Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson — Racism and Criminal Justice in the South
By: Ken Briggs
Tags: Book Review, Justice, BlackLivesMatter, Criminal Justice, Racism

This is where Bryan Stevenson and his Montgomery, Alabama based Equal Justice Initiative comes in. The EJI is a legal practice that provides pro-bono legal services to people wrongly entrapped in the criminal justice system. Its initial focus was on high-stakes death penalty cases, and now guarantees the defense of anyone on death row in Alabama. A lifelong bachelor, Mr. Stevenson can be likened to a legal defense monk. His life is wholly dedicated to achieving justice and mercy for victims of the law, and he has sworn off worldly ambitions, such as a family, to do this. The memoir puts most of its emphasis on the early days at the EJI, when the young lawyer moved to Montgomery to found his legal defense fund using philanthropic grants in 1989. Mr. Stevenson vividly describes these headstrong and idealistic early days, where using a shoestring budget and staff he defends a staggering number of clients with a wide variety of legal situations.

For the most part, these narratives are very straightforward descriptions of the events with little filler, and few descriptive details beyond simply the timeline of events and the conversations. The details of these events reflect well on the quality and dedication of the author to his work, as he clearly took copious notes of all his legal encounters. The most emotionally impactful cases receive the most extensive treatment. In addition to the McMillian case, we read of heart wrenching cases of children sentenced to life imprisonment, a mother of six imprisoned on false murder charges for a stillbirth, and a Vietnam veteran with PTSD sentenced to death. These cases are portrayed vividly in heart rending detail.

One of the main goals of this memoir is to leave a strong emotional impression of the trials these individuals go through and the uplift from the grace of mercy. This is where the memoir falters. As side plots to the main criminal defense stories, the author often includes interactions with family, friends, and others at the scene, and while these conversations might very well have occurred, the dialogue has an obvious cinematic quality that indicates it was likely contrived for the effect. These side pieces do have a haunting quality that remain after the book is completed, but in a way that overshadows the core stories and makes them feel out of place. If he ever ventures out from non-fiction, Stevenson would be an excellent short story writer.

Monroe County courthouse in Monroeville, Alabama

The emotional power of these cases, however, is very profound. After the McMillian case is resolved with all charges dismissed, the elation of an entire community can be felt. The case at once confirmed all of the deeply held suspicions of the black community towards the criminal justice system and provided a redemption for that system through the efforts of a group of tenacious lawyers. Sadly, this redemption is few and far between in our punitive system, and should not require such an effort to bring about. The author, in a moment of clarity, seems to see the results of his work in this perspective. As we all do at a certain stage of life, we question the impact of our efforts on the world around us and struggle to continue in the face of seeming insignificance in comparison to the world we inhabit. And this young lawyer at times questions why he does this difficult work surrounded my people and situations that would make the strongest among us weep regularly. His answer is its his own form of redemption, and by working to give mercy to those who would seem to least deserve it, we work to heal our own internal wounds while breaking a cycle of inflicting them on others.