I recently watched Prof. Martha Minow’s 2019 Ted Talk, titled ‘How forgiveness can create a more just legal system’, and found the ideas she presented very interesting. Mandela once said, “resentment is like drinking a poison and hoping it will kill your enemies,” and this is something that feels awfully significant when we consider modern legal systems. Forgiveness is a practice that is encouraged in every religion, and there are even medical studies that provide evidence for the positive impacts it can have on health, and so it seems strange that it is not something that has been more widely implemented into the legal systems globally.
Professor Minow opened her talk with the case of Dallas PD officer Amber Guyger’s guilty conviction in the murder of Botham Jean, whom she shot when she entered his apartment, having mistaken for her own and thought he was an intruder. After the court heard the guilty verdict and she was sentenced to 10 years in jail, Brandt Jean, Botham’s brother, did what for many would be unthinkable – with the judge’s permission, he went and gave her a hug. He publicly forgave her for what she did.
In the US and in the UK, the law tends to lean overwhelmingly towards punishment rather than forgiveness; lawyers often overlook the legal tools they have to encourage a system of forgiveness, like pardons, expungement and commutations (in the US), and bankruptcy for debts. The law has the ability to remove penalties and allow people to start afresh, while still enforcing a system through which people are held accountable.
However, when these means are used, they often reflect the vast disparities in society, whether that is along race, gender, or class boundaries. Historically, in the US, white people are pardoned four times as often as BIPOC Americans for the same crimes. Here rises one of the major issues with such forgiveness tools: it could undermine the duty of the law to apply the rules to everyone equally. This is a valid concern and an important point to raise during these debates, but, particularly in the US, we are seeing a period of mass incarceration. On average, black men are serving sentences 20% longer than white men, so the same argument can be made about the legal system as it currently is: it is not an equal system. Furthermore, with the appropriate method of implementation, it could offer a much-needed reset to the system across the board. It could allow people to rebuild their lives and have a system of reconciliation with their communities, in a way which the defensive and adversarial systems we are so used to do not.
Professor Minow used a striking and memorable example of restorative justice in action:
A girl in California, Mercedes M., had transferred schools after being suspended, and in this new school, two girls accused her of lying. A counselor spoke to her, and managed to build up trust, so she acknowledged she had stolen the shoes of one of the other classmates. The counselor then encouraged the girls to sit and talk about what had happened, rather than fighting. After the girls had expressed their emotions, Mercedes apologised. She told the girls that she wanted to sell the shoes, to allow her mother to take a drug test to prove she was clean, and try and win back custody of her two younger children. The girls did not ask her to return what she had stolen once they heard this, but rather they wanted to start anew with her. Later, Mercedes said that she was sure the situation would have ended in her suspension had this restorative justice process not been used.
These systems have become the go-to method in places like the District of Columbia Juvenile Justice System and LA’s Teen Court, and could soon become the appropriate method in more cases globally.
The debates that have been happening surrounding restorative justice have inspired global projects. A particularly notable one was the collaboration between Jubilee 2000, Pope John Paul II, Bono, many other celebrity figures, and 60 nations, in cancelling around US$100 Billion of debt for emerging nations, leading to a huge reduction in poverty and an opportunity for growth. John Oliver partnered with US non-profit RIP Medical Debt in purchasing millions of dollars of medical debt for $60,000 and they then forgave all of that debt. That allowed 9000 people to get a restart in their lives. Efforts like this should set a wonderfully constructive precedent for change in our society.
One cannot ignore the prospect that forgiving violations of laws poses a risk of repeated offences (something called ‘moral hazard’), but resentment and blame pose great risks too. But in the society that we are presented with now, with the right strategy and approach, the benefits of a changed system could be great. Forgiveness before the law does not mean that we ignore the wrongdoing that has happened, but rather enabling new choices that come with wiping the slate clean for people.
The link to watch the talk is below:
Martha Minow: How forgiveness can create a more just legal system | TED Talk
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