Just Mercy (Movie Tie-In Edition): A Story of Justice and Redemption

I heard about this book a number of times before I finally bought it. But it wasn’t the number of people who mentioned it that impressed me; it was the way they spoke of it, definitely in admiration, almost in awe, always with a tone that suggested they had been changed by the experience. What better recommendation could there be? I had to read it.The book follows Stevenson’s career first as a Harvard law student, and continuing after he received his degree, defending people (primarily in Alabama) who would otherwise have little hope of justice. Even with the efforts of Stevenson and others working to bring the ideal of equal justice closer to reality, there are aspects of a person’s life, some of which that person cannot control, that demonstrably affect his or her interaction with the massive machinery of justice in America. To summarize Stevenson’s argument: If you are poor, black, or mentally ill, your chances of receiving fair treatment in the justice system are much worse, especially if the victim is white.Of course, racial discrimination is still present in American society and still causes untold damage, but one thing that struck me while reading this book was the reminder of how recent the history of overt racial discrimination is in our country. By this I mean discrimination that doesn’t even hide itself, that isn’t even subtle, that is just right there in your face, never mind what the law might say. This history runs deep in America, and it still has the effect of denying many people the benefits of a nation that promises “liberty and justice for all.” In particular, as it relates to Stevenson’s book, African Americans who are caught up in the justice system have to carry a heavy burden of history, whether they are guilty or not.Addressing this burden is the aim of Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative. Stevenson and his colleagues don’t only defend African Americans who have no access to good legal representation. They have worked with white convicts as well, in addition to showing a special interest in the mentally ill and children convicted of serious crimes and thrown in together with the general prison population. But race and the history of race relations, including a history of state-sanctioned violence against African Americans, are the broad context for the work. It is a context that I think is difficult for white Americans, especially privileged white Americans, to fully understand.The frame story for Stevenson’s book, the story that encompasses all the others and provides a thread of continuity, is the saga of Walter McMillian. McMillian was convicted and sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit, based on flimsy and highly questionable evidence that was contradicted by other evidence and testimony available to police and prosecutors at the time of the original trial. Imprisoned on Alabama’s death row in 1987 before the trial even began, McMillian was eventually released in 1993 through the efforts of Stevenson and the EJI. But while McMillian’s case is described from beginning to end over the course of the book, Stevenson describes many other cases, some successful, some not, that he handled over the years.As infuriating as McMillian’s story is, though, the main point of the book is not that a man named Walter McMillian was unjustly imprisoned and prejudicially sentenced to die. Yes, his exoneration was a belated correction of a grievous error, and it saved an innocent man from death, but there are two larger messages embedded in these accounts of underfunded attempts to right past wrongs and, in the case of children, to ensure that they are not permanently damaged by being incarcerated with hardened criminals. First is that there is a real human being at the core of each of the stories Stevenson tells, and each of them deserves the fair treatment that any of us would expect, even demand, of the justice system. It is said so often that it can sound corny, but even one innocent person wrongfully convicted is too many, and if that person is put to death it is inexcusable both legally and morally (especially if the case was mishandled). Stevenson notes in a Postscript that when Anthony Ray Hinton was freed from prison in 2015, after being “locked down in solitary confinement at Holman Correctional Facility [in Alabama] for three decades in a 5x7 cell” for a crime he did not commit, he was the “152nd person in America exonerated and proved innocent after having been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death” (p. 315). One hundred and fifty-two people! How can we as a nation continue to argue that the death penalty is a useful part of a system of justice when over 150 innocent people have been condemned but had the good fortune to be proven innocent before the process could reach its culmination in their death? It is unknown how many innocent people have actually been executed, but if this many have been freed after being proven innocent, we should