“Justice Without Violence.”
Taken from the title of a speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. given at Brandeis University in 1957, our motto pays tribute to Dr. King and reminds us of the long arc of justice work.
The death penalty is violent. Imposing it by any means — whether electrocution, lethal injection, lethal gas, hanging, or firing squad — is a failure of humanity and a deep injustice to those associated with it.
Justice WITHOUT violence is what we strive for every day in our work at Suzerain. We seek justice for our clients, for their victims, and for their loved ones who are irrevocably traumatized by the horrific facts of our cases and the inhumanity of our system of capital punishment.
In many death penalty trials, prosecutors tell jurors to show the defendant the same mercy he showed his victims. Encouraging jurors to act like a convicted murderer is hypocrisy of the highest order. In contrast, we encourage jurors to impose the very severe punishment of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole — to choose justice without violence.
Click here to read Dr. King’s speech.