in that last chapter

0:14:10.720,0:14:12.256
before the murder story begins,

0:14:12.280,0:14:14.896
they're going to end up[br]in the juvenile justice system.

0:14:14.920,0:14:17.960
And even if that happens,[br]it's not yet too late.

0:14:18.600,0:14:21.376
There's still time to nudge them,

0:14:21.400,0:14:25.376
if we think about nudging them[br]rather than just punishing them.

0:14:25.400,0:14:27.496
There are two professors[br]in the Northeast --

0:14:27.520,0:14:29.176
one at Yale and one at Maryland --

0:14:29.200,0:14:33.240
they set up a school[br]that is attached to a juvenile prison.

0:14:33.880,0:14:36.216
And the kids are in prison,[br]but they go to school

0:14:36.240,0:14:38.816
from eight in the morning[br]until four in the afternoon.

0:14:38.840,0:14:40.536
Now, it was logistically difficult.

0:14:40.560,0:14:43.816
They had to recruit teachers[br]who wanted to teach inside a prison,

0:14:43.840,0:14:45.698
they had to establish strict separation

0:14:45.722,0:14:48.976
between the people who work at the school[br]and the prison authorities,

0:14:49.000,0:14:50.336
and most dauntingly of all,

0:14:50.360,0:14:53.256
they needed to invent a new curriculum[br]because you know what?

0:14:53.280,0:14:56.346
People don't come into and out of prison[br]on a semester basis.

0:14:56.370,0:14:58.136
(Laughter)

0:14:58.160,0:15:00.320
But they did all those things.

0:15:01.240,0:15:03.480
Now, what do all of these things[br]have in common?

0:15:04.000,0:15:08.440
What all of these things have in common[br]is that they cost money.

0:15:10.320,0:15:12.696
Some of the people in the room[br]might be old enough

0:15:12.720,0:15:17.136
to remember the guy[br]on the old oil filter commercial.

0:15:17.160,0:15:22.600
He used to say, "Well, you can pay me now[br]or you can pay me later."

0:15:24.040,0:15:27.400
What we're doing[br]in the death penalty system

0:15:28.600,0:15:30.640
is we're paying later.

0:15:31.880,0:15:35.776
But the thing is[br]that for every 15,000 dollars

0:15:35.800,0:15:37.976
that we spend intervening

0:15:38.000,0:15:41.736
in the lives of economically[br]and otherwise disadvantaged kids

0:15:41.760,0:15:43.056
in those earlier chapters,

0:15:43.080,0:15:47.120
we save 80,000 dollars[br]in crime-related costs down the road.

0:15:47.800,0:15:53.424
Even if you don't agree that[br]there's a moral imperative that we do it,

0:15:54.360,0:15:56.920
it just makes economic sense.

0:15:58.200,0:16:01.391
I want to tell you about the last[br]conversation that I had with Will.

0:16:02.320,0:16:06.360
It was the day that[br]he was going to be executed,

0:16:07.680,0:16:10.096
and we were just talking.

0:16:10.120,0:16:12.520
There was nothing left to do in his case.

0:16:13.280,0:16:15.040
And we were talking about his life.

0:16:15.760,0:16:19.600
And he was talking first about his dad,[br]who he hardly knew, who had died,

0:16:20.360,0:16:24.800
and then about his mom,[br]who he did know, who was still alive.

0:16:25.880,0:16:27.080
And I said to him,

0:16:28.600,0:16:29.800
"I know the story.

0:16:30.600,0:16:31.800
I've read the records.

0:16:32.520,0:16:34.200
I know that she tried to kill you."

0:16:34.920,0:16:36.536
I said, "But I've always wondered

0:16:36.560,0:16:39.536
whether you really[br]actually remember that."

0:16:39.560,0:16:43.576
I said, "I don't remember anything[br]from when I was five years old.

0:16:43.600,0:16:45.760
Maybe you just remember[br]somebody telling you."

0:16:46.400,0:16:48.776
And he looked at me and he leaned forward,

0:16:48.800,0:16:50.176
and he said, "Professor," --

0:16:50.200,0:16:52.896
he'd known me for 12 years,[br]he still called me Professor.

0:16:52.920,0:16:55.936
He said, "Professor,[br]I don't mean any disrespect by this,

0:16:55.960,0:16:58.416
but when your mama[br]picks up a butcher knife

0:16:58.440,0:17:00.816
that looks bigger than you are,

0:17:00.840,0:17:04.616
and chases you through the house[br]screaming she's going to kill you,

0:17:04.640,0:17:06.936
and you have to lock yourself[br]in the bathroom

0:17:06.960,0:17:08.216
and lean against the door

0:17:08.240,0:17:10.680
and holler for help[br]until the police get there,"

0:17:12.000,0:17:13.936
he looked at me and he said,

0:17:13.960,0:17:16.119
"that's something you don't forget."

0:17:17.480,0:17:20.176
I hope there's one thing[br]you all won't forget:

0:17:20.200,0:17:22.536
In between the time[br]you arrived here this morning

0:17:22.560,0:17:24.136
and the time we break for lunch,

0:17:24.160,0:17:27.616
there are going to be[br]four homicides in the United States.

0:17:27.640,0:17:30.816
We're going to devote[br]enormous social resources

0:17:30.840,0:17:33.096
to punishing the people[br]who commit those crimes,

0:17:33.120,0:17:34.336
and that's appropriate

0:17:34.360,0:17:36.736
because we should punish[br]people who do bad things.

0:17:36.760,0:17:39.193
But three of those crimes are preventable.

0:17:39.880,0:17:43.136
If we make the picture bigger

0:17:43.160,0:17:46.520
and devote our attention[br]to the earlier chapters,

0:17:47.360,0:17:50.816
then we're never going[br]to write the first sentence

0:17:50.840,0:17:52.600
that begins the death penalty story.

0:17:53.680,0:17:54.896
Thank you.

0:17:54.920,0:17:56.341
(Applause)