Just Mercy

I’d be lying if I said this book didn’t encourage me to participate in “radical imagination” concerning law, incarceration, and mental health. This was our summer reading book for incoming students at UNC in the Fall of 2015. Since then, I’ve read it about 3 times and reference it constantly when advocating for psychological liberation and mental healthcare accessibility. A young attorney, Bryan Stevenson takes us through his journey of defending the rights of Black, death row inmates in southern Alabama. While the main focus of the story is the case of Walter "Johnny D." McMillian, a Black man wrongly convicted of murdering a White woman and sentenced to death, the book has several interesting cases of loss and redemption woven into it’s text.

As a recent high school graduate, I hadn’t even scratched the surface of the complicated legal system and its racist history and processes. This book is perfect for those who are curious about criminal justice, policy, and advocacy and are looking for a place to start. Reading it again as I become more involved as this work, I come away with different perspectives and insights each time.

Stevenson challenges his readers to look critically at American values. Do we value humanity? Who do we consider human? Is justice truly achievable or does someone always get shortchanged? Who is a criminal? How long is someone a criminal? Are criminals born or made? If anything, reading this book will make you skeptical of structures and systems so embedded in American culture that they haven’t been touched for centuries.