So, imagine that you take a 19-hour, very long drive to Disney World, with two kids in the back seat. And 15 minutes into this 19-hour trip, the immutable laws of nature dictate that you get the question: "Are we there yet?"
Zamislite da krenete na vrlo dugu vožnju od 19 sati do Diznijevog sveta sa dvoje dece na zadnjem sedištu. Petnaest minuta od početka ovog putovanja od 19 sati, nepromenljivi zakoni prirode nalažu da ćete dobiti pitanje: „Jesmo li stigli?“
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
So you answer this question a hundred more times, easily, in the negative, but you finally arrive. You have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful trip. You drive 19 long hours back home. And when you get there, the police are waiting on you. They accuse you of committing a crime that occurred while you were away in Florida. You tell anybody and everybody who will listen, "I didn't do it! I couldn't have done it! I was hanging out with Mickey and Minnie and my kids!" But no one believes you. Ultimately, you're arrested, you're tried, you're convicted and you are sentenced. And you spend 25 years in jail, until someone comes along and proves -- has the evidence to prove -- that you actually were in Florida when this crime was committed. So.
Vi odgovorite negativno na to pitanje još stotinu puta, nesumnjivo, ali konačno stignete. Provedete se predivno na putovanju. Vozite se 19 dugih sati u povratku do kuće. A kada stignete tamo, čeka vas policija. Optužuju vas da ste počinili zločin koji se dogodio dok ste bili na putu u Floridi. Govorite svakome ko želi da sasluša: „Nisam to uradio! Nisam mogao to da uradim! Družio sam se sa Mikijem, Mini i sa svojom decom!“ Ali vam niko ne veruje. Na kraju vas uhapse, izvedu vas pred sud, osuđeni ste i izrečena vam je kazna. Provedete 25 godina u zatvoru, sve dok se ne pojavi neko i dokaže - ima dokaze kojima pokazuje - da ste zaista bili u Floridi kada je ovaj zločin počinjen.
So, I'm a Harvard Law professor, and the last several years, I have worked on winning the release of innocent people who've been wrongfully convicted -- people like Jonathan Fleming, who spent 24 years, eight months in jail for a murder that was committed in Brooklyn, New York, while he was in Disney World with his kids. How do we know this? Because when he was arrested, among his property in his back pocket was a receipt -- time-stamped receipt that showed that he was in Disney World. That receipt was put in the police file, a copy of it was put in the prosecutor's file, and they never gave it to his public defender. In fact, nobody even knew it was there. It just sat there for 20-some-odd years. My team looked through the file, and we found it, did the rest of the investigation, and figured out someone else committed the crime. Mr. Fleming was in Disney World, and he is now released.
Ja sam profesor Pravnog fakulteta na Harvardu i poslednjih nekoliko godina sam radio na dobijanju oslobođenja za nevine ljude koji su nepravedno osuđeni - za ljude kao što je Džonatan Fleming, koji je proveo 24 godine i osam meseci u zatvoru za ubistvo koje je počinjeno u Bruklinu u Njujorku dok je on bio u Diznijevom svetu sa svojom decom. Kako ovo znamo? Zato što se, kada je uhapšen, među stvarima koje je posedovao u svom zadnjem džepu nalazio račun - račun sa oznakom o vremenu koji je pokazivao da je bio u Diznijevom svetu. Taj račun je stavljen u policijski dosije, njegova kopija je uneta u spise tužioca, i nikada ga nisu dali njegovom javnom braniocu. Zapravo, niko nije ni znao da je tamo. Samo je stajao tamo nekih dvadesetak godina. Moj tim je pregledao dosije i našli smo ga, sproveli ostatak istrage, i shvatili da je neko drugi počinio zločin. Gospodin Fleming je bio u Diznijevom svetu i sada je oslobođen.
Let me give you a little bit of context. So about three years ago, I got a call from the Brooklyn District Attorney. He asked whether I'd be interested in designing a program called a "conviction review unit." So I said yes. A conviction review unit is essentially a unit in a prosecutor's office where prosecutors look at their past cases to determine whether or not they made mistakes. Over the course of the first year, we found about 13 wrongful convictions, people having been in jail for decades, and we released all of them. It was the most in New York history. The program is still going on, and they're up to 21 releases now -- 21 people who spent significant time behind bars.
