Name: Ana Curry

Social Justice Group: 2020-2021, Death Penalty

Date of Fieldwork: April 26, 2021

Person (people) with whom you met and their title(s) & Name of Organization: Just Mercy Seminar with Anthony Ray Hinton

Type of Fieldwork: Webinar/live youtube video

Reflection:

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that everything revolves around the color of a person’s skin in a criminal system. Anthony Ray Hinton’s detective when he was first arrested said that he would be convicted innocent or not because his Judge and Jury would be white. He then spent around a year in jail before he faced a judge who convicted him or capital murder. He spent the first 3 years on death row not talking to anyone. Once one of the cell mates neighboring his cell was crying and Hinton asked what was wrong and the neighboring cell said that his mother died, that’s when Hinton realized how lucky he was that his mother was still alive. He decided he was going to live the best live that he could on death row. He finds a way to escape in his cell using his imagination. His next lawyer said that he could get Hinton life without parole, which Hinton declined because he wouldn’t stand in front of a judge saying he was guilty when he wasn’t.