Theme Of Just Mercy

Just Mercy documents the incredible and heart wrenching experiences of Equal Justice Initiative founder and attorney extraordinaire, Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson’s niche is a unique and unexpected focus for a lawyer. He works with people that society often wrongfully characterizes as “criminals” that are usually either on death row or condemned to life in prison. Before seeing a segment of Opera’s interview with Stevenson, and reading this book, I couldn’t understand what typically motivates a lawyer to want to protect the rights of criminals and the un-just. In fact, one of Stevenson’s early mentors, Steve Bright, explained the, “‘opportunity’ isn’t necessarily the first word people think of when they think about doing work with us [Southern Prisoners Defense Committee],” because, “they live[ed] kind of simply, and the hours are pretty insane,” (Stevenson 2014, 6). However, a young Stevenson was undeterred by this claim, and went on to work some incredible cases, and exonerate many innocent and suffering individuals.

The major themes present throughout Just Mercy are very broad, all encompassing, and very relevant to material we have discussed in class on countless occasions. A quote that really highlights the crux of

I was astonished on countless occasions by how inhumane and inconsiderate people could be with regards to destitute prisoners of many different kinds. The horrible irony of the McMillian case occurring in the same community that To Kill a Mockingbird author, Harper Lee, came from, the horrendous treatment of prisoners within our current criminal justice system, and the miscarriage of justice with regards to the mentally ill and children were the most surprising and impactful facets of Stevenson’s narrative. Furthermore, Stevenson’s writing was often emotionally fueled, for he himself went on an emotional roller-coaster with the Equal Justice