Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

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

It’s not often that you come across a book that changes your perspective and changes your life. I was assigned to read Just Mercy for one of my college courses, and honestly, I did not know what to expect. I had not heard much about the book, or even the mercy, and I had only a limited understanding of what it discussed. In my opinion, this is one of those books that everyone should read, no matter their circumstances. Stevenson presents both facts and stories about Death Row inmates in a fair and compassionate way. He explores the context that we may never have understood or even noticed before. Context such as the mental illness that runs rampant in the U.S, racial prejudice that is still very present today, infectivity in the Judicial system, etc. I thought I had an opinion on capital punishment before, but Stevenson gave me a new perspective. I urge you all to read this book, and I promise that if you do- it will give you an increased sense of what compassion means, as well as fairness. The problems that he illuminates are still alive and well in our country today, but we can do our part to change that. And the first step for each of us is understanding. Just Mercy helps us to understand the genuine toll that being put on Death Row can take on a person, and even on a society.

This book brought me to tears multiple times and filled my heart with hope as well. Bryan Stevenson’s writing provided me with opportunities to reflect on my views and challenge ideas I have about criminals, prisons, and treating fellow humans. I’ve already had some encouraging conversations about prison reform and racial injustice since finishing this book and I look forward to sharing this book with people in my life and continuing these necessary conversations.

This book was suggested to me at a Discussion Group I attended at my Unitarian Universalist church. We meet before worship for an hour to discuss current social, political and religious issues. I just finished reading the electronic version of this book on my computer and heartily recommend it to everyone. Here are several thoughts that came to my mind as I read (and often cried at the cruelty and unfairness).I am white, not black, and so have no idea of the frustrations that blacks have faced, do face, every day of their life, the thoughts they think, the worries that are real to them as we pass on the street. Stevenson points out that blacks are “constantly being suspected, accused, watched, doubled, distrusted, presumed guilty, and even feared” and that this creates a wariness, a living fear and watchfulness, a control on how they respond to white America, those in power, the police, lawyers, judges. It is real, though not seen. When will this end? How much time must pass under the bridge for these actions to cease (by white America) and the feelings to no longer control black America? We left behind slavery and replaced it with lynching and bombing and “convict leasing” (look that up), and then legalized racial segregation and suppression (Jim Crow), and now we find ourselves in a stage of financially lucrative mass incarceration. America. Is it really a great nation? Are it’s people really good? History shows us otherwise, reader. And, don’t forget, that thing we call “America” is us. You and me.Stevenson reminded us of Jesus’ words: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” And then he pointed out how we let our self-righteous thoughts, our fear, and our anger push us into becoming a stone-thrower, and by “we” I mean prosecutors, judges, common folk in the jury, friends who are no longer, family who is ashamed and turns away, strangers who quickly judge and walk away in their false-view of others and self. Who among us is a stone-catcher, someone who stands up for the rights of those who need help, whether guilty or innocent? Read to the end and you’ll find the explanation for the book’s title. Why “just”? Why “mercy”? Can Justice and Mercy coexist? I won’t tell you here. But I will leave you with one more thought from Stevenson: “Mercy is most empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving.” That means the guilty, those who did harm another person. It is easy to help those who deserve help. We feel justified, like it is the right thing to do. But who helps those who are guilty? Don’t they deserve help too? Read the book and find out if you think it is okay to lock up anyone, a kid or adult, black or white, rich or poor, and tell them that they’ll never get out because they can never be rehabilitated. Make your own journey. I did, and I will share my thoughts with all who will listen.If you want to know the facts, if you want to hear the stories of those who have been locked up, if you want to change Ignorance into Knowledge, then read this book. But we aware…you will cry. Two words: chocolate milkshake.

Needed it for a school project

This book, non-fiction, is a multilayered offering. First, running through it and binding it together is the story of one man who is a symbol of justice gone awry. Walter McMillan, of Atticus Finch country, is investigated for a murder and despite the evidence to the contrary is railroaded into a conviction and sentenced to death. His real sin: being a black man having an affair with a white woman.Second, the focus shifts to his environment, weaving in the stories of a constellation of legal ills experienced by, mainly, black residents of the three states of Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama — the area served by the author’s non-profit legal foundation, Equal Justice Initiative, which he established after discovering that many people of the area were in dire need of attorney assistance; convicted of serious crimes, they were in danger of being put to death or dying in prison without ever having had legal representation.The third layer covers our entire country and it tells the tale of the partially unintended consequences of our earlier turn to harsh sentencing, mandatory sentencing guidelines, and to the practice of trying children as adults. The result was mass incarceration bringing us individual injustices, inappropriate housing of 13-to-17-year-old offenders in adult prisons and jails and, in many realms of governance, the unsustainable costs to the public of keeping so many people confined, often unnecessarily. As in Layers 1 and 2, the text is not in a free-standing section but is presented as an integral part of the narrative.Although much has been done to negate our earlier turn towards vindictive and self-defeating practices–laws and guidelines changed etc.–as author Bryon Stevenson says, we have done little to go back and give relief to those still incarcerated due to this historical aberration.This book shocked me. Yet it is convincing. I believe it is as he says and is true on all three layers

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 5×7 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.

To compare this book to To Kill a Mockingbird does not give Just Mercy the credit it deserves. Everyone should read this book.

This book, Just Mercy, should be read by everyone. It is so inspiring.