lose some sleep—lots of it—over that unanswerable question. It’s not good enough to say that because in the end they were exonerated, the cases of these 152 people prove that the system works. The point is that they never should have been convicted in the first place. Far too many of these people were convicted due to incompetent representation, withheld evidence, and prejudicial hearings, and were only saved because a lawyer somewhere had time to take their case (most likely for little or no pay, since those wrongfully convicted tend to be poor). For those not so lucky, the execution chamber awaits.The second message is that it does not weaken our justice system to remember that justice tempered with mercy is not a lesser form of justice. I have great faith in the American justice system, a faith that has been reinforced by living in countries that have different systems. Yes, it takes a little longer to look objectively at all the evidence. And it is difficult for all of us to look beyond our preconceptions and see the person in front of us rather than the category into which we would place them. But that is what our common humanity requires of us. And when fallible human beings, including the state’s representatives (judges, prosecutors, juries of one’s peers), are making decisions that could end a person’s life, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that we do all we can not to allow mistakes to be made that cannot be undone once the sentence is carried out. False charges can be reversed. Unjust imprisonment can end. But nothing ends the gas chamber, the electric chair, or the lethal injection until the heart and lungs stop functioning. Stevenson isn’t suggesting that killers go free, or that criminals should not be punished. His larger message about mercy is simply this: We all need it from time to time, and we may even need more than we deserve. As he puts it, “we are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent” (p. 289). But it’s not just that we all have our often-hidden sources of pain. It’s that we most often need mercy when we deserve it least. “The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving. It’s when mercy is least expected that it’s most potent—strong enough to break the cycle of victimization and victimhood, retribution and suffering” (p. 294).Some would ask, but what about people who don’t deserve mercy? What about people who, by their own actions, have put themselves beyond the bounds of human decency and thereby forfeited their right to continue living among us? One response would sound a bit like a Sunday School lesson, at least if you’re a Christian. By that doctrine, none of us deserves mercy. It’s always a gift, given because of the love and grace of the Giver, not because of the merits of the one to whom it is given. But it’s hard to apply such a lesson to the criminal justice system, because the great Lawgiver isn’t dispensing justice in that system. We are. And I mean that “we” literally. We are all implicated when any decision is made in the courts, since the foundation on which those courts rest is the idea that in determining guilt and innocence, and setting punishments in the case of the former, they act as our surrogates, expressing the unacceptability of certain acts but also accepting the possibility that sometimes, the person in the dock just might be innocent. At the conclusion of his story of Walter McMillian, Stevenson concludes with a lesson he said he learned from the experience. “Mercy is most empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving. The people who haven’t earned it, who haven’t even sought it, are the most meaningful recipients of our compassion.” He’s not talking about Walter McMillian’s liberation from prison, though. He’s talking about Walter’s own forgiveness of “the people who had judged him unworthy of mercy” (p. 314).So what is required of us as citizens of a country with a legal system designed to protect us from the depredations of those who would harm us while also protecting us as much as possible from the perversions of justice that will be part of any imperfect system administered by imperfect people? We might start with this: To do justice and love mercy. In practice, the systems of state power cannot be expected to operate perfectly, but we can insist on certain things from those systems: a fair, impartial hearing; consideration of all the evidence, whether or not it supports one side’s vested interest in a particular outcome; refusal to apply the law any differently regardless of race or prior history. When those in a position to decide on our behalf decide that the ultimate penalty is to be applied, we can refuse to let the human thirst for vengeance make us callous to the tragedy that has unfolded for everyone, from the victims to the perpetrator. And when a wrongly-convicted person is freed, we can find within us a willingness to accept him or her as we would like to be accepted, as one whose failings are part of the enormous burden of our common, fallible humanity.

