Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : New Words : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References
Basic Information:
Author:
Bryan Stevenson
Edition:
ePub on Overdrive from the Mountain View Public Library
Publisher:
Random House
ISBN:
0812994523 (ISBN13: 9780812994520)
Start
Date: October 27, 2019
Read
Date: November 8, 2019
336
pages
Genre:
History, Biography, Interracial Understanding
Language
Warning: None
Rated
Overall: 4 ½ out of 5
History:
3 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
The
author follows his career as a lawyer in the south fighting to bring
justice to a people whose trial did not bring justice. It
particularly follows Walter McMillian who was condemned to death with
a lying jail snitch and manufactured evidence, even though there was
testimony that he was at a different event at the time. The book
walks through what it took to right this wrong.
Stevenson
also looks at other cases where the mentally ill or the young was
condemned to death to talk about how this was not bringing justice,
but a sense of vengeance. Or where laws and the action of
enforcement was beyond the measure which made sense.
He
concludes with how there needs to be just mercy rather than a
reliance on a hammer.
Cast of Characters:
- Bryan Stevenson-author, lawyer, main character
- Walter McMillian-wrongly convicted. On death row
- Robert E. Lee Key-the judge for McMillian’s trial
- Minnie McMillian-wife
- Karen Kelly-white woman who McMillian became intimate with
- And many others
Expectations:
- Recommendation: I heard about Bryan Stevenson through another book called The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton. It was Bryan Stevenson who eventually took on Hinton’s case
- Date Became Aware of Book: April 9, 2018
- How come do I want to read this book: Stevenson sounded interesting in the book. Then saw the book in a bookstore in Mountain View.
- What do I think I will get out of it? Better understanding of the criminal system, particularly capital punishment.
Thoughts:
Introduction:
Higher Ground
Interesting,
when Stevenson was in school, he was interested in public policy. But
what school, Harvard particularly, taught him was how to run an
efficient and effective program, how to evaluate a program and
maximize benefits while minimizing costs. But not so much in where
the benefits went or why or what public good it would do.
When
Stevenson first went to Alabama to intern with the Southern Prisoners
Defense Committee, he did not realize he would be living on a
shoestring. He also did not realize he would be making a real
difference.
Stevenson’s
grandmother’s words of wisdom was You
can’t understand most of the important things from a distance…
You have to get close.
The
author lays out what is important to him:
- There are thousands of people on death row.
- Executions have been performed in a variety of ways of which none are humane.
- There are kids on death row
- There are kids who are serving life in imprison.
We
as a people are implicated when we allow others to be mistreated
Each
of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.
.
Chapter
1 Mockingbird Players
Stevenson
is given his first case: Walter McMillian. Also the first inkling
about the resistance he will get when the judge of the case called
him and told him to drop it. Talked about who Walter was and what
happened at the trial.
Stevenson
notes that the county where Walter McMillian is is where Harper Lee,
of To
Kill a Mockingbird
fame, lived. The county celebrates her as an author, but throughout
the book Just
Mercy
it becomes evident that it did not learn the lesson of the book.
Chapter
2 Stand
Living
arrangements and the start of a project to take care of the needs of
those on death row. But also his own experience with the Atlanta
police.This got him to thinking, how prepared are people to meet
police in a high stress situation? In a meeting, he met an older,
wheelchair bound person who told him he was beating the drum of
justice.
Stevenson
who is a lawyer had stopped in front of his apartment late one night.
He lingered in his car when the police pulled up and ordered him out
of the car. His instinct was to run even when the police had the gun
on him. He was 24 years old. If he thought of running, what about a
young black man, particularly if there is a record on him? It gives
me some perspective about why blacks run from police.
When
he talks in a church, an old black man tells him that he is beating
the drum for justice.
This is an old civil rights phrase. This invokes the phrase which
Martin Luther King, Jr used in a sermon, two months before his death
Yes,
if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum
major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a
drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things
will not matter
Stanford’s
King Institute
Chapter
3 Trials and Tribulation
This
chapter details the arrest, the evidence and the trail of Walter.
Also even though Walter had not gone to trial yet, he was placed on
death row to await trial.
Chapter
4 The Old Rugged Cross
Stevenson
reviews several of his first death row cases. These were places which
he was still trying to get organized, and gaining an understanding
what it meant to work on death row cases. He realized this was his
purpose.