Just Mercy: A Resilient Attorney, Winning People’s Lives BackIn 2014, Bryan Stevenson published an oscar worthy memoir touching on the lives of the unjustly convicted, sentencing death. As a new, eager, inexperienced attorney we are shown first hand the amount of courage and endurance it takes to stand by impoverished, hopeless people using the courthouse as a battle field to win their lives back. Stevenson gives us authentic detailed insights into the world of an attorney, with the purpose of sharing the key theme of mercy. “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” This memoir bounces back and forth between a multi dimensional, emotionally impactful case of Walter McMillian, and supplementary cases, involving deeper issues that are untouched amongst women, children and disabled.Bryan Stenson is an American lawyer who graduated from John F. Kennedy school of government, Harvard University. His early role as an attorney was not taken seriously, but through his determination to challenge the bias against the poor and the minorities in the Justice system, he finds himself against a rock and hard place. As competitive as his field is, very few were interested in taking the time to investigate further into what could be done for wrongly accused death row inmates. It seems as if money and credibility is the sole thrust for achieving support in the courthouse. These cases are some of, if not the most challenging to work on, because even if you have proofable evidence, the judge and justice system might still push back to save their reputation and the repercussions that would come from the media blowing such an event up.Walter McMillian is wrongly accused of sodomy. He is accused of raping another man along with being questioned for the murder of a woman named Ronda Morrison. When “said to be” witnesses came into the picture, they themselves contribute to the falsity of the crime. McMillian is sentenced to death due to the collection of trackless evidence. Stevenson caught wave of this case six years later as McMillian was weeks away from his execution. Stevenson, as a young attorney is not taken seriously and feels entirely inadequate to make any effective efforts on a death penalty case. He quickly realizes that if he doesn’t at least try no one else will. This is just the beginning to a long, strenuous journey towards exoneration of McMillian. Being the focal point of the book, the reader is able to step foot into our justice system and empathize with the people being affected by our complex and erroneous justice system.As readers we are given glimpses of other individual cases representing women, children and disabled being victimized in the justice system. In the United States, the death penalty for children is above the age of fifteen. A fourteen year old boy, Charlie was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. He is a well rounded, and looked upon highly, although an uncomely event occurred when he shoots his mother’s boyfriend, George. George is an alcoholic who one day comes home drunk and punches Charlie’s mom in the face, leading her to bleed an obsessive amount. Charlie tries to help, but the bleeding continues. He strongly questions whether his mother is still alive, as she is lying unconscious on the floor. Before dialing 911 he grabbes a gun that is in a nearby drawer and shoots George. He then proceeds to dial. After Stevenson works with several cases like this he begins to represent juvenile cases whose violent acts have lead them behind bars. In the mid – 1980’s he established the equal justice institute in Montgomery, AL. From that point on there were changes in the way the criminal justice system dealt with youth. They realize that full development of an individual is at 18, and youth should not be penalized like an adult for their uncontrolled lack of development.Stevenson addresses how many cases involving mentally ill or disabled are handled in the same way as any other case. Stevenson goes on to say “Mass incarceration has been largely fueled by misguided drug policy and excessive sentencing, but the internment of hundreds of thousands of poor and mental ill people have been the driving force in achieving our record levels of imprisonment.” Inmates who have medical records or mental illnesses, are out of touch with reality, unable to identify right from wrong. Therefore, the jury has to exempt them from the execution. In another example young mothers are being accused for lack of evidence regarding their stillborn births.“Communities were on the lookout for bad moms who should be put in prison. About the same time as Marsha’s prosecution, Bridget Lee gave birth to a stillborn baby in Pickens County, Alabama. She was charged with capital murder and wrongfully imprisoned.” Stevenson goes on to describe the over crowded female regulated prisons and the manipulative promiscuous correctional officers amongst them.Stevenson is very declamatory with his writing style, with an idiomatic approach, which can appeal to all types of readers. His vast array of personal anecdotes and gut enthralling stories glue readers to the pages. His thoughts are crisp and innovative, allowing our eyes to see the justice system in a new light, and in many instances through the shoes of the accused. Stevenson gives us authentic detailed insights into the world of an attorney, with the purpose of sharing the key theme of mercy. By the end of this book you will have gained a new understanding of what mercy looks like and how we can take part in being more merciful to others.

