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4.72 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Wow. I learned and I thought deeply and I cried and I was moved to talk about it to anyone who would let me. I've not seen a more reasoned and compassionate argument for change in our "justice" system than this. A must read and re-read.
Bryan Stephen’s Just Mercy
I’ve wanted to read this book for quite sometime. I’ve seen his TEDTalk and was fortunate to see him speak at the University of Minnesota in April 2015 (I’ll include my brief notes - ‘the call to action’, if you will).
Just Mercy is an extremely important book which provides vivid context to the plight of incarceration, juvenile punishment, race, and insanity the dark side of our justice system. Stevenson is a terrific storyteller who presents contexts and empathy to facts and figures. In other words, he shows us the humanity in the data.
I am deeply inspirited by his work, work ethic, and passion and hope I bring that to my work everyday. I see my purpose as helping individuals find, as Simon Sinek would say, “their ‘Why’.
Please read this book.
V
Notes from Mr. Stevenson’s U of M talk
April 7. 2015
To change the world:
1) Be proximate to the population you want to help (will help you be a better person) - he found his 'one thing' - to help people on death row to get to higher ground
2) Understand the narrative of the problem and change the narrative - need to change the conversation about race
3) Need to protect your hope - need to believe - hope is the orientation of the spirit - it's vital to changing the world
4) Engage - must do uncomfortable things - it's hard - in the service of justice - "we love comfort" - engaging is necessary to create justice and a better world
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, I’ve come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.”
“We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent”
“We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others. The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it's necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and-perhaps-we all need some measure of unmerited grace.”
“There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can't otherwise see; you hear things you can't otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.”
“The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving. It’s when mercy is least expected that it’s most potent—strong enough to break the cycle of victimization and victimhood, retribution and suffering. It has the power to heal the psychic harm and injuries that lead to aggression and violence, abuse of power, mass incarceration.”
“The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.”
“Mercy is most empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving. The people who haven’t earned it, who haven’t even sought it, are the most meaningful recipients of our compassion.”
“You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close,”
I’ve wanted to read this book for quite sometime. I’ve seen his TEDTalk and was fortunate to see him speak at the University of Minnesota in April 2015 (I’ll include my brief notes - ‘the call to action’, if you will).
Just Mercy is an extremely important book which provides vivid context to the plight of incarceration, juvenile punishment, race, and insanity the dark side of our justice system. Stevenson is a terrific storyteller who presents contexts and empathy to facts and figures. In other words, he shows us the humanity in the data.
I am deeply inspirited by his work, work ethic, and passion and hope I bring that to my work everyday. I see my purpose as helping individuals find, as Simon Sinek would say, “their ‘Why’.
Please read this book.
V
Notes from Mr. Stevenson’s U of M talk
April 7. 2015
To change the world:
1) Be proximate to the population you want to help (will help you be a better person) - he found his 'one thing' - to help people on death row to get to higher ground
2) Understand the narrative of the problem and change the narrative - need to change the conversation about race
3) Need to protect your hope - need to believe - hope is the orientation of the spirit - it's vital to changing the world
4) Engage - must do uncomfortable things - it's hard - in the service of justice - "we love comfort" - engaging is necessary to create justice and a better world
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
“Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, I’ve come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.”
“We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent”
“We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others. The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it's necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and-perhaps-we all need some measure of unmerited grace.”
“There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can't otherwise see; you hear things you can't otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.”
“The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the undeserving. It’s when mercy is least expected that it’s most potent—strong enough to break the cycle of victimization and victimhood, retribution and suffering. It has the power to heal the psychic harm and injuries that lead to aggression and violence, abuse of power, mass incarceration.”
“The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.”
“Mercy is most empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving. The people who haven’t earned it, who haven’t even sought it, are the most meaningful recipients of our compassion.”
“You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close,”
What an incredibly poignant look into our country's judicial system. I knew it was unfair to many citizens, but several of the stories told in this book almost brought me to tears at how cruel some of the judges can be when faced with children who have already had to bear so much. Stevenson is very good at looking at the whole picture for these cases, and explaining everything in a way that is easy for someone who has no legal experience to understand. I believe this book will change a lot of peoples' outlooks on how the US handles crime and punishment.
