Are the established laws always fair? Are they equally just to everyone of any skin color and economic background? Should the sentences given by a judge be undoubtedly final? These are the questions explored in Bryan Stevenson’s, Just Mercy, and according to him, the answer to all of them is a simple yet powerful “no”.

Raised in a rural part of Delaware in a poor black family, Stevenson grew up questioning the racial and economic injustices in his neighborhood and later in the US justice system. Stevenson’s career started when he attended Harvard Law School. He worked as an intern for the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee. That’s where he got to know Henry, a man on death row, and made friends with him. Stevenson never saw him as a monster and instead listened to him with understanding and with hopes to help him. Henry helped Stevenson to understand how much he cared about prison justice and that laws and decisions set by the judge aren’t always just and certain. He eventually decided to dedicate his life and career to work against the seemingly unbearable death sentence. 

In Montgomery Alabama, he started his own company called Equal Justice Initiatives with intentions to save death row inmates and take cases that to others seem unsavable. There, he met Walter McMillian whom he saved from an unjust decision that involved fallacy, racism, and corruption. Stevenson always lived by the principle of helping the people who needed help the most as no one else was willing to help them. He viewed the inmates as not purely soulless clients, but as people with feelings and hope in him. For that reason, Stevenson became close friends with McMillian. He viewed people as fundamentally pure and innocent, and often misled and misrepresented, which is why he was always willing to hear out their stories and help the ones in most desperate need. He believed that people all need mercy, hence the title is Just Mercy. 

On his journey with McMillian, Stevenson faced various threats and lack of belief. However, he never quit despite countless adversities, and was never scared of threats and making people unhappy.

Ultimately, Just Mercy goes beyond the means of law and the US Justice System as it explores the imperfect human nature. Prejudice, courage, corruption, and racism are among some of the powerful themes explored in this piece. And by fighting for the most seemingly cruel and filthy people, Stevenson proved that sometimes the people putting them in jail are actually the cruel ones.

Just Mercy is a timeless piece that’s worth reading for people of all ages and backgrounds. There is also a movie based on this plot that makes the events even more dramatic and the message more powerful. And as Bryan Stevenson would say, “It’s never too late for justice”.