EJI and the State of Alabama

When we went to the equal justice Initiative office and meet with Anthony Hinton I was surprised at what I would hear. I could never image me that a man could be out on death row for a crime he did not commit. He was innocent and later released. When he spoke to us about forgiveness and peace it really made me think twice about the petty things I usually hold against people. If this man could forgive all the racist jury's, judges, policemen, prosecutors, ect… Then I needed to rethink my way of thinking. He really touched me when he said even after the took away from me 30 years of my life and the chance to be with my mother before she passed, all I could ever want from then was for them to say sorry. This day really changed the way I'm going to think about things, he touched my heart with his ability to stay humble even after all the things that had been done to him just because he was a black man who couldn't afford a good lawyer. I also learned at this office all the actions the EJI has done for many other people who were in his same position. It also blew my mind that I got to walk down the same street slaves were brought down to be action off. The one thing that upset me when I was in Alabama was the clear fact that the state displayed and idolized the confederate flags and preserved the office of the brothers of the confederacy. Knowing what they stood for really bothered me and it made it worse to know that it was still preserved as something that was good.

Evangeline Bemah-Stokes, Hope High School