Dwayne Betts has many honors under his belt. He’s an author, teacher, poet, advocate and father and has obtained three degrees. His current pursuit, a juris doctor from Yale Law School, will further direct the life he’s cultivated over the past decade.
As someone who was imprisoned for more than eight years, Betts’ thirst for justice is unique to most of his peers at Yale.
“The law has a pervasive impact not only in my life, but in the lives of people in my community,” he says. As a law student, he’s able to think about problems conceptually—in a way that he would not have otherwise, he continues.
In 1996, Betts and his friend discovered a man sleeping in his car in a mall parking lot in Springfield, Virginia. The boys held the man at gunpoint and stole his car. In less than 24 hours, Betts was arrested and charged with six felonies. He was 16 at the time of his arrest and tried and sentenced as an adult.
“It really was just one incident—a combination of it being a Friday night, a gun being readily available and bad advice,” says Betts, who admits to having smoked weed and skipped class as a high schooler in Suitland, Maryland, but nothing as serious as that fateful day.
Betts, in fact, was an honors student who had been placed in gifted and talented programs at a young age. “A lot of teachers thought I was smart because I was in the talented and gifted program, so as a result of that, I had opportunities that I otherwise wouldn’t have had,” says Betts, who maintained a B average in high school.
Still, or perhaps because of his burgeoning intellect, Betts wasn’t challenged in high school.
