In many ways, we've been taught to think that the real question is, do people deserve to die for the crimes they've committed? And that's a very sensible question. But there's another way of thinking about where we are in our identity. The other way of thinking about it is not, do people deserve to die for the crimes they commit, but do we deserve to kill?

The opposite of poverty is not wealth. I don't believe that. I actually think, in too many places, the opposite of poverty is justice.

Are you the sum total of your worst acts?

The death penalty symbolizes whom we fear and don't fear, whom we care about and whose lives are not valid.

You don’t change the world with the ideas in your mind, but with the conviction in your heart.

If you love your country, then you need to be thinking a lot more critically about what justice.

My parents lived in a poor rural community on the Eastern Shore, and schools were still segregated. And I remember when lawyers came into our community to open up the public schools to black kids.