Review of ‘Just Mercy’ by Bryan Stevenson
Although ‘Just Mercy’ was published in 2015, and I had heard Bryan Stevenson speaking at a conference, I only got round to reading this remarkable book last month. Whilst there are so many keyboard warriors out there, rightly calling out systemic injustice, there are not many who actually do. Stevenson actually does. His courage and passion in the face of incredible discrimination is awe inspiring.
It follows through on a number of cases that helped Stevenson to the seminal judgement at the US Supreme Court in May 2010 regarding children sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. This was not his first major victory, but it was the key to opening the floodgates of change. Stevenson co-founded the Equal Justice Initiative, and its work goes beyond the representation of defendants, but follows through on post-prison skills and care. He has made it clear that justice is more than just a right verdict, but access to life. This memoir is more than just the story of a remarkable organisation though, but a manifesto for change.
It seems hard to imagine that there are so many people who do not get proper representation, or that jury selection can be used in such a discriminatory way. But this was and still is the case in the US. Of course, we all know that money buys a different type of justice but to have no representation and to have such obvious corruption within a system is truly shocking. It does make you wonder how much has changed since its publication. It makes clear the causal links between the slavery of the past, the Jim Crow laws and the results of ghettoization and endemic poverty today. To that end, it is an important book. We must understand our past and speak the truth about it if we are to get anywhere near making a better and more equal future.
The critique of the US justice system and the sour tasting legacy of slavery in particular make this a necessary part of a nation’s self-knowledge – so it might make sense for Americans to read this book. But what about other nations? Only the other day I was having a discussion with a student wanting to criticise America’s racially charged history in a presentation, but we here in the UK have plenty of skeletons in that cupboard too. It is not as though our hands are clean. In the light of the polarising voices and the (very British) tendency to want to brush it all under the carpet, I think this book sheds some light on our issues too. There is no healing without the truth, and no change without an identification of the problem. When I heard Bryan Stevenson speaking, I know I became aware that I was no longer proximate to many of the issues and that led to a lack of understanding, which in turn could lead to a lack of compassion. As living costs rise and we are put under pressure, the need to have compassion/‘just mercy’ will rise with it, so maybe reading this now is timely preparation that kindness is love in work clothes.
