David R. Dow is an attorney in Texas who has defended over 100 death row inmates over the last 20 years.
In his TEDTalk David R. Dow addresses the question, “What happens before a murder?” In his attempt to find a way to reduce death penalty cases, he “realized that a surprising number of death row inmates had similar biographies.” While he recognizes that many of the inmates he has been involved with over the years were guilty, he asserts in an interview with NPR that, “They should have been sentenced to life in prison instead of death at the hands of the state.”
In this TEDTalk, Dow “proposes a bold plan, one that prevents murders in the first place.”
He is spot on. As a death penalty practitioner in Virginia, I see the exact same syndrome…disadvantaged kids and dysfunctional childhoods, mixed with poverty, broken families and mental illness.. Prevent murders by intervening early. Cutting juvenile court and services budgets and eliminating HeadStart programs is morally and economically shortsighted.