Have Mercy!

What sold me was a review that said it would be a great companion to To Kill a Mockingbird...

I didn't realize that the majority of Just Mercy took place in Monroeville, Alabama, where Harper Lee was raised, or that this too involved the story of a black man wrongfully accused and convicted of a crime.

Unlike Atticus Finch, however, the protagonist of this story is the author, a black lawyer who is keenly aware of how unjust the system as. Race is thus always an element of this story, even when the people Stevenson defends aren't black, as he encounters his own challenges as a black attorney in Alabama (and other places across America).

With that said, this was not as "heavy" a book as it could have been. I really enjoyed reading it (couldn't put it down), and couldn't wait to find out what happened in the "main" story of his defense of Walter McMillian, a black man who had two strikes against him: success and a white girlfriend. When the local sheriff couldn't find a suspect for the murder of a beloved young white girl, he jumped on the chance to arrest McMillian once someone pointed the finger in his direction. At least that is how the book tells it...and in this memoir, Stevenson shows how much evidence had to be ignored to try and convict McMillian. (I don't think I'm spoiling anything by sharing one shocking example: his entire family was with him at the time of the murder! But their alibis didn't count when stacked against the testimony of a white criminal looking to make a deal!)

And this was all happening in Harper Lee's hometown, a place that celebrated the "justice" seen in the movie by using its courthouse to lure English majors and lawyers to spend tourism money. The irony is not lost upon Stevenson, who sees that the racism, classism, and even sexism portrayed in the novel is still alive and well in the modern day despite Harper Lee's indictment of the system.

As much as I wanted to know what happened, I liked how the author interrupted this story to share some of the other cases he worked on. At first I thought it was a poor conceit, but as he reviewed these other cases, it became clear he was showing, through example, just how unfair the system is to the poor, the too-young-to-know-better, the mentally ill, young mothers, and people of color. I read this book on my Kindle app, and found myself highlighting paragraphs that either shocked me (the statistics about how much we spend on prison vs. education weren't new to me, but were still shocking) or touched me.

Thus, when we returned to McMillian's story, the unfairness of it all was less shocking. His story--while an egregious example of injustice--was then framed as just ONE example of all the injustices occurring in our nation today. It also showed how "political" the law is, with district attorneys, judges, and politicians afraid to put what is "right" before what is popular for the sake of votes, money, and ease.

The story is also incredibly inspiring. The author came from humble beginnings, attended Harvard law, started a nonprofit practice to defend the defenseless (at a time when money was being cut to provide people with a defense....kind of like today!), and ended up winning all sorts of awards in addition to successfully arguing in front of the Supreme Court!

Maybe I'm the only person who would pick this as a beach read, but I found this to be well-paced, and interesting on both an academic and "popcorn" level. And, as has been the trend, apparently I picked a book that is being made into a movie! (Check out the handsome actor who will play young Bryan!)

Michael B. Jordan, who will star  in the movie, release date TBD.

 

While there are definitely disturbing facts in the book, nothing is so graphic that I would say this is not appropriate for high school. In fact, I think a young adult audience would connect with Stevenson right out of college and appreciate the look "behind the scenes" of our American system, which teenagers are already skeptical of. Oh, and I think adults would really like it too :)

Happy reading!