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Restorative Justice: How Law Schools Can Help Heal Their Communities

I. INTRODUCTION--THE LIMITATIONS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE PARADIGM A. Azim Khamisa's Story (1) On Saturday night, January 21, 1995, nineteen-year-old Tariq Khamisa was delivering pizzas at DeMille's Italian Restaurant in San Diego, California. His pizza-delivery job helped pay some of his college expenses at San Diego State University. He was getting ready to leave for the evening when his boss asked him to make one last delivery. Reluctantly, Tariq agreed. Before doing so, he stopped by his girlfriend's house to bring her a soda. (2) Tariq drove to the address, a large housing project on Louisiana Street in San Diego's working-class North Park neighborhood. He searched in vain for Unit D. After knocking on several doors, he realized there was no Unit D--the order had been a hoax. As he walked back to his Volkswagen, a boy pointed a gun at him and said, "Pizza man, give me those pizzas." Tariq ignored him and kept walking back to his car. He tossed the pizzas inside and started to drive away. The boy fired. The nine-millimeter slug shattered the car window, ripping through Tariq's arms and chest, killing him immediately. (3) The police easily located the assailant, Tony Hicks, who was already in custody for stealing his grandfather's gun. Tariq's father, Azim, was devastated by his son's senseless murder. The case quickly became high-profile and political because Tony was the first fourteen-year-old to be prosecuted as an adult under California's new, tougher laws enabling juveniles to be prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system. (4) The case engendered much debate--some supported the law while others opposed it. (5) Azim did not take part in the debate, which to him seemed irrelevant. No matter what happened to Tony, it would not bring his son back. My thoughts and emotions began to return the day after we buried Tariq. One of the first emotions I felt was anger. However, it was not directed at Tariq's assailants. The entire society was the object of my rage. I wondered how it was that in our great country children too young to have a driver's license are not too young to carry a gun. Why do we spend billions on wars on foreign soil or conquering space, when every day, in our own backyard, our defenseless children are wiped out in a frenzy of bizarre violence? Why couldn't our intelligent nation, the world's only superpower, get its priorities right? How many more children would have to be sacrificed? When did we start accepting these killings? And why did we allow them to continue? (6) Tony was sentenced to twenty-five years to life in prison, but the harsh punishment did nothing to ease Azim's pain: Sentencing Tony to prison did not make me feel whole. It did nothing to bring Tariq back. We need a justice system that is more holistic. We have to look at where violence comes from. Parents are not only responsible. All of society is responsible. I was starting to think more about the concept of restorative justice, especially for juveniles. Our system is based on retributive justice, which punishes the offender and ends there. Restorative justice seeks to make both parties whole. We need to be realistic that if we do not change offenders, we as a society will continue to suffer. (7) B. The Families Make Contact With the help of the district attorney, Azim contacted Tony's grandfather and guardian, Plex Ferguson, a very unusual thing to do. Through Plex, he began corresponding with Tony in prison, and eventually chose to meet Tony in person. Azim believed that Tony's ability to change was dependant on Azim's ability to forgive him: Unabated anger directed at the perpetrator harms us, however, because anger is a very strong emotion and can become an all consuming passion within us. It fills us with hatred and tension and blocks out love and joy. …