Just Mercy

In 1989, at the age of twenty-six, Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative. With a vision to create a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of Stevenson's first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. Stevenson fought with everything he had to prove him innocent—but in a shocking turn of events, this case would be one of many that tested his idealism and strengthened his resolve. Just Mercy is an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age. It is also a moving window into the lives of those he has defended—from a death row inmate wrongly accused and convicted for the murder of a white woman, to nine black teenagers prosecuted for a brutal rape they did not commit. And finally, it is an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.