Bryan Stevenson has written an extraordinary memoir in which he describes his career as a lawyer and activist. For more than 30 years, Mr. Stevenson has taken on the mantle of defending the poorest among us. On this book, he skillfully chronicles his relentless fight to raise public awareness of the biases and racism that are so embedded in the United States Justice system, a system that at times seems unable or unwilling to correct even its most glaring mistakes.His clients include prisoners in death row, neglected children prosecuted as adults and placed in adult prisons as well as mentally disabled people unable to receive attention to their special needs.This book will probably shock and upset you, maybe even make you mad, but by the end it’ll also leave you with a sense of hope and optimism, after you learn how activists like Stevenson are tirelessly working in improving and helping correct important aspects of the legal system in the United States.For a book that’s non-fiction, “Just Mercy” it’s a real page turner. It is written in simple, accessible language and although it’s categorized as a memoir, Stevenson spends little time on the book talking about himself or his background. The majority of the book is dedicated to recounting the details of some of the cases he’s been involved in throughout his career.Although “Just Mercy” details more than a dozen cases, it focuses in particular on Stevenson’s fight to free Walter McMillan, an African-American man, who was falsely accused and convicted of killing Ronda Morrison, a young store clerk, white woman.McMillan’s crime was basically having an affair with a white married woman. When the community grew impatient with the lack of developments in the case of Morrison’s death, the police found in McMillan, who was a married himself, a perfect suspect. They ignored that McMillan had not connection or knew the victim, had an alibi in the form of several people that were with him at the time of the crime, and was, the romantic affair non-withstanding, a well-liked and exemplary citizen with no criminal record.Ironically, these events took place in Harper Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. It’s almost poetic (in) justice. Walter McMillian’s trials and appeals took place in the 1980’s and 1990’s, not in the 1930’s, but one can’t help drawing parallels between Bryan and Walter and their fictional counterparts Atticus and Tom. Unlike Harper Lee’s fictional character and fortunately for McMillan, Stevenson did win the case to free him. But the road to get there was certainly a long and painful one.During the next few years, Stevenson and his colleagues investigated the McMillan case and, in the process exposed how corrupted authorities at every level conspired to build a false case.It wasn’t until CBS’s 60 Minutes and other national news outlets called attention to the story, that the State Prosecutor decided to open his own inquiry. After re-examining the case, the investigators concluded that “There is no way that Walter McMillan killed Ronda Morrison”. Six weeks later the Alabama Appeals court reversed McMillan’s conviction and shortly after dismissed all charges.Walter McMillan died in 2013, only 10 years after he was exonerated from death row. He was in bad health but as Stevenson’s remarks “He remained kind and charming until the very end, despite his increasing confusion from the advancing of dementia”.Stevenson is today, along with his mentor, Stephen Bright, one of the nation’s most influential and inspiring advocate against the death penalty. He and his EJI colleagues have obtained relief for over one hundred people on Alabama’s death row, and won groundbreaking Supreme Court cases restricting the imposition on juveniles of sentences of life without parole.Several times while reading this book, I broke down in tears, sometimes due to a deep sense of empathy with so many people that have endured so much pain for so long, the realization that probably many have died without having a chance at receiving justice, but also shame at my own ignorance and indifference to these issues.And yet reading this memoir gave me hope. As Stevenson’s says “No one is as bad as the worst thing they’ve ever done”, it is that kind of perspective that makes this such an inspiring read.This book is recommended for anybody who is interested and cares about equality, reconciliation, racial and social justice in the United States.

A tremendously moving account of one innocent man’s desperate fight to escape state-sanctioned execution for a crime he didn’t commit, “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” follows Walter McMillian’s long, difficult journey to freedom with the help of attorney, and author of this book, Bryan Stevenson, and the Equal Justice Initiative. Though accessible, this book includes passages difficult for me to read without throwing the book down in anger–there are several individuals, working in law and law enforcement, who stubbornly, thoughtlessly, even with antipathy, seem unwilling to seek truth, no matter the cost. Justice seems less important than expediency in a world where skin color, ethnicity, and/or economic status seem to dictate a person’s guilt or innocence. Sadly, McMillian’s struggle is not unique, as many other men, women, and children described in the book find themselves at the mercy of a legal system that often dismisses their backgrounds, economic status, and health as superfluous, irrelevant, and/or beyond the scope of the judicial process. The attorneys assigned their cases are often disinterested and/or lack the resources necessary to conduct thorough investigations, leaving their clients basically defenseless and alone. “Just Mercy” tackles a very uncomfortable reality for those of us who live lives of privilege and relative financial ease, and I admit I delayed reading this book for several years after its publication, because I just didn’t want to know. Shame on me. This is one of the most important books of my lifetime.

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 This book is amazing. I would highly recommend giving it a read. Bryan Stevenson does an amazing job sharing his experiences working with inmates on death row. This book opens my eyes to so much. I had no idea the injustices that our children face. I’ve always know there were innocent people on death row. Reading these stories is heart breaking.My comment about the movie is not a diss. The actors did a phenomenal job and I would recommend reading the book, then watch the movie.

Good book

This is a riveting book that tells the true stories of people who have been wrongfully incarcerated or given wildly inappropriate prison sentences because of their financial inability to mount an effective defense. Stevenson’s decades long work in founding and directing the Equal Justice Initiative is inspirational. The personal accounts of the people his organization has helped bring into focus the tragedy of socio-economic and racial bias in our system of justice and the lives lost to a profitable prison system that encourages incarceration over treatment or mercy. This readable account is stirring and emotional, even as it documents the work that is being done and the work that continues to be necessary in order to ensure “Just Mercy.”

This book is a tearjerker

I have been nearly paralyzed with depression and anger over the past year, not only over the constant footage of civilian deaths at the hands of police but at nearly complete lack of criminal prosecution of the murderers and the hue and cry of a seemingly monolithic culture of denial and victim blaming. I have cut off friends and relatives who are happy to adopt lies and propaganda decrying the urgent message of Black Lives Matter “Stop Killing Us” as “hate talk” in order to continue their relatively privileged lives, relatively undisturbed by the plight of their countrymen, colleagues and neighbors. I’m not a lawyer, just an obscure educator, and I’m no less enraged, paralyzed and pained today than I was yesterday, but Stevenson’s work has offered me some relief. I reason that to sustain his spirits over these decades, he HAS to have some non-negotiable beliefs in truth, justice, the Constitution, hope and the utility of perseverance in the service of same. Like “Red” in Shaw Shank I have all but lost faith and, particularly in light of Coates’s BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME have come to view “hope” as a dangerous, possibly self-indulgent thing. Stevenson’s work over the decades, his refusal to give in to despair and the impact that he is having in the broader world — I agree with Desmond Tutu — we are in the presence of one whose tireless. self-sacrificing labor in the name of justice puts him in company of our peerless Nelson Mandela. How dark can it be before the light?

I’ve read this multiple times and gifted the book often. Offering so much I tried to ignore but should face about the reality of life for to many people.