Da vam iznesem malo konteksta. Pre oko tri godine sam dobio poziv od okružnog javnog tužioca u Bruklinu. Pitao me je da li bih bio zainteresovan za osmišljavanje programa pod nazivom „jedinica za razmatranje osuda“. Prihvatio sam. Jedinica za razmatranje osuda je u suštini jedinica u tužilaštvu u kojoj tužioci pregledaju stare slučajeve da bi ustanovili da li su napravili greške. Tokom prvih godinu dana, otkrili smo oko 13 pogrešnih osuda, ljude koji su decenijama bili u zatvoru, i sve smo ih oslobodili. To je bio najveći broj u istoriji Njujorka. Taj program se i dalje odvija i sada su stigli do 21 oslobađanja - 21 čoveka koji je proveo značajnu količinu vremena iza rešetaka.
So let me tell you about a couple other of the men and women that I interacted with in the course of this program. One name is Roger Logan. Mr. Logan had been in jail 17 years and wrote me a letter. It was a simple letter; it basically said, "Professor Sullivan, I'm innocent. I've been framed. Can you look at my case?" At first blush, the case seemed like it was open and shut, but my research had shown that single-witness identification cases are prone to error. It doesn't mean he was innocent, it just means we ought to look a little bit closer at those cases.
Dozvolite da vam ispričam o par drugih muškaraca i žena sa kojima sam bio u kontaktu za vreme ovog programa. Jedno od imena je Rodžer Logan. Gospodin Logan je proveo 17 godina u zatvoru i napisao mi je pismo. Bilo je to jednostavno pismo; u suštini je govorilo: „Profesore Salivane, nevin sam. Namešteno mi je. Možete li da pogledate moj predmet?“ Na prvi pogled, izgledalo je da je slučaj čist kao suza, ali moje istraživanje je pokazalo da su slučajevi identifikacije sa jednim svedokom podložni greškama. To ne znači da je nevin, već samo znači da treba da malo bolje pogledamo te slučajeve.
So we did. And the facts were relatively simple. The eyewitness said she heard a shot, and she ran to the next building and turned around and looked, and there was Mr. Logan. And he was tried and convicted and in jail for 17-some-odd years. But it was a single-witness case, so we took a look at it. I sent some people to the scene, and there was an inconsistency. And to put it politely: Usain Bolt couldn't have run from where she said she was to the other spot. Right? So we knew that wasn't true. So it still didn't mean that he didn't do it, but we knew something was maybe fishy about this witness. So we looked through the file, a piece of paper in the file had a number on it. The number indicated that this witness had a record. We went back through 20 years of non-digitized papers to figure out what this record was about, and it turned out -- it turned out -- the eyewitness was in jail when she said she saw what she saw. The man spent 17 years behind bars.
To smo i uradili. Podaci su bili relativno jednostavni. Svedokinja je rekla da je čula pucanj, da je otrčala do susedne zgrade, okrenula se i pogledala, a tamo je bio gospodin Logan. Njemu se sudilo, osuđen je i proveo je u zatvoru 17 i nešto godina. To je bio slučaj sa samo jednim svedokom, pa smo ga pregledali. Poslao sam neke ljude na mesto zločina i postojala je nedoslednost. Da to kažem odmereno: Jusein Bolt nije mogao da pretrči sa onog mesta na kome je rekla da je bila na drugo mesto. Tako smo znali da to nije istina. To još uvek nije značilo da nije to počinio, ali smo znali da je nešto možda sumnjivo u vezi sa ovim svedokom. Zato smo prošli kroz predmet i na jednom papiru u predmetu se nalazio broj. Broj je ukazivao da je ovaj svedok imao dosije. Prošli smo unazad kroz 20 godina nedigitalizovanih dokumenata da bismo otkrili o čemu se radi u tom dosijeu, i ispostavilo se da je svedokinja bila u zatvoru kada je rekla da je videla ono što je videla. Čovek je proveo 17 godina iza rešetaka.
The last one is a case about two boys, Willie Stuckey, David McCallum. They were arrested at 15, and their conviction was vacated 29 years later. Now this was a case, once again -- first blush, it looked open and shut. They had confessed. But my research showed that juvenile confessions without a parent present are prone to error. The DNA cases proved this several times.
