April 16 - 22, 2021

On June 19, 2020, I made a commitment to educate myself on the lingering effects of racism, discrimination, and bias in America. Every day through June 18, 2021, I will read an article or book chapter, listen to a podcast, watch a movie or documentary, view a webinar, or do something substantive to educate myself in these areas. As part of that commitment, I will post to this blog each Friday with a list of what I've done over the past week as well as any pertinent thoughts or reflections.

Today's post covers the week of April 16-22, 2021.

 

Just Mercy 

This week, I read chapters 9-16 plus the epilogue and postscript of Bryan Stevenson's 2014 best seller Just Mercy. The book details Stevenson's early civil rights work and founding of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a non-profit legal practice focused on defending the poor, wrongly condemned, and those trapped by the criminal justice system.

 

Stevenson wraps up the book with the remainder of his story regarding Walter McMillian's wrongful conviction. Stevenson has Ralph Myers recant his earlier testimony in court, which along with other inconsistencies from the first trial leads prosecutor Tom Chapman to become concerned about the state's evidence against McMillian. Chapman formally asks the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (ABI) to conduct a new investigation into the murder to confirm McMillian's guilt.

The ABI agents, Tom Taylor and Greg Cole, quickly begin to doubt the guilt of McMillian. Using the results of the new ABI investigation, the Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals formally invalidates McMillian's death sentence and orders a new trial. When Stevenson and his team file a motion to dismiss all charges, the state joins the motion and Walter McMillian becomes a free man.

As in the first half of the book, Stevenson weaves in stories about other cases involving the EJI. The cases all revolve around excessive punishments or wrongful convictions of economically disadvantaged people who cannot afford adequate legal defenses. Stevenson and EJI attorneys take on these cases pro bono and begin to have some success in reducing sentences, particularly for non-violent crimes and those involving minors, and overturning convictions for lack of evidence.

Stevenson also shares that his grandfather was murdered in a robbery by several teens when he was a boy. While the crime never made sense to him growing up, he comments on how his work with the EJI has given him greater understanding of the context needed to properly judge adolescent crimes. He points to the developmental science that suggests adolescents aren't fully developed in key psychological areas. While Stevenson acknowledges criminals must be held responsible for their actions, he also argues for context to play a role sentencing.

The book ends with Stevenson's reflection on why he carries on with his work when it's often so emotionally difficult.

You can't effectively fight abusive power, poverty, inequality, illness, oppression, or injustice and not be broken by it. We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt ... But our brokenness is also the source of our common humanity, the basis for our shared search for comfort, meaning, and healing. Our shared vulnerability and imperfection nurtures and sustains our capacity for compassion ... 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. It has the power to heal the psychic harm and injuries that lead to aggression and violence, abuse of power, mass incarceration.