I can feel the cold walls press in on me as the horror of my future tears at my throat. At least, that’s what I’m feeling as Bryan Stevenson explains the plight of Walter McMillan. Walter is a black man who was wrongly indicted for the murder of Ronda Morrison and sentenced to death in Alabama in the late eighties. Just Mercy recounts Bryan’s experience of fighting as Walter’s lawyer to exonerate him from being a victim of institutional racism. Bryan excels in transporting the reader to the miniscule cell on death row; you feel Walter’s desperation; you feel an entire people’s frustration; you feel the relief of redemption. This roller coaster experience is insightful and compelling. Just Mercy is a must-read that educates about modern-day racial biases and the plight of the impoverished in the US. As the reader, I felt more resolved than ever to do my part as a member of the community to be inclusive, loving, and understanding. This page-turner will motivate you to introspection and action, as it has done for me.

Normally, when I am assigned to read a book as a homework assignment, I immediately decide to hate it. I normally don’t like being forced to read any book, but this one had a surprising effect on me. “Just Mercy” has changed my life. Bryan Stevenson masterfully uses storytelling to reel you in, break your heart, and then challenges you to make a difference in the world. This book’s message is not just another exaggerated social media post trying to spread “woke” culture. No, Stevenson shares real stories of real people who have faced horrible injustices. I hope everyone reads this book and takes the idea of “just mercy” into their hearts. Perhaps if we all took a look into Stevenson’s life, we would surely live in a world filled with more love and compassion.

This is an incomparable and utterly important work. As a veteran criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles, where I experience the kiddy pool versions of what Bryan has been fighting for decades, I was so powerfully moved, and gape mouth shocked that I had to put the book down many times. It is a call to arms from an amazing Real life Man of La Mancha, who had to be a little bit insane to joust with the windmills of the south. One man CAN make a difference and by standing up against injustice can give others the courage and the wherewithal to join the fight.The examples portrayed in this important work are dramatic and well paced. It makes me consider my own career and how as a private attorney I can’t readily choose the people who I can help and who need my help, but instead I am bound by those that can afford it.The movie is coming, but will seemingly focus primarily on one case and no matter how well done, will never be able to capture the emotions and stories of the dozens of underprivileged and marginalized that the author stood up for against terribly discouraging odds… with life and death hanging in the balance, sometimes with only moments to go.Stevenson finishes with the slowest portion of the book that probably rang more true and interesting to a defense attorney like me facing some of the same questions and concerns about my work, but it still contains some amazing wisdom and strength worth absorbing whatever your situation in life.In the end, we are left with a particularly positive feeling of being careful not to judge someone based only on the negative they are accused of doing, and that redemption is a subject worthy of contemplation in almost any situation.

Alternately heart-breaking and hopeful.

This book is well written, yet extremely accessible. The author’s and his clients’ experiences illustrate the continued fight for equitable treatment of minority, the poor, the uneducated, and the underserved.Stevenson’s personal development, resilience, and dedication to his mission are inspirational.

I couldn’t put this book down. In turns I was brought to tears and brought to anger. Just Mercy is a NYT Bestselling non-fiction book written by a Harvard law grad who set up a non profit clinic in the deep south and champions the rights of the least among us, those suffering in prisons. He started trying to free those wrongfully convicted who were on death row without any legal representation. Then he grew aware of children given the death sentence and worked on their behalf. His efforts expanded to include children serving life in prison with no possibility of parole, for crimes committed as young as as 13, and put in adult prisons where they were immediately brutalized themselves. He provided free legal representation to incarcerated women and the poor, and strove to make justice equal for all, regardless of skin color or poverty level. He successfully argued many cases in front of the Supreme Court, championing the rights of prisoners. The racism he has documented in this book rears its ugly head again and again and creates so many inequalities and unfairness in the justice system, it made me sick. But the stories of mercy, of change and and of love touched my heart deeply. This was a great read because it was gripping and fascinating, the prose was often poignant and beautiful (my copy is full of highlights), and it was a call to action and compassion.

