When Will Your Child Be Eligible for Parole?: Hank Coxe at TEDxJacksonville

Think back to at time when you did something so stupid, so idiotic, where someone could have been hurt, or would have been hurt. Think back to when you were a teenager. Celebrated trial lawyer Hank Coxe asks, where is the morality behind incarcerating children?

Hank Coxe received his undergraduate degree from The University of the South (Sewanee) and law degree from Washington & Lee University. At the State Attorney's Office, he served as director of all felony divisions, the special prosecution division (complex crimes), and then managed his own law firm. He joined the Bedell Firm in 1996.


Considered one of the most esteemed lawyers in the State of Florida and a former special prosecutor for the Florida State Attorney's office, Hank served on the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission and the Florida Supreme Court Innocence Commission. He is widely recognized for his pro bono work, fundraising for legal aid and improving the administration of justice. Coxe is committed to changing the way our youth are being imprisoned today, a way he considers fundamentally contrary to a truly civilized society.

His wife, Mary, is a graduate of Wellesley College and Duke University Law School. They have three children -- Katie (University of Pennsylvania, University of Florida College of Law); Matson (Vanderbilt University, University of North Carolina School of Law); and Anne English (Davidson College, Columbia University School of Law).

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)