Just Mercy is a book that was also turned into a movie. It is set in 1989 and tells the story of Bryan Stevenson, a Harvard law grad who founded a group called the Equal Justice Initiative. This group is a group of lawyers tasked with helping those that have been wrongly convicted get a fair trial and eventually get released.
Bryan Stevenson, the main character is a black man. His main case is to help a man named Walter McMillan who was wrongly accused of killing a little girl and faces the death penalty in Alabama. This forces Bryan to travel to the south to work on the case and he runs into racism and other forms of injustice that he was not expecting spending most of his time in the north. As soon as he gets to the southern town where the murder happened he immediately felt “othered” by most people in that town especially the police and justice department. Really the only place it seemed Bryan felt comfortable was with the family of Walter in a rural part of town. The town historically has been known to be racist so Bryan runs into roadblocks at every step. Even the police were trying to actively get him to leave town because they didn’t want him proving that they had made a mistake convicting Walter McMillan.
Throughout the book Bryan constantly feels out of place. He knows everyone there wants him gone, and the main issue is the ones who are the biggest problem also have the most power, the police. In the book they use their power in an extremely abusive way. They don’t want change. The people in the town and the town are used to being all white and they don’t want that to change. However, as Bryan works and begins to uncover the truth it seems some people are able to come to their senses.
Overall this is an extremely powerful book with a powerful message on what the justice system and life was like in not too long ago especially in the south. I think it could spark a debate about how the system is flawed, especially in some areas as well as the fact that people are still wrongly imprisoned now.