Sounded
like his new venture was started off with a wing and a prayer, but
little money.
Most
people do not know when their last day is. But a person on death row
does. They get waited on. People who were uncaring are kind. There is
discomfort for all when carrying out an execution.
Chapter
5 Of the Coming of John
There
was no way which Walter could have killed the girl-too many witnesses
able to say he was not there. They lived way outside of town. All of
the relatives wanted to vouch for Walter. On the other hand, even
with a new DA, the legal establishment was against Walter and
reopening the case.
One
of the stories in The
Souls of Black Folk
by
W.E.B. Du Bois had a person going away to study to be a teacher. It
is by his understanding that the community where he came from had
hopes about him being successful and coming back to teach. Stevenson
realized that there was some parallel to im-not that he was raised in
Alabama, but that there was a lot of hopes being placed on him.
Stevenson
when he went to visit Walter never felt that his time was wasted or
unproductive. That is a wonderful attribute to place on Walter.
When
someone comes forward with evidence showing that Walter could be
innocent, Stevenson finds this disorienting to his sense of justice.
He also wonders what they will do when he presses the case harder.
Chapter
6 Surely Doomed
Stevenson
gets a call from a grandmother about her grandson who has shot his
mother’s abusive boyfriend. He talks about meeting the boy-in an
adult prison. Stevenson relates what happened and how this case was
resolved.
Is
a 16 or 17 old a child?
When
one of his people is set free, a family takes him in. Stevenson tries
to lower expectations, but the family points out that we all have
been through alot. But
if we don’t expect more from each other, hope better for one
another, and recover from the hurt we experience, we are surely
doomed.
Chapter
7 Justice Denied
He
takes Walter’s case to the State’s Appeals Court. There he was
met with silence for the most part. He then has help on the case and
is able to interview more of the witnesses. This led to another
murder, while not really connected, it gave insight in how Walter’s
case was prosecuted. As he went through the investigation, it became
more evident that there was misconduct on the State’s part.
Stevenson requested a new trial and was granted a rehearing.
Chapter
8 All God's Children
This
chapter goes through how when a crime is committed, or at least
attributed to a person under 18, and a lot of times under 16, there
are circumstances which helped to explain what happened. I do not
think Stevenson excuses the crime, but uses it as an explanation and
why there should be something done differently than incarceration.
The places range from Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles.
Chapter
9 I'm Here
The
Rule 32 hearing-this is about the evidence in the original hearing-on
Walter’s case takes place. Many of the original witnesses recanted
their testimonies.
A
Mrs. Williams who was a pretty old black lady had been barred from
going into the courtroom for the McMillian hearing, On the second
day, she was in. Her presence said to Stevenson that she was there
because she had a vision
of justice that compels me to be a witness.
Stevenson understood from her presence that this was the reason he
was here-to help bring justice to a man.
Chapter
10 Mitigation
Stevenson
opens the chapter by saying that America’s
prisons have become warehouses for the mentally ill.
He goes on and talks about the prisons are being crowded by
wrong-headed drug policies and excessive sentencing. But that the
mentally ill is a driving force in this. I am thinking of when Ronald
Reagan was the governor of California, he closed the insane asylums
and released many of these people out onto the streets. This was
because many of the institutions were more places to house people
than to remedy the condition. With Stevenson’s assertion, I am
wondering if we have come full circle.
There
is a bit more which I am understanding from Stevensn’s comments. He
notes that the combined events of blacks having served in the armed
forces during WWII and the desegregation of the schools, the white
South rose up and started making more segregation symbolism-statues
and Confederate flags on top of capitals. There is more than
commemorating the past with these symbols, it is trying to push
forward the past into the present, trying to resurrect a time when
those “other” people were not as privileged as whites.
Noted
that we excuse and help those with physical disability, appropriately
enough, but those with mental disabilities are judged more by their
defects and failures. We do not accommodate this in our criminal
justice system. I do not think Stevenson is saying excuse crimes, but
understand why the crime and make sure the punishment also leads more
to a remedy than a housing situation.