Have you ever read a book that has changed the way you view the world? Just Mercy was that book for me. Bryan Stevenson has spent his life helping those that have been wrongly condemned.Did you know that “over 50 percent of prison and jail inmates in the United States have a diagnosed mental illness, a rate nearly five times greater than that of the general adult population?” Did you know that 25 percent of inmates are veterans? Did you know that there were children sentenced to life in prison for non-lethal crimes at the age of 13? Did you know that 167 people that were on death row have been exonerated since 1973 in the United States? I did not know any of this before reading Just Mercy. It was an eye-opening book that taught me a lot about the prison system and execution in the United States. Even more than the facts and figures, Bryan Stevenson was able to use the personal stories of those that he has worked with through the years to give a face to the people behind bars. These stories still haunt me a week after finishing this book.The main story of Just Mercy is how Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice, to help defend the wrongly convicted, the poor, and the vulnerable that have become trapped in the criminal justice system. Walter McMillian was one of Stevenson’s first cases. He was condemned for a murder he did not commit, and Stevenson has to work against the system to try to get just for Walter, his family, and his community. I will admit I was shocked that you could be so innocent with an alibi and no prior convictions and that false testimony could put you on death row. The fact that it was so hard to get Walter back off death row was very disturbing and made me question again why we have the death penalty in America.I admire Bryan Stevenson. Instead of taking a high paying corporate job, he went after his passion to help people. The way he tells his story is down to earth and full of compassion. It made me really sad reading this how happy people were to see Bryan when he visited them in jail. He was the one person that really listened to so many forgotten people. People want justice and mercy and he was able to bring it to a lot of people.As a side note, I really liked the To Kill a Mockingbird references in this book. It was highly ironic that a community that was so proud of being where To Kill a Mockingbird took place railroaded a black man, Walter McMillian, with false testimony to a death sentence.I also watched the movie Just Mercy on Amazon with my family. It was an excellent movie. It focused on the Walter McMillian case and not the rest of the stories that Stevenson told in this book. The book covered a lot of issues including mothers that are put in jail for “killing” babies that were born dead, children that are victimized as they are tried as adults and put in the general population. The book also talked about how being tough on crime often results in sentences that are too harsh for the crimes, especially for the poor. The rich who can afford good lawyers are able to plea deal and get out of sentences that the poor could spend a lifetime in prison over. The system is not fair for all. Even after a citizen pays for their crime, when they get out of jail, there are so many restrictions they are not able to be a fully functioning citizen of the United States again. That is a crime in itself. I also watched the documentary “13th” on Netflix and Bryan Stevenson is one of the people interviewed about the criminal justice system in America. It was also eye opening and I highly recommend it.Favorite Quotes:I had too many favorite quotes in this book so I will try to narrow it down.“This book is about getting closer to mass incarceration and extreme punishment in America. It is about how easily we condemn people in this county and the injustice we create when we allow fear, anger, and distance to shape the way we treat the most vulnerable among us.”“The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned. We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, and a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others. The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it’s necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and – perhaps – we all need some measure of unmerited grace.”“For them, the darkness brought a familiar unease, an uncertainty weighted with the wary, lingering fear as old as the settlement of the country itself; discomfort too longstanding and constant to merit discussion but too burdensome to ever forget.”“The bad things that happen to use don’t define us.”“Whenever things got really bad, and they were questioning the value of their lives, I would remind them that each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”“Constantly being suspected, accused, doubted, distrusted, presumed guilty, and even feared is a burden borne by a people of color that can’t be understood or confronted without a deeper conversation about our history of racial injustice.”“Walter made me understand why we have to reform a system of criminal justice that continues to treat people better if they are rich and guilty than if they are poor and innocent.”Overall, Just Mercy is a book that every American should read. Stevenson is able to give a voice to those that desperately need one that are trapped within our legal system. It also gives a great look at why there is so much anger in our country right now with how different groups (black, mentally disabled, poor, etc.) are treated different within our justice system. I read this book quickly and I cannot stop thinking about it. It is a great book for a book club or a school to discuss social justice issues.Book Source: Purchased from Amazon.com