Jesus once told a cabal of religious leaders anxious to stone a woman caught in adultery: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her” (John 8:7, NIV). In his bestseller, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (Spiegel and Grau, 2014; Amazon Kindle edition), New York University School of Law Professor Bryan Stevenson calls us to a different task, that of catching the stones cast by others.Just Mercy recounts Professor Stevenson’s founding of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a legal aid organization based in Montgomery, Alabama that advocates for those who are victims of shortcomings in the U.S. criminal justice system – the wrongfully convicted, prisoners on death row, and juveniles tossed into the chaos of the adult prison population.Caring about prisoners is a biblical mandate – “Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them…” (Hebrews 13:3a, ESV) – so books like Mr Stevenson’s invite the Church to engage an issue too often shunted aside. Well-told stories seize the reader’s heart and won’t let go, stories like Walter McMillan, exonerated after having spent 6 years on death row for a murder he couldn’t have committed. Then there’s Joe Sullivan, convicted at 13 years old for a non-violent crime yet sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole, what Stevenson calls “death in prison.” These and a dozen other vignettes – bolstered by troubling statistics of the sheer number of incarcerated Americans, disproportionately African-American – tell the story of sectors of a criminal justice and prison system tainted by racism and sexual abuse, desperately needing reform.Underlying the conversation is a question long overdue for renewed public debate: Should the purpose of imprisonment be punitive or rehabilitative?It is here that the word “redemption” in the book’s title gives the reader a clue. While Stevenson is in favor of abolishing the death penalty – a view that I share – he is not arguing that offenses should be overlooked, only that redemption should be our objective. Sentences must be tempered by a compassion arising from the knowledge that each of is “broken” in some way. He observes (location 4485):”I guess I’d always known but never fully considered that being broken is what makes us human. We all have our reasons. Sometimes we’re fractured by the choices we make; sometimes we’re shattered by things we never have chosen. But our brokenness is also the source of our common humanity, the basis for our search for comfort, meaning, and healing. Our shared vulnerability and imperfection nurtures and sustains our capacity for compassion.”Just Mercy wears its religion lightly. No doubt this is intentional, to appeal to a broader audience. Yet as a Christian theologian, I wonder: Is justice alone enough?Put differently, is a wrong ever completely righted merely by setting the wrongfully imprisoned free or reducing the sentences of those punished too harshly? One key ingredient is lacking: reconciliation. What is striking in Just Mercy is how rarely victims of injustice and those who inflicted it ever make peace with each other. Yet if the Gospel teaches anything, it is forgiveness, Christ on the cross praying: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34) Mr. Stevenson is the expert, not I, but I wonder: Is it possible to forgive someone then turn around and sue for millions?Sometimes it is argued that this will prevent crooked prosecutors and judges from inflicting the same harm on others, but can this be when – should any damages be awarded – they are shouldered by the taxpayer and not the perpetrator? Even if the award were only $ 100,00.00, if it were levied directly on the official at fault and not upon the government entity who employs them, would that not be a greater deterrent than the current system? What lesson does a prosecutor who suppresses evidence or a judge who abuses his or her power learn when someone else bears the brunt? Surely more creative solutions are possible, including dismissal of crooked officials or (as merited) prison time. Unfortunately, Just Mercy suffers from tunnel vision, focusing only on monetary awards and never questioning whether the current system of who-pays- what short-circuits the reconciliation that is inseparable from redemption, both for victim and perpetrator.The Church needs to challenge the darkness that overshadows too many parts of the criminal justice and prison system. Books like Just Mercy should convict us about how little we have done for those who need our help. Particularly, we must do more to engage adolescents at-risk before they are caught-up in a too-often heartless criminal justice machine. Professor Bryan Stevenson has gifted us with a masterful and moving book, a clarion call to stop throwing stones and start catching them. Rocks are jagged and our hands will get bloody, but can we as the People of God do any less?

Great, well written read. But don’t read it if you don’t want to be moved, angry, and troubled. As you will be if you visit the EJI in Montgomery Alabama.

Purchased it for my daughter she loved, shipping was fast.

Gripping story of the heroic efforts to Right the Wrongs in the court system in the South. Bryan Stevenson is a struggling but determined young lawyer who chooses cases – or they choose him – to free wrongly convicted people. You might think this is a depressing story, but it has so much redemption and victory! The last few chapters: from15 on, should be required reading in high schools and if you ar past that milestone by everyone who is concerned with fairness and equal justice .

Bryan Stevenson, the lawyer instrumental in the formation, operation, growth and success of the Equal Justice Initiative, demonstrates in JUST MERCY how easy it was for corrupt Alabama law men to frame an innocent black man for a murder he didn’t commit and how difficult it was to save him from death row and ultimately win his freedom not withstanding overwhelming evidence of his innocence.Once the South’s Jim Crow reign of terror (over 1400 hundred blacks were lynched — murdered in cold blood, often as a spectator sport, by the Klu Klux Klan and White Citizens Councils for the crime of being black — finally gave way, white supremacists responded by passing laws that had the effect of replacing the rope with the electric chair after what amounted to deeply flawed trials.JUST MERCY is the account of one of Stevenson’s early interventions on behalf of a death row prisoner whose trial observed none of the safeguards designed to protect defendants’ rights to fair trials – it was as bad as Stalin era prosecutions of innocent Russians suspected of anti-government views.Stevenson built on his efforts to win death sentence reprieves by attacking other pernicious justice system practices that punished blacks, other minorities, children, and poor whites with unfair sentences for crimes as simple as being unable to make bail. These violations, often victimless, would have gone unnoticed and unpunished if committed by whites who were well off enough to afford a lawyer.The long and short of Stevenson’s work is that it has uncovered the extent to which our criminal justice system is unworthy of a country that claims to treat everyone fairly and on an equal basis. We are not there yet, not by a long shot.Afterword. If you are as troubled by what Stevenson’s account tells you about our merciless, unjust legal system, you can show your support for his efforts by responding to his request for help published at the end of his book