Chapter
11 I'll Fly Away
He
starts the chapter with the threats to both the agency working with
death row inmates as well as himself. These were not idle threats as
others in the law had died after threats. He received the ruling on
the Rule 32 hearing-denying a retrial. Stevenson felt he would be
going to the appeals court anyway. There began to be publicity about
the case as news leaked out about what the trial was like. The State
then sent independent investigators to look over the case. The
Appeals Court invalidated the original trial and said he needed to be
retried. Instead the district attorney did not oppose a motion to
dismiss the charges. Walter got out. But his wife no longer wanted to
be with him. Also it was best to remain away until things calmed
down.
No
lie can live forever and this has always been one big lie.
Referring to Walter
When
Stevenson finally convinced a court that Walter had had a trial which
did not reflect justice, he says that I
didn’t realize how much I had feared that we would lose until we
finally won.
When something good happens, that is when you realize how bad things
were.
Walter
when he hears the good news, his heart is in such as way that he
wants two things: 1) to meet everybody who has helped him. 2) He
wants good food.
Stevenson
uses the term laugh
of liberation.
I take it that Walter and him could enjoy an unrestrained laugh. The
restraint of knowing that he could die soon was released.
The
miscarriage
of justice had created permanent injuries.
Not just the six years which Walter lost. But in all of the stuff
which came out, it was that Walter had cheated on his wife. Minnie
would not be reconciled to him. It would never be the same for
Walter. As Stevenson said, no
lie can live forever.
Chapter
12 Mother, Mother
Another
chapter where Stevenson explores where justice is not served, or at
least not in measure to the crime. This time it is about a mother of
six whose child was stillborn. The question of stillborn and an
infant who died shortly after birth comes into question.
Not
sure about Stevenson’s statement-that a person was dirt poor, but
that she had compensated for the possessions not available with
giving them her heart. I look at it that the heart is the primary
thing you can give your children. That is what they will remember the
most, not the possessions you give them..
Redefining
what muder is concerning a pregnant mother-environment
being the womb and its surrounding and child
to include the fetus. Somehow, fetus sounds so impersonal while child
sounds so human. I wonder what Stevenson would say about his own-I do
not know his family life and background. So this is not meant to be
insensitive to him. Ust pondering how we turn words to emphasize what
we want.
Stevenson’
main point is that we have redefined murder to include when a woman
harms her unborn child. This includes taking drugs during pregnancy.
He calls this the “untouchable” class. I do not think it is
similar to India’s untouchables though. At least I do not see the
similarities.
Chapter
13 Recovery
There
was publicity in Walter’s release, more than most of the other
wrongful conviction releases. The thing which was apparent was the
story counter to the American sense of fair justice. There was also
after effects-just being on death row watching men who became his
acquaintances affected Walter. Walter did not receive any
compensation for being wrongly convicted.Walter would accompany
Stevenson to many of Stevenson’ speaking engagements. Walter was
getting more and more disoriented.
Walter
after being released told Stevenson how much stress living under the
threat of execution and watching other men being executed had on him.
It was not relieved after his release. There was still effects, even
as he tried to move forward.
Chapter
14 Cruel and Unusual
Stevenson
starts with the story of a 13 year old, Joe Sullivan, who was tried
and convicted of sexual assault, while his older accomplishes got a
much more lenient sentence. He was put into an adult prison for life.
He ended up in a wheelchair. When Stevenson came to visit him, he was
in a small cage, so small his wheelchair could not be freed from it.
More children convicted of crimes and sentenced to long prison
sentences were brought forward. To put into context he talks about
his own grandfather being killed by a juvenile. It was only through
exploring these kids lives did he start to understand his own
grandfather’s murders.
Stevenson’s
grandfather had been murdered during a house robber of his television
set when he was 86 years old. This left a lasting mark on Stevenson
and his family. It left many questions. Those questions started
coming together as he worked with death row inmates. One of the
things is that you cannot understand the act without understanding
the background of the person.
Chapter
15 Broken
In
the meantime, Walter was deteriorating-sounded like a form of
dementia. He was placed in a nursing home where he thought he was
back on death row. Stevenson goes through and talks about execution
by injection. Then Stevenson meets the realization why he is doing
the work he is doing-because as broken as the men and women he is
serving, he himself is broken as we all are.
