2016 Honorees

BRYAN STEVENSON

Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, has dedicated his legal career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned, winning legal challenges to eliminate unfair sentencing, exonerate innocent death-row prisoners, confront abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aid children prosecuted as adults. He has won reversals, relief or release for over 115 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row.

GLORIA STEINEM

Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, political activist, feminist organizer and founder of Ms. magazine. A frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality, she recently published My Life on the Road — a profound story of a lifetime spent listening and connecting to women internationally that has allowed Ms. Steinem to become part of a revolutionary movement for equality that would change the world.

ANTHONY MCGILL

Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, is committed to transformative leadership as a role model and educator who dedicates much of his time pro bono to working with young African-American and Hispanic musicians and youth orchestras. An impassioned advocate for justice, he works with incarcerated youth to lead them toward a healthy future when they reenter society.

JEROME F. BUTING & DEAN STRANG

Criminal defense attorneys Dean Strang and Jerome Buting worked on the case of Steven Avery, who was wrongly convicted of sexual assault and attempted murder in 1985 and served 18 years in prison. The case, and Avery's subsequent arrest and conviction for murder, became the basis for the 2015 Netflix documentary series "Making a Murderer," which raised important questions about the fallibility of the justice system. The widely celebrated advocacy of Strang and Buting, coupled with their eloquent defense of the presumption of innocence, demonstrates their commitment to the principles of justice.