Until I read Bryan Stevenson’s gut-wrenching book “Just Mercy,” I thought I was well informed on inequities in the American justice system. How wrong I was, particularly about the South, but also in many other locales throughout the country. Police, prosecutors, jails, judges and the public frequently look the other way or operate with impunity when arresting, charging, trying and sentencing people of color.Yet, the inequities don’t stop there. The book’s true stories and case histories also unveil cruel and inhumane treatment of many juveniles, the mentally challenged and people of any race who have the misfortune to be poor in a corrupt community run by renegade officials.The book’s most detailed and arguably its most egregious example of corruption is the treatment received by Walter McMillian, an Alabama black man on death row falsely accused of killing a white woman. While following Walter’s story, readers also get to know Bryan Stevenson, the author-lawyer and superhero who gives his all for Walter and others who are prosecuted and persecuted in multiple ways.The book has been compared to a true-life 1980s version of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” But beyond the drama and tension involving the incarcerated, I was blown away by Bryan Stevenson, a brave extraordinary man: a Mother Theresa-type of human being who painstakingly devotes his life to helping the bereft and powerless.Shortly after finishing Harvard Law School, Stevenson writes about opening a one man law office in Alabama. Then, for the next 300+ pages I marvel at his successes that evolve into what the world now knows as the Equal Justice Initiative.Stevenson knows that every accused person is not innocent. He does, however, believe that, if innocent, you should be allowed to prove it in a fair and just court. Also, he believes that all incarcerated people, including the guilty, should be treated with just mercy, like Charlie. Charlie, a small 13 year-old boy, shot his mother’s abusive boyfriend and was put in an adult prison and repeatedly raped.“Just Mercy” documents many cases like Charlie. Trina Garnett was a 14 year-old, and one of twelve children whose mother died when Trina was nine. Trina accidentally started a fire and received life in prison because two boys died from smoke inhalation. She was already traumatized from beatings and sexual abuse by her father. Additionally, her mental acuity was stunted from having ingested lighter fuel at age 9. These sorry and silent statistics continued with Ian, George, Avery, Marsha, etc.As I write this, we are experiencing historic times in our country and the world. Tens of thousands are dying from the coronavirus, the economy has tanked, and our justice system is still killing and abusing way too many people. However, what happened 19 days ago, on May 25, 2020, to George Floyd just might change the way fair and merciful justice is doled out by police, prosecutors, jailers, judges and the court of public opinion in America.

An absolute must read. The kind of book that sticks with you, asking you to contemplate the system in a way you might not have previously.

This was such a powerful book. It demonstrated just, redemption, and mercy. This book showed me that there are some really good people in this world. It also showed Bryan cared for those who weren’t in a position to help and or represent themselves. He has demonstrated what I would call and defined a real hero, a term used so loosely. He was selfless. He used his gift to help others. Bryan Stevenson could have gone anywhere to work and really get paid handsomely as a gifted attorney. He chose to work for people who were not represented or properly represented. He defended cases whether in prison for life or on death row: whether they were children, men, women, disabled, mentally challenged, poor, etc. He made a real difference in over turning sentences, people being resentenced, people taken off death row, and those wrongfully convicted. What he did for Walter McMillian and others was awesome. He never gave up.Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). He dedicated himself to defending the poor. EJI is growing and continuously doing the work. We all can take a page from his book and make a difference in this world, by utilizing the gifts we possess. No matter how big or small every little bit helps. Reading this book gives me hope!

Stevenson, B. (2014). Just mercy: A story of justice and redemption. Spiegel & Grau.Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer, social justice activist, law professor at New York University School of Law, and founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative.The book follows Stevenson’s thinking as a lawyer whose mission was to assist the incarcerated, particularly condemned people on death row in Alabama. According to Stevenson, “This book is about getting closer to mass incarceration and extreme punishment in America. It is about how easily we condemn people in this country and the injustice we create when we allow fear, anger, and distance to shape the way we treat the most vulnerable among us. ” Themes include mass incarceration as a phenomenon including the shear #s of incarcerated, incarceration of Blacks, children, women, and mentally ill. He said, “The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned. ” He described four factors influencing our approach to race and justice: (a) Slavery including the reign of terror characterized by lynching and arrests following the collapse of Reconstruction; (b) Reenslavement through convict leasing introduced at the end of the 19th c. to criminalize former slaves and convict them so that they could “leased” to businesses and effectively forced back into slave labor. (c) Jim Crow laws introducing racial segregation and suppression of basic rights; and (d) Incarceration and creation of the prison industrial complex. Despite all that he’d witnessed, Stevenson asserted, “There is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity. I am more than broken. In fact, there is strength, power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. . . . .You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us. “It’s difficult to see the judicial system as “just” with headlines describing police brutality, unlawful arrest, racial prejudice, etc. Reading Stevenson’s book provides language for systemic issues related to policing and incarceration. Such a good read, this would be a super text for those interested in incarceration and systems thinking. He moves us beyond 2D thinking to seeing the complexity.

An incredible book that opens your eyes to the injustice in American prisons. This is an incredibly important book for conservatives and liberals alike to read, particularly those who are not aware of the injustice in prison systems. Stevenson is truly an incredible person and his work was upsetting, yet rewarding to read about.Who should read this book:- Anyone. Particularly those not aware about the injustice in prison systems like myself. Why should someone who was completely framed go to jail? Why do some judges, particularly in the south, have so much power? This book will open your eyes and prompt you to want to do something to fix the problem of mass incarceration.I read this a week before Trump became our 45th president (before inauguration) and it is such an important book to read NOW given our leader for the next 4 years. It shows how someone who didn’t come from a position of power worked at the grassroots to try and bring justice to those who aren’t born in a privileged place and find themselves in a situation that they could not prevent just because of their class or the color on their skin.Stevenson asks very important questions about the death penalty which we all must consider, and I think reading this book opened my eyes to everything messed up in our current system. It inspired me and showed me that while I am just one person, I can make a difference to solve our current problems. A must read for EVERYONE.

If you live in the United States then this is a necessary read. I had to read it for a class, but that did not lessen the value of what I read. It’s written to keep the readers interest while telling the important facts of our justice system. Great read! And the book I got was in great shape on arrival

I had to read this for one of my classes so I was dreading reading it. But when I finally opened the book and started reading it was so captivating. The book grabbed me in and sometimes I couldn’t stop myself from reading it. Stevenson’s writing technique makes the reader more interested in this real life story. This is a book that everyone MUST read. It shows society how mistreated African Americans are or just people of color in general by the superiority of society.

