Lawyer David Pearson was the first presenter of what will be a series of several criminal justice professionals coming to campus until the end of the semester. He discussed a high-profile sexual assault case out of Paris, Texas, in criminal justice classes that were open to any interested students last Friday.
The series reflects the interests of many students on campus, said Kelly Knight, instructor of criminal justice. She requested and hosted Pearson Knight in her classroom.
“There’s been a lot of interest in criminal justice as a topic and as a career, and we have seen the numbers of students increase in the past few years. The whole department is very humanity oriented and justice oriented,” Knight said.
Knight said she hoped the series would give students the chance to hear voices from the front lines of criminal justice work as they explore their interests and passions.
“I am trying to give our students exposure to all the facets of the American criminal justice system,” Knight said. “To the leaders in this community and in other communities, to the best talent and the experts in these fields.”
The stories these speakers will tell will often connect with students with interests other than criminal justice, Knight said. The cases that will be discussed will involve psychology, social work and the education system.
“A lot of the time it is a big village that works around this defendant,” Knight said. “We form this human chain around this case, and there’s a lot more players involved than just the attorneys and the judge.”
Lawyers play an important role in keeping the government in check, said Knight, who is herself a licensed attorney in Texas and New Mexico.
“I’m glad that there are lawyers out there crusading for no glamor, no fame and no pay, just to make the right thing happen,” Knight said. “If the government becomes a law breaker, then it undermines all of our faith in the system.”
Such was the case in one particular trial Pearson was involved in, said Knight. she asked Pearson to dive deeper into one of his cases that she had seen particular student interest in since the case gained public notoriety in 2008. She said she had planned to spend only a class or two to talk about the case, but students’ concern pressed her to explore the subject fully.
“It was the Christian and caring students on this campus who kept that concern alive and kept vigilant about what was happening in that case,” Knight said. “Now that we could follow through and we finally got David Pearson to come and educate us about some of the procedures, we can hear from him what went right and what went wrong.”
Pearson was appointed in 2010 to represent Aaron Hart, who, at age 18 and with an IQ of 79, was sentenced to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty in a sexual assault case. Pearson found that Hart did not possess the competency to discuss or understand his case fully and that the judge and jury were not adequately notified of his mental retardation in the first trial. He fought for – and won – a reduction in the sentence of jail time his client received.
Pearson said he hoped his presentation would empower students to one day speak out on behalf of people like Aaron Hart. Students have the opportunity to stand with people who are poor, disenfranchised and vulnerable, Pearson said.
“I would hope that a student would know that down the road, if they were in that situation, some day they can stand on their own two feet and say, ‘Hey, let’s take a step back here and say as a society, do we really have to go down this slippery slope where we hit as hard as we can with a one-size fits all mentality?'” Pearson said. “That if someone steps across a certain line, are we so righteous that just because we have the authority and the power, we’re just going to hit them as hard as we can?”
Pearson, an ACU alumni, said he was honored to revisit his alma mater to discuss his most recent work with current students.
“Being able to watch from a distance and see how much more of a great impact [ACU is] having in the nation and in the world makes me proud to be from here,” Pearson said.
ACU equipped Pearson not only with a good education that got him into law school, but with a biblical foundation that he was able to fully grasp after entering further into adulthood, he said.
“You start realizing … this is not just something I needed to study to pass a Bible class,” Pearson said. “There are people that need mercy, and I’ve been shown mercy, therefore the time is now. In that sense, I think I was prepared by ACU.”
Knight said she was unaware of Pearson’s ACU connection when she first “cold-called” him to discuss the case her students were so moved by. The same coincidence occurred with several of the remaining speakers she has lined up in this semester’s series.
“What I’m finding out is that there’s all of this seed planting that happened here that has grown into this great fruit where students are becoming leaders and leading the charge,” Knight said. “The Christians should be leading the charge for justice out there, for everyone, not just people like us, and I’m finding lots of alumni out there, far flung.”
“There’s been a lot of interest in criminal justice as a topic and as a career, and we have seen the numbers of students increase in the past few years. The whole department is very humanity oriented and justice oriented,” Knight said.
Both Knight and Pearson sited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as inspiration for their continued pursuit of justice and educating those interested in the field.
“I do agree with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in that if we allow an injustice to happen to the vulnerable, the poor, the people who are not like us, the mentally infirm, or who Jesus calls the least of these, if we allow that and turn a blind eye… then it does threaten justice for all of us,” Knight said.
