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kmparsons's review against another edition
5.0
What an amazing story about amazing and strong people. The author made me feel the emotions of those he was defending through his incredible way with words. This book was eye opening to several things wrong with the American justice system and an even deeper look into the racial separations has biases in this country. This is an important book for everyone to read to be able to gain a deeper understanding and more empathy for those around us.
trin's review against another edition
5.0
Harper Lee has just died; fifty-six years ago she published To Kill a Mockingbird, the story of heroic lawyer Atticus Finch and his attempt to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, from a false charge of rape made by a white woman. What a lot of people neglect to focus on, as Bryan Stevenson points out in this painful, moving, necessary memoir, is that Atticus' defense fails. Tom Robinson is convicted, then killed. The irony is not lost on Stevenson as he goes to Monroe County, Alabama, the setting of Lee's novel and a community that has made an industry out of celebrating her work, to defend another falsely convicted black man -- the conviction the result of an obvious set-up by local law enforcement that has nevertheless landed his innocent client on death row. This case serves as the centerpiece of Just Mercy, but Stevenson details many more from his thirty-year career, all of them heartbreaking and infuriating in different ways. The book is a compelling page-turner, not in spite of but because of the outrageous civil rights abuses Stevenson exposes: racism, jury tampering, cruel and unusual treatment of the mentally ill, children, the poor. You keep reading hoping for a happy ending, the miraculous appearance of justice, but Lee couldn't conceive of a happy ending to her novel fifty-six years ago, and unfortunately, in Stevenson's depiction of reality more than half a century later, not much -- and certainly nowhere near enough -- has changed.
Just Mercy is an essential book, because it's a reminder that this type of injustice is not a thing of the past, a problem we've "solved." It's current, it's ongoing, and people like Stevenson are still actively fighting it every day. Toward the end of the book, Stevenson describes a meeting with legends of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks and Johnnie Carr. "Ooooh, honey," said Parks, after hearing about his work, "that's going to make you tired, tired, tired." Then Carr leaned forward and said, "That's why you've got to be brave, brave, brave."
If only we could all be even a fraction as courageous. Let's start by not forgetting. Read this book and stay aware, stay aware, stay aware.
Just Mercy is an essential book, because it's a reminder that this type of injustice is not a thing of the past, a problem we've "solved." It's current, it's ongoing, and people like Stevenson are still actively fighting it every day. Toward the end of the book, Stevenson describes a meeting with legends of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks and Johnnie Carr. "Ooooh, honey," said Parks, after hearing about his work, "that's going to make you tired, tired, tired." Then Carr leaned forward and said, "That's why you've got to be brave, brave, brave."
If only we could all be even a fraction as courageous. Let's start by not forgetting. Read this book and stay aware, stay aware, stay aware.
stephaniesteen73's review against another edition
5.0
Heartbreaking, yet very inspiring. This is difficult, yet vitally important work.
elizabethfisher's review against another edition
5.0
I cannot overstate the importance of this book. If someone doesn’t think our JUSTICE system is inherently UNJUST, this book should convince them otherwise. If someone reads this and doesn’t change their mind, they have no willingness to learn or change their mind. If you or someone you know believes in using the death penalty as a form of punishment, please please please please read this.
Stevenson humanizes the statistics about the death penalty, innocence, and mass incarceration we hear every day in the media in a way that is powerful and heartbreaking and critical to moving forward to creating a better system.
Stevenson humanizes the statistics about the death penalty, innocence, and mass incarceration we hear every day in the media in a way that is powerful and heartbreaking and critical to moving forward to creating a better system.
plantdog30's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
thereadingsnail99's review against another edition
5.0
One of the most important yet deeply disturbing and heartbreaking books i have ever read. Everyone needs to read this book.