This
chapter is based upon a revelation which Stevenson had concerning his
place in his organization. He realized that the organization had
grown. Others could do and were capable of doing what he did. Being
tired and depressed about the failures he was ready to leave. What
stopped him. He realized that it was not the organization needing
him, but he needed his role in bringing justice for others. Being
close to executions, showed his own brokenness. He says that We
are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been
hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness…
Thomas
Merton: We are bodies of broken bones. The fuller quote is: As
long as we are on earth, the love that unites us will bring us
suffering by our very contact with one another, because this love is
the resetting of a body of broken bones. Even saints cannot live with
saints on this earth without some anguish. There are two things which
men can do about the pain of disunion with other men. They can love
or they can hate.
From New
Seeds of Contemplation,
pg 72
Each
of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.
I usually phrase it that if we believe the Bible, then each of us
have the image of God in us. And just that image, no matter how
shaded it is, is brighter than the worst of our sin. It is up to us
to honor Christ in us and let that light shine a bit brighter.
Stevenson goes on and says that When
you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn
otherwise. This
is part of him which is getting rejuvenated
The
title of the book comes from The
power of just
mercy
is that it belongs to the undeserving. It’s when mercy is least
expected that its most potent--strong enough to break the cycle of
victimization and victimhood, retribution and suffering.
This is what Stevenson is trying to get across-mercy in justice can
change people and situations. What Stevenson really does not talk
about is how to administer it. Is it to be done selectively or as a
blanket? What criteria?
Chapter
16 The Stone catchers' Song of Sorrow
Several
cases Stevenson worked on reached the Supreme Court, further defining
what was cruel and unusual. He talked about the Anthony Ray Hinton
case. He also started working on race and poverty issues, finding
that they were closely connected to crime. His agency crew larger and
better able to handle the cases coming in. He also talked about race
and justice and what shaped how it was administered. At the end of
one case, Stevenson meets a woman who sits on a bench and comforts
people. She calls herself a stone catcher-catches the stones thrown
at people. She says that is what Stevenson is doing.
Stevenson
mentions another case he was working on-Anthony Ray Hinton. This is
how I was introduced to Stevenson. I read Hinton’s book called The
Sun Does Shine.
While Stevenson has the view of a person trying to make sure justice
is given, Hinton has the view of a man who needed justice. They are
good complimentary views.
Stevenson
found that working on race and poverty issues dovetailed which his
work on criminal justice. He felt that there were four things which
shaped America’s approach to race and justice:
- Slavery-to blacks,
- Reign of terror. Terrorism was not new. They had been dealing with the police, the Klan and any white person who felt they got slighted by a black.
- Jim Crow Laws. This set up how blacks had to act or be in violation of at least custom, if not law. This is somewhat the the legacy of profiling.
- Mass incarceration.
Epilogue
Walter’s
eulogy along with what does a just mercy mean.
He
uses the terms anguished
of stressed lives
and pain
of the oppressed people.
That these things if gathered together could fuel and ignite some
impossible actions. He terms that maybe transformational
redemption.
Walter
asks, do
you ever think about dying?
He means specifically how you will die, when you will die. Being on
death row, watching men prepare to die and men dying gets that into
your thought pattern. He then goes on that people
are supposed to die on God’s schedule.
While Walter is talking about death row, in some ways, we have gotten
away from this as well. We extended out death in every conceivable
way to avoid dying.
A
basic question in capital punishment: Do
we deserve to kill?
This is central to the book. How we convict and sentence tells us
about how we are as a people.
Stevenson
comments about Walter: it
was just mercy towards others that allowed him to recover a life
worth celebrating, a life that rediscovered the love and freedom that
all humans desire a life that overcame death and condemnation with it
was time to die on God’s schedule.
A good way to conclude.
Evaluation:
There
is a feel good message in Just
Mercy,
but there is also a lot of discomfort in the book. The book is about
Bryan Stevenson’s mission to provide justice to those who have not
had a fair shake with the justice system. He works principally in the
South with some cases talked in California or further up the Eastern
seacoast. The story principally follows his effort to get a fair
trial for Walter McMillian, a man on death row who did not get a fair
trial. He is successful in getting him released.
