I just started reading Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy, and I have to say, I enjoy it. Just Mercy will for many readers be a new and enjoyable experience. Stevenson's novel artfully combines elements of a John Grisham legal thriller with a deep dive into racism and mistreatment in American's criminal justice system that is a neverending rush.
Throughout Just Mercy, we learn Stevenson comes from a legal background. After attending Harvard Law, Stevenson goes on to defend the underprivileged in the court of law in Alabama. His job is to find clients, to develop their images, and to weave evidence together to produce compelling arguments. Just Mercy is a testament to Stevenson in this respect. By drawing in a wide variety of sources, and information -- as diverse as the story of an old man, an encounter Stevenson had with police brutality, to a record of a failed electrocution, "At 8:40 P.M, a third charge of electricity, thirty seconds in duration, was passed through Mr. Evan's body. At 8:44, the doctors pronounced him dead. The execution of John Evans took fourteen minutes (55)," Just Mercy builds a substantial narrative defending death row inmates and people of color from our corrupt criminal justice system.
Stevenson adds a lot of flavor to his novel with colorful and emotional commentary. In one scene, a judge has to decide where to move a death row sentencing. This movement of the case could have a major implication: it could mean a shift to an all-white jury. "When the judge suggested that it be moved to a neighboring county so that witnesses wouldn't have far to travel, Chestnut remained hopeful. Almost all of the bordering counties had fairly large African American populations. Wilcox County was 72 Percent black; Conecuh was 46 percent black; Clarke County was 45 percent black... Only affluent Baldwin county to the south... was atypical... The judge took very little time deciding where the trial should be moved... We'll go to Balwin County. (62)" Commentary has a new meaning in Stevenson's novel - there is a very palpable conversation taking place between Stevenson and his evidence throughout the novel.
Personally, I like the feel of Just Mercy as a crime thriller with Stevenson taking on racism head-on.
This kind of John Grisham feel makes Just Mercy very engaging and very readable.
Stevenson's story is very engaging because he keeps it real. Before diving into Walter's case, Stevenson shows the dark side of being a death row lawyer - how in many of his cases, he is just too late, and can't help his clients. We are rooting for Walter the whole time during his case. Even though we might have read the back cover of Just Mercy, we still have this feeling that Walter may not win - and how wrong would that b.
Exposing this part of the law is also important to how we understand the story and not just it's rhetoric. Good legal arguments are not always enough to win cases. Sometimes winning a case is about finding the right witness, the right person to tell a story - especially in an area where not everybody's stories are valued equally.
The emotional energy behind Stevenson's commentary makes good storytelling, but I still felt this kind of commentary was at times a little misleading. In one scene, Stevenson makes out an extramarital affair of one of his clients, Walter McMillian. "As it was, Walter didn't initially think much of the flirtations of Karen Kelly, a young white woman he'd me at the Waffle House... She was attractive, but he didn't take her too seriously. when he flirtations became more explicit, Walter hesitated, and then persuaded himself that no one would ever know. (27)" Stevenson makes out Walter's affair to be completely socially acceptable, and Karen to be completely usual. Later we learn Karen was implicated years later for heavy drug use. To me, it just didn't seem possible that Karen, the kind loving women that Walter found, according to Stevenson, could just a year or two later become a drug dealer, but how Stevenson was portraying her, as just a little too normal, felt just a little weird to me. Sometimes Stevenson's choices to dramatize his characters, and to make them a little more real, go a little too far.
When Walter goes to prison for a crime he didn't commit - we are at awe. As I continue to read Stevenson's book, however, I hope he does also make sure to have lots of information and facts to support whatever argument he will make. Although good storytelling is important, I want to make sure Stevenson continues providing well-supported arguments as to why something is actually true, etc.
Works Cited
Image from Just Mercy Movie. San Diego Gay & Lesbian News, Hale Media, 13 Jan. 2020,
sdgln.com/entertainment/2020/01/13/movie-review-just-mercy. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. First edition. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2014.
Hi Theodore,
ReplyDeleteWhile I do agree that Stevenson uses a bit of exaggeration while telling stories of the men he's helped, I don't really agree with the fact that they aren't believable. At the end of your blog you spend some time talking about Karen Kelly. A lot can happen in two years and I personally don't find it strange that Karen would resort to drugs and become a drug dealer. Considering the time period and how much backlash she must have gotten for having relations with a black man, especially since she was married, that must have worn her down quite a bit. She was probably feeling lost because everyone that used to be there for her was pushing her away, and Ralph Myers took advantage of her weakness and acted like the support that she needed. It makes sense for her to have been drawn in to that and then further drawn into drugs. In what other ways to you think that Walter McMillian's story is exaggerated? Are you thinking that Walter wasn't actually at his house that day, taking apart his truck and that he was actually at the cleaners during the time frame that Ronda Morrison was killed?
I think you bring up a really good point. I think re-reading these chapters a second time, I've taken a complete 180. I now really agree with Stevenson's use of exaggeration. In fact, I don't think he exaggerates that much -- he is just really trying to highlight the most important parts of Walter's case. I really do believe in Walter's story. However, I still feel like Karen was some kind of social outcast from the start - dating such an older man outside marriage, and even being able to descend into doing drugs, in a lot of ways, Karen was always outside social norms.
DeleteI appreciate your reflection on your reading, and your skepticism about the non-fiction you're reading, as it is important to read carefully. It is important, though, to not be so skeptical that we overlook accurate info.
ReplyDelete