At the center of this story is the wrongful conviction of Walter McMillian and the author’s attempts to free him. Interspersed between that story are other stories of wrongful convictions and sad accounts of a broken justice system. Along the way the author touches on a number of issues dealing with the justice system: mass incarceration, mandatory sentencing, racial bias, prison over crowding, cruel and unusual sentences for minors, the psychological impact of long term solitary confinement, the death penalty, and a host of other crime and punishment issues.I am opposed to the death penalty. My feeling is that locking someone away for the rest of their lives is punishment enough. After reading this book, I am even more against the death penalty because of the unfair way that punishment is meted out. If you are poor, black or a minority, your chances are much greater of receiving the death penalty than a white person who can afford to put up a fight. The author talks about numerous cases where defendants were convicted and sentenced to death simply because they couldn’t afford to hire experts to dispute the prosecutor’s theory. In one case of a wrongful conviction, the defense had only $500 to dispute the prosecutor’s expert that a gun found in the defendant’s mother’s home was the murder weapon. That $500 got him a mechanical engineer who was blind in one eye and who had almost no experience testifying as a gun expert.All too often prosecutors oppose efforts to reopen cases where a potential wrongful conviction appears evident. They will ignore overwhelming evidence pointing to an error simply to save their record. The appeals courts seem to be a complete waste of time. Seldom is a wrongful conviction overturned on appeal, especially at the state level. Often those trying to free the innocent are forced to conduct their own investigation, including paying for DNA testing.There were so many stories of dispassionate judges, jurors, prosecutors, detectives, and prison officials that it’s easy to see why Just Mercy is such a great title. One story that highlighted the inhumane treatment of solitary confinement was the story of Ian Manuel. Ian, thirteen, along with two older boys attempted to rob a couple in Florida. When the woman resisted, Ian shot her with a handgun given to him by one of the older boys. The woman was wounded in the cheek but survived. Ian’s appointed lawyer convinced Ian to plead guilty in hope of a lighter sentence. Instead, the judge sentenced this thirteen year old to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This was not a mandatory sentence. The heartless judge could have sentenced Ian as a juvenile where he would have been eligible for parole at age eighteen. When the author catches up to Ian he has been in solitary confinement for over fourteen years, locked away in a concrete box and prevented from all human contact. Can you imagine that happening to anyone let alone a thirteen-year-old boy? There’s no question that Ian deserved punishment, but the punishment should match the crime. At one point the author arranges for a photographer to take a few photographs of Ian to help put a face on his case. This is what Ian wrote to the author after the photo shoot, “I don’t know how to make you feel the emotion and importance of those photos, but to be real, I want to show the world that I’m alive! I want to look at those photos and feel alive! It would really help with my pain. I felt joyful today during the photo shoot. I wanted it to never end.” The author ultimately petitioned the Supreme Court to fight for Ian and thousands of other Ian’s locked away in tiny cells for the rest of their lives. The court ruled that it was indeed cruel and unusual punishment to sentence a juvenile to death or life in prison without parole.Not everyone agreed with the Supreme Court’s ruling. The author tells the story of one judge who, after learning of the ruling, changed his life sentence without parole to a sentence of 175 years.As the author states, our criminal justice system is set up to treat people better if they are rich and guilty than if they are poor and innocent. This book is must reading for anyone currently in or planning on becoming a part of the criminal justice system.

Simply put: read this book if you are interested in criminal justice reform. Read this book if you are interested in understanding the depths of the ongoing bigoted approach in the treatment of people of color, the mentally challenged, and the poor in the United States.The author establishes a beautiful human connection in his very first meeting with a death row inmate through a flurry of emotional and mundane exchanges, immersing the reader in the moment. The simple act of reaching out to another person and showing support and interest in their lives does wonders for both people involved.The author seamlessly transitions between a historical aspect of a town, person, or element of the law, while continuing an intensely personal tale. He and his team wage an ongoing battle for racial justice, the elimination of the death penalty, and the rights of children incarcerated as adults.The specific details of the frequent, systemic abuse of the US criminal justice system pursuing an obvious racist, elitist agenda never prevents the author from emotionally linking the reader to the experiences. Such experiences serve to remind you that there is something better, not just for the people directly involved but society.“I knew I was right. The law was as clear as it possibly could be on this question. But I also knew that I was talking to someone who didn’t care what the law said.” This statement reflects so many encounters in the book that it is staggering the Equal Justice Initiative ever freed anyone from improper and illegal imprisonment.Get involved: http://www.eji.org

My perspective of identity and judgement was re-oriented; not by force but by understanding. Stevenson is objective in his experiences, logical in his conclusions, and human in his narrative; it was easy to place myself in his shoes and feel what he feels in death row, biased courtrooms, and execution chambers. With that in mind, I do acknowledge the book is very one-sided–we’re seeing things almost exclusively from the victim’s point of view. However, because nigh all of us have been seeing life from the perspective of a judge, I believe this book is a healthy and necessary component for those desiring clarity of sight, especially in seeing people as human.Seeing people, ALL people, as capable of change, full of potential, and worthy of forgiveness, brings back a humanity that has been eroded far too long by the titles of judge and criminal.