In 10 years of working with capital defence lawyers in the US, the name Bryan Stevenson has come up again and again, although I have never had the chance to work with him. Most recently people will have seen him in Ava DuVernay's excellent documentary 13th. I can see why she wanted to feature him, especially after reading this book. This book is about a courageous African-American who took on the representation of the most disenfranchised in the south of America - in Alabama no less. For young advocates who want to be involved in helping the under privileged, this book serves as a testament to what is required, the risks that must be taken, the compassionate heart that is needed, in order to be an effective advocate. It was a privilege to read this book and learn of Stevenson's struggles, he's a role model to all.
Bryan Stevenson, the author of ' Just Mercy', is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. It is a non-profit legal firm based in Montgomery, Alabama.
Stevenson has argued five times before the Supreme Court. His clients are the poor, the mentally ill, and children - all victims of a judicial system which condemned them to die for crimes committed by someone else, or they have been given sentences of life in adult prisons when they were children, or the crimes were done when the 'guilty' were psychotic, or because they murdered someone raping them at age 14 (which continues if they are children committed to adult prisons).
Some mentally-ill inmates are put in solitary cells for terms of ten-twenty years, their illness worsened by lack of treatment. Some women convicts who are in prison mysteriously become pregnant, and if DNA evidence shows a guard was responsible, the guard is found to have been transferred to another prison until the heat died down, and then transferred back. The book is full of such cases.
Stevenson began lawyering in 1987. As a black man, he was very familiar in the many ways the judicial system is designed to destroy poor people and families of color. Some of the misconduct he exposes are the appointment of all-white juries despite trials being conducted in primarily black jurisdictions, defendants not given access to lawyers, obvious prosecutorial misconduct, and police corruption.
But the people he began to meet inside prisons, already convicted of crimes, some on death row, shocked him. There were fourteen-year-olds given sentences of life in prison who had killed child abusers, full-grown men with the mental capacity of eight-year-olds, schizophrenics in the grip of psychosis.
His job was to research the court cases of the convicted, looking for ways to ask for a retrial. He talked to families, victims, witnesses. The backstories he learns are shocking. Many of his clients endured endless child abuse despite neighbors calling the police, despite evidence of physical brutality and violence everywhere on children's bodies, and despite parents with multiple convictions of illegal drug use and domestic violence. Stevenson or his team visited homes indistinguishable from garbage dumps. He learned of foster homes which continued the same physical abuses of children placed in 'care', known by authorities to be abusive.
Prejudiced judges, falsified witness statements, incompetent lawyers, withheld or manufactured evidence by police and prosecutors are also some of the things he and his team of lawyers found. I will use the word 'conspiracy' of all the involved officials. All of the cases in the book are in Southern states, all of the courts and legal officials responsible for investigations and presenting evidence of so-called guilt in courtrooms being American Southerners. Stevenson never uses that word 'conspiracy'. His book is written in a gentler tone than what I am using. He gets some people out of jail, though, because the evidence of innocence is easily found - verifiable proofs and multiple witnesses seeing the condemned miles away from where a crime was committed or at work, no or missing forensics, police and prosecutor files with exculpatory evidence never presented in court, judges who ignored the law and rights of the defendant. The problems of getting an innocent person out, or a sentence reduced, are often almost insurmountable though. It take years for the legal process to unfold. Getting retrials even when everyone involved knows the original sentence was unjust still must deal with a system of appeals which is broken. It takes a lot of money and legal work and investigations and time-off for witnesses from jobs and making room on crowded court calendars - for poor people, and especially poor black people, practically impossible to fund or risk the losing of their jobs.
Stevenson also discovers many people who find themselves in court can't read or write, whether witnesses or defendants. Yet they are involved in a system which is all about paperwork and signatures. But Stevenson is kinder in his book towards everything, or maybe he is simply more circumspect than I am. He pleads for more Mercy for the undeserving, and feels he was taught the power of forgiveness from the innocent he freed.
Justice for all? No, not. Only for the wealthy and mostly white people and mentally healthy. The American legal machinery, i.e., police, courts, prisons, is still permitted to pretend it isn't a broken system by a majority of people indifferent to the problems of race and poverty and mental illness. I am not able to forgive what clearly is still an ongoing evil built into our legal systems.