Poslednji je slučaj dva dečaka, Vilija Stakija i Dejvida Makaluma. Uhapšeni su sa 15 godina, a njihova presuda je poništena 29 godina kasnije. To je bio slučaj u kome je, još jednom, na prvi pogled sve delovalo jasno kao dan. Priznali su. Ali, moje istraživanje je pokazalo da su priznanja maloletnika bez prisustva roditelja podložna greškama. Slučajevi sa analizom DNK su to dokazali više puta.
So we took a close look. We looked at the confession, and it turned out, there was something in the confession that those boys could not have known. The only people who knew it were police and prosecutors. We knew what really happened; someone told them to say this. We don't exactly know who, which person did, but any rate, the confession was coerced, we determined. We then went back and did forensics and did a fulsome investigation and found that two other, much older, different heights, different hairstyle, two other people committed the crime, not these two boys.
Zato smo pogledali izbliza. Sagledali smo priznanja i ispostavilo se da je bilo nečeg u priznanju što ti dečaci nisu mogli znati. Jedini koji su to znali bili su policija i tužioci. Znali smo šta se zaista dogodilo; neko im je rekao da to kažu. Ne znamo tačno ko, koja osoba je u pitanju, ali, u svakom slučaju, priznanje je bilo pod prinudom, kako smo ustanovili. Onda smo obavili forenzičku analizu unazad, sproveli temeljnu istragu i otkrili da su druge dve osobe, mnogo starije, sa različitim visinama i drugačijim frizurama, počinile zločin, a ne ova dva dečaka.
I actually went to court that day, for what's called a "vacatur hearing," where the conviction is thrown out. I went to court; I wanted to see Mr. McCallum walk out of there. So I went to court, and the judge said something that judges say all the time, but this took on a really special meaning. He looked up after the arguments and said, "Mr. McCallum," he said five beautiful words: "You are free to go." Can you imagine? After just about 30 years: "You are free to go." And he walked out of that courtroom.
Zapravo sam otišao u sud tog dana na ono što se naziva „saslušanje radi poništavanja“, gde se presuda odbacuje. Išao sam u sud; hteo sam da vidim kako gospodin Makalum odlazi odatle. Dakle, otišao sam u sud i sudija je rekao nešto što sudije stalno govore, ali ovoga puta je zaista imalo značaja. Podigao je pogled nakon iznetih argumenata i rekao: „Gospodine Makalum“, rekao je četiri lepe reči: „Slobodni ste da idete.“ Da li možete da zamislite? Nakon gotovo 30 godina: „Slobodni ste da idete.“ I napustio je tu sudnicu.
Unfortunately, his codefendant, Mr. Stuckey, didn't get the benefit of that. You see, Mr. Stuckey died in prison at 34 years old, and his mother sat at counsel table in his place. I'll never forget this the rest of my life. She just rocked at the table, saying, "I knew my baby didn't do this. I knew my baby didn't do this." And her baby didn't do this. Two other guys did it.
Nažalost, njegov saoptuženi, gospodin Staki, nije imao koristi od toga. Vidite, gospodin Staki je umro u zatvoru u 34. godini, a njegova majka je umesto njega sedela za stolom. Nikada neću to zaboraviti do kraja života. Samo se klatila za stolom, govoreći: „Znala sam da moje dete to nije uradilo. Znala sam da moje dete to nije uradilo.“ I njeno dete to nije uradilo. To su uradila druga dva momka.
If there's anything that we've learned, anything that I've learned, with this conviction integrity work, it's that justice doesn't happen. People make justice happen. Justice is not a thing that just descends from above and makes everything right. If it did, Mr. Stuckey wouldn't have died in prison. Justice is something that people of goodwill make happen. Justice is a decision. Justice is a decision. We make justice happen.
Ako postoji nešto što smo naučili, nešto što sam naučio, kroz ovaj rad na integritetu osuda, to je da se pravda ne dešava. Ljudi čine da se pravda desi. Pravda nije nešto što samo padne sa neba i ispravi sve. Da je tako, gospodin Staki ne bi umro u zatvoru. Pravda je nešto što ljudi dobre volje omoguće da se desi. Pravda je odluka. Pravda je odluka. Mi ostvarujemo pravdu.
You know, the scary thing is, in each of these three cases I described, it would have only taken just an extra minute -- an extra minute -- for someone to look through the file and find this receipt. Just one -- to look through the file, find the receipt, give it to the public defender. It would have taken someone just a minute to look at the video confession and say, "That cannot be." Just a minute. And perhaps Mr. Stuckey would be alive today.
