Steven W. Hawkins
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Steven W. Hawkins (born July 10, 1962) is an American social justice leader and litigator who currently serves as president and CEO of the US Cannabis Council.[1] He previously served as executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project and as executive director of Amnesty International USA.[2][3] Prior to these roles, he served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Program Officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He also held position as executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, as senior program manager at Justice, Equality, Human Dignity and Tolerance Foundation, and as program executive at Atlantic Philanthropies and as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Hawkins is known for bringing litigation that led to the release of three teenagers wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death row in Tennessee.
Hawkins was born in Peekskill, New York and raised in Ossining, New York, which was home to Sing Sing Correctional Facility. In high school Hawkins attended a field trip to Sing Sing where he met with inmates who opened his eyes and inspired his lifelong commitment to social justice advocacy. Hawkins grew up with reminders of the injustices of a U.S. criminal justice system that disproportionately targets minorities and the economically disadvantaged. Many of the inmates were Black Panthers or inmates from Attica Correctional Facility who fought inhumane prison conditions.
Hawkins graduated from Harvard College with a B.S. in economics in 1984.[4] In 1985, Hawkins spent a year at the University of Zimbabwe during the turmoil, repression and massacre of civilians at the hands of rebels during the country's first post-independence election. He also attended New York University School of Law as a Root Tilden scholar. After graduating in 1988, he clerked for Judge A. Leon Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.[5]