There is an extensive Notes section.
Stevenson has argued five times before the Supreme Court. His clients are the poor, the mentally ill, and children - all victims of a judicial system which condemned them to die for crimes committed by someone else, or they have been given sentences of life in adult prisons when they were children, or the crimes were done when the 'guilty' were psychotic, or because they murdered someone raping them at age 14 (which continues if they are children committed to adult prisons).
Some mentally-ill inmates are put in solitary cells for terms of ten-twenty years, their illness worsened by lack of treatment. Some women convicts who are in prison mysteriously become pregnant, and if DNA evidence shows a guard was responsible, the guard is found to have been transferred to another prison until the heat died down, and then transferred back. The book is full of such cases.
Stevenson began lawyering in 1987. As a black man, he was very familiar in the many ways the judicial system is designed to destroy poor people and families of color. Some of the misconduct he exposes are the appointment of all-white juries despite trials being conducted in primarily black jurisdictions, defendants not given access to lawyers, obvious prosecutorial misconduct, and police corruption.
But the people he began to meet inside prisons, already convicted of crimes, some on death row, shocked him. There were fourteen-year-olds given sentences of life in prison who had killed child abusers, full-grown men with the mental capacity of eight-year-olds, schizophrenics in the grip of psychosis.
His job was to research the court cases of the convicted, looking for ways to ask for a retrial. He talked to families, victims, witnesses. The backstories he learns are shocking. Many of his clients endured endless child abuse despite neighbors calling the police, despite evidence of physical brutality and violence everywhere on children's bodies, and despite parents with multiple convictions of illegal drug use and domestic violence. Stevenson or his team visited homes indistinguishable from garbage dumps. He learned of foster homes which continued the same physical abuses of children placed in 'care', known by authorities to be abusive.
Prejudiced judges, falsified witness statements, incompetent lawyers, withheld or manufactured evidence by police and prosecutors are also some of the things he and his team of lawyers found. I will use the word 'conspiracy' of all the involved officials. All of the cases in the book are in Southern states, all of the courts and legal officials responsible for investigations and presenting evidence of so-called guilt in courtrooms being American Southerners. Stevenson never uses that word 'conspiracy'. His book is written in a gentler tone than what I am using. He gets some people out of jail, though, because the evidence of innocence is easily found - verifiable proofs and multiple witnesses seeing the condemned miles away from where a crime was committed or at work, no or missing forensics, police and prosecutor files with exculpatory evidence never presented in court, judges who ignored the law and rights of the defendant. The problems of getting an innocent person out, or a sentence reduced, are often almost insurmountable though. It take years for the legal process to unfold. Getting retrials even when everyone involved knows the original sentence was unjust still must deal with a system of appeals which is broken. It takes a lot of money and legal work and investigations and time-off for witnesses from jobs and making room on crowded court calendars - for poor people, and especially poor black people, practically impossible to fund or risk the losing of their jobs.
Stevenson also discovers many people who find themselves in court can't read or write, whether witnesses or defendants. Yet they are involved in a system which is all about paperwork and signatures. But Stevenson is kinder in his book towards everything, or maybe he is simply more circumspect than I am. He pleads for more Mercy for the undeserving, and feels he was taught the power of forgiveness from the innocent he freed.
Justice for all? No, not. Only for the wealthy and mostly white people and mentally healthy. The American legal machinery, i.e., police, courts, prisons, is still permitted to pretend it isn't a broken system by a majority of people indifferent to the problems of race and poverty and mental illness. I am not able to forgive what clearly is still an ongoing evil built into our legal systems.
There is an extensive Notes section.
Absolutely insane and heartbreaking story that so well demonstrates how the criminal justice system fails the most vulnerable.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Great read if you want to learn about racial inequality in our criminal justice system.
“We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent. The ways in which I have been hurt - and have hurt others - are different from the ways others suffer and cause suffering. But our shared brokenness connects us.”
“We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. Or we can deny our brokenness, forswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our own humanity.”
“We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. Or we can deny our brokenness, forswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our own humanity.”