My Review of "Just Mercy"

Byron Stevenson's Just Mercy:  A Story of Justice and Redemption is a memoir of one's lawyer's struggle against injustice and his work in co-founding the Equal Justice Initiative.

Its narrative backbone is the story of Walter McMillian, whom Stevenson began representing in the late 1980s when he was on death row for killing a young white woman in Monroe­ville, Ala., the hometown of Harper Lee (author of To Kill a Mockingbird).  And Stevenson is quick to point out connections to Lee's story:  A black man falsely accused of the rape of a white woman.

Stevenson uses McMillian's case to illustrate his commitment both to individual defendants -- he remained closely in touch until McMillian's death last year -- and to endemic problems in American juris­prudence.

The message of this book, hammered home by dramatic examples of one man's refusal to sit quietly and countenance horror, is that evil can be overcome, a difference can be made.  Just Mercy will make you upset but it will also make you hopeful.

 Perhaps it's time that Americans join Stevenson in those dual responses to a broken "justice" system.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.