Everyone who wishes to have an informed and more complete view of our justice system should read this book. Just Mercy reveals the biases and inequalities in our justice system that are responsible for incredible suffering and unjust punishment. Bryan Stevenson is a Harvard Law graduate who helped form the Equal Justice Initiative. He combines the stories of his clients and his own experiences to show how people are treated in our penal system when they are reduced to being viewed simply as a sum of their race, economic status, and past record. He shares many stories throughout the novel, but the underlying story is that of Walter McMillan, an innocent black man who was put on death row, and his journey with Bryan to regain his freedom. Our penal system is one that prioritizes convenience and accepts biases without taking time for considering the things that make someone human. Bryan Stevenson argues in this book that the missing piece in this system is a sense of mercy. If we can allow ourselves to see the individual, we will be capable and more inclined to implement mercy in our dealings with people in the justice system. We can see this shown in the story of Walter, who was put on death row despite a whole community of people confirming his alibi and character, yet the biases that prevailed in that time still relegated him to just another “dangerous black man” with no consideration for him as a person, or his family. Many people in America are staunch believers that mercy equates to weakness, and that if we want to stay strong we cannot waiver. They say that too many criminals given a second chance or “let off easy” will revert to crime right away. This is again another bias, an assumption of the worst, a relegation of a persons entire being to the title of “criminal”, it gives no chance for redemption. Bryan Stevenson believes that a person is something better than the worst thing they have ever done. I also believe this, and I think that you will too if you take the time to read this book and learn the stories of those who have suffered the most severely and unfairly from the lack of mercy and supposed “toughness” of our justice system. Take the time to read this book, try to see others without bias, and do some small amount to advocate for mercy in the judgement of others.

This is one of the most truthful and valuable books I have ever read. As someone who works within the prison system, as a volunteer teacher, I encounter every day examples of the horrors of our so-called Justice System. People given extreme sentences for minor crimes; sentenced to death for crimes they didn’t commit; children sentenced as adults, put into adult prisons and then raped and abused. Even more than I have seen, lawyer Bryan Stevenson has seen the same abuses, and worse, of the system, and has had the courage to make it known to the rest of the world, to those who are not familiar with the system as he is and as I am. If I wrote the book, nobody would believe me. But Stevenson is a well-respected Harvard lawyer, so his story has authority and credibility. My 35 years experience inside prisons enables me to say that I have seen just about everything he writes about, he is 100% right on in what he describes, regarding both the administration of law and the life in prison. Every American should read this book and learn from it, and then decide to bombard their legislators and politicians with demands to make our so-called Justice System actually live up to its name and have in it some true Justice, and eliminate the revenge and abuse factors. Prisoners, and people accused of crimes, are human beings too, and deserve to be treated as such, as Mr. Stevenson explains. This book could change our judicial system if people learn from it and choose to start working on making the necessary changes. It’s a life-changing book.

Stevenson catalogs many stories where injustices have been served by the Georgia justice system. From a 12 year old being sent to an adult prison to a man sentenced to death for a crime he never committed. The truth is alarming and the work that Stevenson and his colleagues at EJI have done to give some relief to “broken” prisoners and those unjustly sentenced is beyond inspiring. Great book and more important context.

My daughter and I wanted to read the book before the movie came out to have a good background on the story. What an amazing book. So very well written, it draws you into the story immediately. The fact that it is based entirely on truth is mind blowing. Highly recommend this book. Then watch the movie!

I have a new hero! My heart is both broken and uplifted by this book, which I am recommending to everyone I know. Your heart will break at all that people have suffered in our badly broken criminal “justice” system, where abuse of power and an adamant refusal to consider the sometimes obvious truth is rampant. And not just with minorities or the poor. The book illustrates one of the worst cases of an improper conviction in Walter MacMillian’s story, but the author reviews other cases, including people who may be guilty but should not be on death row or sentenced at die in prison at age 15 or even 20. The author weaves in some startling statistics, and discusses both laws and public policies that have led us to the current tragedy of mass incarceration, over-punishment, and a treating humans like yesterday’s trash. He calls for justice with mercy and an opportunity to be a batter person, like that of almost every country in the civilized world.As we begin to consider criminal justice reform, I hope this book will help us look at how bad things can be. What shocks me about our country is that we continue to offer a free pass to police, prosecutors, POs and judges who act unethically and illegally. No state or county is immune from the all too frequent abuse of power and process. There is no accountability, nor is there any substantive examination of the obviously inadequate psychological and character-related screening procedures that allow people to work in our system. WE THE PEOPLE need to get off the sidelines and INSIST ON CHANGE from our legislators so that what is a punishable crime for the rest of us is a punishable crime for “officers of the court” who feel they can say or do anything they want to “get” someone they have decided is a bad person, vs. someone who did a bad thing.P.S. If you don’t know about the German prison system, where humans are seen as redeemable, or England’s modernized criminal procedures, where police cannot lie or coerce confessions and must treat people like humans who need food and sleep, then please do some research. What many Americans do not know is how we are looked upon–as barbarians still willing to murder someone in retaliation for their murdering someone–maybe. We deserve our reputation and must work to improve ourselves.uplifted in thanks for people like Bryan Stevenson, who change lives in the most profound ways. Bryan passed on the financial and other benefits of a different kind of law practice to devote himself This is one of the best books I have read in years. Watching a family member experience the criminal “justice” system (and we are white and quite successful)

This is such an important book to read. I don’t understand why some people have to point out in their reviews that injustice happens to white people too. Yes, there is injustice everywhere, but if you have really read this book and learned from the unjust experiences people went through and continue to go through, and taken into account the very tragic statistics the author provides in the beginning of the book, the systemic racism in our country is evident. The author is sharing his experience and the experiences of those he encountered and helped, and as a white person who has not had to suffer any of these experiences, it was a much needed eye opener for me. Yes, we should fight for justice for all people, the author isn’t saying otherwise. But white people cannot claim to understand what it is like to be black in this country, and I appreciated the perspective.“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.“ Albert EinsteinThank you, Mr. Stevenson, for doing something about it, and for inspiring others to do the same.