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TI: Well, here's another question: legacy. Justice Charles Z. Smith, what would you want the legacy of Charles Z. Smith to be? When people talk about your, your impact, your, the changes that you made, the contributions you've made in your career, what would you want people to say?

CS: Oh, I have to use cliches. I would start out first by saying, "He was a nice person." [Laughs] But in all seriousness, I would like to believe that people would remember me for having a strong concept of justice for all people, and to have an innovative approach to the administration of laws through the courts -- because that has been the major portion of my professional career, is in the courts -- to do creative things within the bounds of the judicial ethics process, to come up with new approaches in the adult courts and the juvenile courts, to sponsor, inspire and participate in programs for change, new ways of dealing with offenders in the courts. I think that our prisons are an abysmal failure, and there has to be some other way of dealing with offenders. I think the "Three Strikes Law" is an abysmal failure; I think it is unfair, it does not work uniformly as it is supposed to work. I think mandatory minimum sentences are unfair; they don't work the way they are supposed to have worked. And when they were created, we had theories that we were working on. And at the time, it seemed the theory would work. We've had years of experience in working with these new ideas, and we're finding they don't work, so what we need to do is go back to the drawing board. So, innovative approaches in the criminal justice system, innovative approaches in the civil justice system, and the fair treatment of all persons is part of what I would like to believe my legacy would be.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.