I absolutely devoured this book! This was assigned in one of my classes, so I was required to read it. It is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. I loved the stories so much that I would even read it in my free time, past the assigned chapters. Stevenson makes it interesting by using descriptions of characters that bring the story to life in vivid detail.Most importantly, this book changed my interactions with the people around me. After reading just the first couple chapters, I had a family member call me that they were about to send a firm text to someone who wasn’t treating them nice. I was surprised to find that the first thing I thought of was to tell them about the book and how we should try to understand that person instead. My family member decided to try it, and my family is a lot happier as a result!If you are looking for a book that is not just interesting to read, but will positively affect the way you interact with others, definitely buy this book right now!

As a white English woman I have limited knowledge of the British justice system and next to none of the American systems. I have no knowledge of worrying about healthcare issues as ours is free, so don't have to stop and think before I call the doctor or an ambulance. I also have no real knowledge of racism. The facts in this account are heartbreaking. It is unbelievable that we can treat people this way. That anyone can be thrown into prison for life without parole is dreadful, let alone that it could be a 13year old child or a woman writing cheques for which she has no money to honour. What kind of world is this?! Bryan writes in a gentle, eloquent tone; he doesn't lecture, or bang his fist, and as such it is a very readable book, even if the truths are not palatable. Well done for all your incredible struggles Mr Stevenson and thank you for writing this book so that I and the rest of the world may be educated. May we be brave enough to catch stones henceforth.

This book tells the story of Bryan Stevenson's attempts to help those on death row in the US, particularly those in the state of Alabama where he sets up an Equal Justice Initiative. One three through the book is the story of Walter McMillian, wrongly convicted of murder who spends 6 years on death row before he is finally released by the efforts of Stevenson. Other chapters deal with other cases - and the issues around treating juveniles as adults in the US justice system of the day, of making no allowance for mental disabilities, and through it all, ongoing prejudice against black people and poor people built into the judicial system.I learned much I did not know - that judges in many US states run for office and are elected, for example. This leads to competition to be the toughest on crime in terms of sentencing. And much about US history - Stevenson persuasively suggests there have been four eras of history in the US, that of slavery, that of terrorism (lynching, the Ku Klux Klan etc) following Reconstruction, that of Jim Crow (institutionalised apartheid), and now an era of mass imprisonment. I was also reminded of much that is worst in human nature as well as about much that is best. Stevenson says 'we are all broken' in different ways. There are telling anecdotes from his own life - being stopped by the police for now reason while in his car late at night near his home and having a gun pointed at him and then an illegal search of his car, being mistaken by a judge for a criminal rather than a defence attorney because he is black. Much of the book is very moving. Just possibly the worst is over with several Supreme Court victories, and some decline in the imposition of the death penalty in very recent years...So: I'd simply recommend this very strongly to all others.

As someone who works in the British Criminal justice system I am always interested in comparison between our CJS and that of the US, which was originally designed to emulate ours. The vast difference in sentencing policy has always been staggering and made me grateful of our more liberal sentencing practices. Reading about the experiences of BAME communities and the US CJS made me angry and offended my sense of justice; until I read statistics that show that proportionately we are overtaking the US in our locking up of black males. This book has reaffirmed that justice is more readily available to those who can pay for it and solidified my position that the death penalty, either through execution or slow death in custody is both immoral and detracts from one of the most human of virtues...mercy.

This is one of the most impressive books I have read for a very long time. The author, an African American from a poor background, is a lawyer who works tirelessly to defend the rights of his mainly black clients, especially those on death row and some children as young as thirteen years, who receive sentences of life without parole.His is a remarkable story of courage, persistence, and sheer humanity, and his work is now rightly recognised throughout the world. The book is not a comfortable read; many of his clients have suffered appalling injustice and abuse, and he pulls no punches in writing about them. But the book also includes stories of enormous courage and forgiveness, as well as of heartbreak and tragedy. One character in particular stands out, as we follow his story from wrongful conviction as a young man through numerous appeals and setbacks. Stevenson points out that even now, a white guilty man stands a better chance of finding justice than one who is black and innocent, and he challenges a society that identifies people by the worst thing they have done, ignoring the good.For some years, I have corresponded with a prisoner on Texas death row facing execution, and I know from his letters some of the devastating effects of years of solitary confinement, without any opportunity for redemption, so this book was of especial interest to me. But to all who are in favour of - as well as against - the death penalty, I would say read this book. It is a real eye-opener, as well as giving shocking insight into the judicial system of the United States, who have the highest rate of imprisonment in the entire world. The link below leads to a speech by Stevenson, which describes some of what can be found in his remarkable book.http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/17/bryan-stevenson-if-its-not-right-to-a-rapist-how-can-it-be-ok-to-kill-a-killer

I first came across Bryan Stevenson when watching his interview on Democracy Now (www.democracynow.org) talking about Ferguson. This book made me, a white Brit, aware of how deep-rooted the problems in America's judicial system are. Hopefully the imprint this book will have on me is that it will make me a little more human, a little more merciful. I'd recommend this book for anyone - and particularly for schools. I think today's primary kids should read this stuff and maybe be encouraged to forge a better world for themselves.