Znate, zastrašujuća stvar je to što je, u svakom od ova tri slučaja koja sam opisao, bio potreban samo još jedan minut - jedan dodatni minut - da neko pregleda dosije i nađe ovaj račun. Samo jedan - da pregleda dosije, nađe račun i preda ga javnom braniocu. Nekome bi bio potreban samo minut da pogleda snimak priznanja i kaže: „Ovo ne može biti.“ Samo jedan minut. I možda bi gospodin Staki bio živ danas.
It reminds me of one of my favorite poems. It's a poem that Benjamin Elijah Mays would always recite, and he called it "God's Minute." And it goes something like this: "I have only just a minute, only 60 seconds in it, forced upon me, can't refuse it, didn't seek it, didn't choose it. But it's up to me to use it. I must suffer if I lose it, give account if I abuse it. Just a tiny little minute, but eternity is in it."
To me podseća na jednu od mojih omiljenih pesama. To je pesma koju bi uvek izrecitovao Bendžamin Elajdža Mejs, a zvao ju je „Božji minut“. Ide ovako nekako: „Imam samo minut, samo 60 sekundi u njemu, nametnut mi, ne mogu ga odbiti, nisam ga tražio, nisam ga birao, ali je na meni da ga iskoristim. Moram patiti ako ga izgubim, polagati račune ako ga zloupotrebim. Samo jedan majušni minut, ali je večnost u njemu.“
If I were to charge each and every one of us, I would want to say something like, "Every day, every day, take just one extra minute and do some justice. You don't have to -- I mean, some people spend their careers and their lives, like public defenders, doing justice every day. But in your professional lives, whatever you do, take time out to just do some justice. Make a colleague feel better. If you hear something that's sexist, don't laugh, speak up. If someone is down, lift them up, one extra minute each day, and it'll be a great, great place.
Kada bi trebalo da izdam naređenje svakome od nas, rekao bih nešto poput: „Svakoga dana, svakoga dana, izdvojite samo jedan dodatni minut i sprovedite pravdu.“ Ne morate - Mislim, neki ljudi provedu svoju karijeru i svoj život, kao javni branioci, svakodnevno radeći za pravdu. Ali, u vašem profesionalnom životu, čime god da se bavite, izdvojte vreme da jednostavno sprovodite pravdu. Učinite da se kolega oseća bolje. Ako čujete nešto što je seksistički, ne smejte se, već izrazite svoj stav. Ako je neko tužan, oraspoložite ga, jedan dodatni minut svakoga dana i biće to sjajno mesto.
I want to show you something. Now, above me is a picture of David McCallum. This is the day he was released from prison. After 30 years, he got to hug a niece he had never been able to touch before. And I asked him then, I said, "What's the first thing you want to do?" And he said, "I just want to walk on the sidewalk without anybody telling me where to go." Wasn't bitter, just wanted to walk on the sidewalk.
Želim da vam pokažem nešto. Iznad mene je slika Dejvida Makaluma. Ovo je dan kada je oslobođen iz zatvora. Nakon 30 godina je mogao da zagrli bratanicu koju nikada ranije nije mogao da dodirne. Pitao sam ga tada: „Šta je prvo što želiš da uradiš?“ A on je rekao: „Samo želim da hodam trotoarom, a da mi niko ne govori gde da idem.“ Nije bio ogorčen. Samo je hteo da hoda trotoarom.
I spoke to Mr. McCallum about two weeks ago. I went to New York. It was on the two-year anniversary of his release. And we talked, we laughed, we hugged, we cried. And he's doing quite well. And one of the things he said when we met with him is that he now has dedicated his life and his career to ensuring that nobody else is locked up unjustly.
Razgovarao sam sa gospodinom Makalumom pre oko dve nedelje. Otišao sam u Njujork. Bilo je to na drugu godišnjicu njegovog oslobađanja. Razgovarali smo, smejali se, grlili se, plakali. Prilično je dobro. Jedna od stvari koje je rekao kada smo se sreli sa njim je da je sada posvetio svoj život i svoju karijeru tome da se postara da niko više ne bude nepravedno zatvoren.
Justice, my friends, is a decision.
Pravda, prijatelji moji, jeste odluka.
Thank you very much.
Mnogo vam hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)