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Just Mercy

Bryan Stevenson

Start date: February 1, 2020

Finish date: February 29, 2020

Discussion: Monthly Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Diversity group read: Colourism (aka shadeism)

Just Mercy A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Steve…more
[close] Diversity group read: Colourism (aka shadeism)

Just Mercy A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

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What Members Thought

Sep 25, 2015 ColumbusReads rated it it was amazing

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative(EJI) and has written an incredible book that will have you thinking long and hard about the justice system in this country. My views on the death penalty, mass-incarceration and the inconsistencies in how the poor and people of color are treated in comparisons to others have been changed forever. I rented this book from the library but I will be purchasing a copy for myself. I must admit it was difficult to rea ...more

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Nov 20, 2018 Kay Dee (what is your storygraph name? mine is in my bio. join me!) Meadows rated it it was ok · review of another edition

well, i am finally done. 9 discs! the last few chapters were more of the same.
2-3 (sometimes 4!) cases are mentioned to highlight another aspect of abuse in the justice system like women, children, mandatory sentencing, mass incarceration, etc. he only tells us the conclusion of 1 case (maybe...). he gives lots of needless details like how he turns on a lamp or something. he mentions other people he meets. he mentions Walter. etc. etc. just too long.

like by disc 6, no need to convince me of the well, i am finally done. 9 discs! the last few chapters were more of the same.
2-3 (sometimes 4!) cases are mentioned to highlight another aspect of abuse in the justice system like women, children, mandatory sentencing, mass incarceration, etc. he only tells us the conclusion of 1 case (maybe...). he gives lots of needless details like how he turns on a lamp or something. he mentions other people he meets. he mentions Walter. etc. etc. just too long.

like by disc 6, no need to convince me of the problem. tell me how i can help fix it. he never got around to that.

he also never really detailed how he established EJI. all i know by the end of the book is that EJI has been around so long he has been to the US supreme court more than once and won more than once. the staff is large enough (for a charity that is) they are taking on over 200 cases becasue of the supreme court wins. EJI has been around so long he now knows lawyers in key places that used to work for him when they were just law students. maybe i missed the whole establishment of EJI but i don't think so.

and he kept trying to do different voices for different people. only they all sounded the same. why they thought he would be a good person to read this book, i dunno. also his accent made the way he said the word won weird sounding.

i think the only reason this got so many stars is becasue of the topic. def not becasue of the writing.

i can't wait for the movie. i am sure it, unlike the book, will actually be what the publishers blurb claims this book is about.

A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

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Dec 11, 2016 Melissa Rochelle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: library, nonfiction, ebook, memoir-biography, read-2016

A powerful memoir of an attorney's career advocating for those with no voice and no hope. By the end, this book had changed my view on the death penalty.

I'm not sure what led me to this book. I saw it in a list? I thought it was fiction--it wasn't until I started reading that I realized it wasn't.

The chapters jump back-and-forth between the case of Walter McMillian and other cases and causes Stevenson has worked on. McMillian's story is threaded throughout and ties the work together. All of the ...more

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