And
the discomfort? As much as I like to think that in most cases, the
courts are fair, Stevenson exposes how justice may rest on the needs
of political characters, on the need to appear strong against crime,
the need to preserve a certain ways of thinking. In the process
people are condemned to death row, the mentally ill are given death
sentences without regard to their condition. Mothers of stillborn
children not only have to grieve their loss, but fight against being
convicted of murder. Justice in America is not guilty or not guilty,
but one which has baggage which goes with it.
Stevenson
does a good job telling his story and the weaknesses of the system.
But he is a bit weak on what remedies there are. He is against the
use of the death penalty. He does not really go into what remedies
there are. So after reading the book, I realize this is more of a
starting place than a conclusion. It is a book, which allows one to
start exploring what should be done.
Notes from my book group:
Many
of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
- Why the title of Just Mercy?
- Does this story work as an autobiography? As a book espousing a position?
- Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
- Which person was the most convincing? Least?
- Which person did you identify with?
- Which one did you dislike?
- Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
- In what context was religion talked about in this book?
- Was there anybody you would consider religious?
- How did they show it?
- Was the book overtly religious?
- How did it affect the books story?
- Why do you think the author wrote this book?
- What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
- What “take aways” did you have from this book?
- What central ideas does the author present?
- Are they personal, sociological, global, political, economic, spiritual, medical, or scientific
- What evidence does the author use to support the book's ideas?
- Is the evidence convincing...definitive or...speculative?
- Does the author depends on personal opinion, observation, and assessment? Or is the evidence factual—based on science, statistics, historical documents, or quotations from (credible) experts?
- What implications for you, our nation or the world do these ideas have?
- Are these ideas's controversial?
- To whom and why?
- Are there solutions which the author presents?
- Do they seem workable? Practicable?
- How would you implement them?
- Describe the culture talked about in the book.
- How is the culture described in this book different than where we live?
- What economic or political situations are described?
- Does the author examine economics and politics, family traditions, the arts, religious beliefs, language or food?
- How did this book affect your view of the world?
- Of how God is viewed?
- What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
- Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
- What was memorable?
- Miscegenation (1): the interbreeding of people considered to be of different racial types.
- To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin
- Circumstantial Evidence byPete Earley
- Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon
Good Quotes:
- First Line: I wasn’t prepared to meet a condemned man.
- Last Line: It wasn’t likely that we could do much for many people who needed help, but it made the journey home less sad to hope that maybe we could.
- You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance… You have to get close. Stevenson grandmother, Chp: Introduction
- Love is the motive, but justice is the instrument. Reinhold Niebuhr
- You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance… You have to get close. Bryan Stevenson’s grandmother, Introduction
- if we don’t expect more from each other, hope better for one another, and recover from the hurt we experience, we are surely doomed. Chapter 6 Surely Doomed
- No lie can live forever. Chapter 11 I'll Fly Away
- As long as we are on earth, the love that unites us will bring us suffering by our very contact with one another, because this love is the resetting of a body of broken bones. Even saints cannot live with saints on this earth without some anguish. There are two things which men can do about the pain of disunion with other men. They can love or they can hate. Thomas Merton. From New Seeds of Contemplation, pg 72
- Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. Chapter 15 Broken
- When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. Chapter 15 Broken
- The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving. It’s when mercy is least expected that its most potent--strong enough to break the cycle of victimization and victimhood, retribution and suffering. Chapter 15 Broken
- Introduction: Higher Ground p. 3
- Chapter 1 Mockingbird Players p. 19
- Chapter 2 Stand p. 35
- Chapter 3 Trials and Tribulation p. 47
- Chapter 4 The Old Rugged Cross p. 67
- Chapter 5 Of the Coming of John p. 92
- Chapter 6 Surely Doomed p. 115
- Chapter 7 Justice Denied p. 127
- Chapter 8 All God's Children p. 147
- Chapter 9 I'm Here p. 163
- Chapter 10 Mitigation p. 186
- Chapter 11 I'll Fly Away p. 203
- Chapter 12 Mother, Mother p. 227
- Chapter 13 Recovery p. 242
- Chapter 14 Cruel and Unusual p. 256
- Chapter 15 Broken p. 275
- Chapter 16 The Stone catchers' Song of Sorrow p. 295
- Epilogue p. 311
References:
-
- Author's Web Site
- Wikipedia-Author
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- New York Times Review
- Lit Lovers
- Texas Law Review
- AP article with the main actor in the Just Mercy moviee
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