Thread by @davidminpdx

1. Fabulous article about Kip Kinkle who, at age 15, committed the most notorious crime in modern Oregon history when he killed his parents and shot up a school. Now he’s 38, is in treatment for paranoid schizophrenia, and has grown and changed a lot. huffpost.com/entry/kip-kink…

2. As those of us who have represented people on death row know from our own personal experience, even people who commit the most ghastly, unthinkable crimes often grow and change as they get older. Many, (though not all), become rehabilitated. huffpost.com/entry/kip-kink…

3. This is not just true of people who committed their crimes as children, like Kinkel; it’s also true of those who committed crimes as adults. And it’s also not merely true of those who played a small role in a violent crime; principals/ringleaders often transform over time.

4. One of the worst things about our legal system is how it makes judgements at sentencing that preclude us from taking another look at who someone may become in 10 or 20 or 30 years. LWOP and de facto life sentences are so silly and destructive.

5. Why on earth would we decide at sentencing who someone is going to be 10, 20, 30 years in the future? Why not just wait and see. Why cut ourselves off from the possibility that over time people will grow to become assets to our community? huffpost.com/entry/kip-kink…

6. That reserving of judgement – waiting and seeing – is the genius of parole. Parole allows us to take a look at who someone has become, not merely who they were. Everyone should gain parole eligibility after some reasonable period of time so we can take another look.

7. Obviously Kinkel committed an unspeakable crime – literally the worst in modern state history – so he should bear a heavy burden when it comes to proving to us that he is ready to reenter society. His severe mental illness should also be considered.

8. But that should not cut us off from seriously considering the matter. Has this person shown us, over a significant period of time, that he is rehabilitated? Does he have more to offer our community on the outside than he does on the inside?

9. Kip’s case should also be a warning to us about how we allow single cases – often far outlier cases – like Willie Horton to drive our public policy. Cynical politicians and the media use Kip’s case to keep us in fear and cut off enlightened reforms for 100s of other kids.

10. It should also be a warning to us that efforts to segregate the redeemable from the irredeemable at sentencing are bogus. There is no science to the idea of “future dangerousness” or “irreparable corruption.” None.

11. Any “expert” who says they can reliably distinguish the redeemable from the irredeemable is a quack and fraud. And the idea that the horribleness of one’s crime is a signifier of one’s redeemability is similarly nonsense.

12. The uncomfortable truth is not only that people grow and change but that they do so IN WAYS THAT WE CANNOT PREDICT. We want desperately to be able to say “this here is a monster,” but in truth, only actions are monstrous, not people.

13. When we reduce people to monsters – believe that they are inherently a certain way, unchangeable – we cut ourselves off from the sweetest, most wondrous, mysterious fact of the human condition: people can and sometimes do transform themselves. They become born again.

14. The truth is that there are 10,000s of people in prison for some of the most serious crimes – on death row and serving LWOP for homicide – who are old now and utterly rehabilitated. Like “I would happily have them as neighbors” rehabilitated.

15. Our decision to keep them in prison not only injures them, it hurts their families and communities. And it cuts us off from ourselves – from our capacity to recognize and connect with the creative and redemptive aspects of ourselves.