Named a Book of the Year by the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Esquire, and Time
Bryan Stevenson is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and a professor of law at New York University Law School. He has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, argued five times before the Supreme Court, and won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of colour. He has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius’ Grant.
'Bryan Stevenson is America's young Nelson Mandela — a brilliant
lawyer fighting with courage and conviction to guarantee justice
for all.'
*Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate*
'From the frontlines of social justice comes one of the most urgent
voices of our era. Bryan Stevenson is a real-life, modern-day
Atticus Finch who, through his work in redeeming innocent people
condemned to death, has sought to redeem the country itself. This
is a book of great power and courage. It is inspiring and
suspenseful. A revelation.'
*Isabel Wilkerson, author of The Warmth of Other Sons*
'Just Mercy is as deeply moving, poignant and powerful a book as
has been, and maybe ever can be, written about the death penalty,
and the failures of the administration of criminal justice ... [It]
will make you gasp at the inhumanity of humankind.'
*Financial Times*
'Bryan Stevenson is one of my personal heroes, perhaps the most
inspiring and influential crusader for justice alive today, and
Just Mercy is extraordinary. The stories told within these pages
hold the potential to transform what we think we mean when we talk
about justice.'
*Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow*
‘This is so important. Stevenson explains how deep-rooted racism
is, while giving hope that it doesn’t have to exist.’
*Gloria Steinem*
'Our American criminal justice system has become an instrument of
evil. Bryan Stevenson has labored long and hard, and with great
skill and temperate passion, to set things right. Words such as
important and compelling may have lost their force through overuse,
but reading this book will restore their meaning, along with one's
hopes for humanity.'
*Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Mountains Beyond
Mountains*
'Powerful ... This book will shock, anger and inspire you.'
*Sunday Independent (Ireland)*
'Unfairness in the justice system is a major theme of our age ...
This book brings new life to the story by placing it in two
affecting contexts: Stevenson's life work and the deep strain of
racial injustice in American life ... You don't have to read too
long to start cheering for this man. Against tremendous odds,
Stevenson has worked to free scores of people from wrongful or
excessive punishment, arguing five times before the Supreme Court
... The book extols not his nobility, but that of the cause, and
reads like a call to action for all that remains to be done ... The
message of the book, hammered home by dramatic examples of one
man's refusal to sit quietly and countenance horror, is that evil
can be overcome, a difference can be made. Just Mercy will make you
upset and it will make you hopeful ... Bryan Stevenson has been
angry about [the criminal justice system] for years, and we are all
the better for it.'
*New York Times*
'After the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., I wrote a
couple of columns entitled When Whites Just Don’t Get It. The
reaction to those columns — sometimes bewildered, resentful or
unprintable — suggests to me that many whites in America don’t
understand the depths of racial inequity lingering in this country.
This inequity is embedded in our law enforcement and criminal
justice system, and that is why Bryan Stevenson may, indeed, be
America's Mandela ... Stevenson, 54, grew up in a poor black
neighborhood in Delaware and ended up at Harvard Law School. He
started the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Montgomery, Ala., to
challenge bias and represent the voiceless. It's a tale he recounts
in a searing, moving and infuriating memoir that is scheduled to be
published later this month, Just Mercy.'
*New York Times*
'Stevenson's contributions to social justice have been remarkable.
But his efforts, on top of his continuing legal practice, to
provide this inside glimpse of the criminal justice system are
priceless.'
*The Seattle Times*
'Not since Atticus Finch has a fearless and committed lawyer made
such a difference in the American South. Though larger than life,
Atticus exists only in fiction. Bryan Stevenson, however, is very
much alive and doing God’s work fighting for the poor, the
oppressed, the voiceless, the vulnerable, the outcast, and those
with no hope. Just Mercy is his inspiring and powerful story.'
*John Grisham*
New York Times '100 Notable Books of 2014'
'Stevenson reveals how much of a difference believing in someone
and fighting their cause can make. An incredible story ... may help
fuel the fire on your own journey.'
*Wellbeing*
‘A distinguished NYU law professor and MacArthur grant recipient
offers the compelling story of the legal practice he founded to
protect the rights of people on the margins of American society ...
Emotionally profound, necessary reading.’ STARRED REVIEW
*Kirkus Reviews (Kirkus Prize Finalist)*
‘Stevenson is not only a great lawyer, he’s also a gifted writer
and storyteller. His memoir should find an avid audience among
players in the legal system — jurists, prosecutors, defence
lawyers, legislators, academics, journalists — and especially
anyone contemplating a career in criminal justice.’
*The Washington Post*
‘This powerful book is a damning indictment of the US “justice”
system, which has the world’s highest rate of incarceration … A
gifted narrator as well as a great lawyer, from his long dedication
to helping the poor to achieve justice and mercy, he has learned
that “each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.’
*The Irish Times*
‘[A] passionate rallying cry for people, especially those in law
enforcement, to employ more just mercy in dealing with offenders …
A must-read for anyone in the field of criminal justice and for
fans of true crime.’
*Library Journal*
‘A passionate account of the ways our nation thwarts justice and
inhumanely punishes the poor and disadvantaged.’ STARRED REVIEW
*Booklist*
‘Just Mercy is every bit as moving as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in
some ways more so … [It] demonstrates, as powerfully as any book on
criminal justice that I’ve ever read, the extent to which
brutality, unfairness, and racial bias continue to infect criminal
law in the United States. But at the same time that [Bryan]
Stevenson tells an utterly damning story of deep-seated and
widespread injustice, he also recounts instances of human
compassion, understanding, mercy, and justice that offer hope ...
Just Mercy is a remarkable amalgam, at once a searing indictment of
American criminal justice and a stirring testament to the salvation
that fighting for the vulnerable sometimes yields.’
*The New York Review of Books*
‘[T]he author’s experience with the flaws in the American justice
system add extra gravity to a deeply disturbing and oft-overlooked
topic.’
*Publishers Weekly*
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