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Summary: Introduction: Higher Ground
Bryan Stevenson is a Harvard law student in the summer of 1983 when the book opens. After growing increasingly disillusioned by his esoteric and abstract classes, Stevenson finally discovers meaningful work when he interns for the Atlanta-based Southern Prisoners Defense Committee (SPDC), which provides legal representation to impoverished people on death row. Stevenson has come to the prison to meet his first client, Henry, to deliver the news that Henry will not be executed this year, and the SPDC is still trying to assign him a lawyer. Stevenson awkwardly blurts out apologies that he’s just a law student and not a real lawyer yet, but Henry feels relieved. Stevenson relaxes, and the two men end up talking for hours. The guard treats Henry roughly while returning him to his cell, and Henry sings a religious hymn, causing Stevenson to feel uplifted.
Upon returning to law school, Stevenson works toward his new purpose of helping death row prisoners. Stevenson then describes his own background growing up in a rural, racially segregated region in Delaware. His family was hardworking but poor. Stevenson explains that he wrote Just Mercy to shed light on mass incarceration, extreme punishment, and unfair judgment of others. He reviews grim facts about U.S. mass incarceration, juvenile justice, for-profit prisons, and racial disparity, and links the prison system to social inequities, voting rights, and massive government spending. He also points out that innocent people have been executed. After graduation, Stevenson returns to the South to represent poor prisoners. His experiences lead him to believe in redemption, justice, and compassion.
Summary: Chapter One: Mockingbird Players
After graduating, Stevenson becomes a full-time employee at the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee (SPDC). In his fourth year, he is assigned Walter McMillian’s case. Walter is incarcerated in Alabama, where Stevenson often works because the state lacks a public defender. Walter was born to poor sharecroppers in Monroe County, also home to Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. Despite lacking a formal education, Walter started a successful lumber business in the 1970s, which caused suspicion among the white community. In 1986, he had a scandalous affair with a younger, soon-to-be-divorced white woman named Karen Kelly, and their relationship lead to a contentious child custody battle between Karen and her husband at which Walter was forced to testify.
Walter’s reputation suffered from his involvement with Karen. The South had a long history of laws prohibiting interracial sexual relationships, which were not struck down by the Supreme Court until 1967. Black men who broke these prohibitions were often lynched. After Walter’s court appearance, a white college student, Ronda Morrison, was murdered, and police were unable to determine the perpetrator. Karen became involved with an ex-criminal, Ralph Myers, and they were implicated in the murder of another young woman, Vickie Pittman. When questioned by the police, Ralph claimed that he, Walter, and Karen killed both young women. Even though Ralph didn’t know Walter and there was no evidence that Walter was involved in any murders, the police accepted Ralph’s story, desperate to close Ronda Morrison’s case.
Summary: Chapter Two: Stand
Stevenson continues working at his nonprofit organization to provide legal representation to Alabamians. Meanwhile, he continues to work on many cases in various Southern states, helping families of Black people who died at the hands of the police. One night, while Stevenson is sitting in his car outside his apartment listening to music, the police arrive. As Stevenson gets out of the car, one officer draws his gun, and the other physically restrains Stevenson. They search his car without cause and call in his license until eventually letting him go. Stevenson learns that neighbors had reported a suspected burglar. He files a complaint with the police department but can’t stop thinking about the incident. Stevenson eventually meets with the deputy chief of police, who apologizes.
Stevenson’s experience with the police in his own neighborhood inspires Stevenson to begin talking to community groups about how the presumption of guilt makes people of color vulnerable to racial violence and unfair treatment, and the need for accountability from law enforcement. At one church in rural Alabama, he emotionally speaks about his own encounter. Afterward, an older Black man in a wheelchair encourages Stevenson to continue fighting for justice. The man shows his scars from taking part in various campaigns during the Civil Rights Movement, calling them medals of honor. After this encounter, Stevenson decides to open an Alabama office instead of settling in Atlanta, as he originally planned.
Analysis
In the introduction to Just Mercy, Stevenson states that he believes true understanding requires closeness, an idea that guides the book’s purpose, style, and structure. Stevenson offers a closer look at the problems of mass incarceration and capital punishment. By writing as the first-person narrator, he makes the issues accessible and adds emotional resonance through his story and the stories of his clients. Stevenson’s understanding of poverty and racial inequality results from lived experience. Having a grandfather who was murdered, Stevenson knows the impact violence has on families. With a grandmother who was the daughter of enslaved people, he comprehends the progress that has been made in racial equality as well as the significant impact the legacy of slavery still has in the United States. This closeness inspires Stevenson to study law, but he feels a disconnect while studying abstract issues. It is not until he meets with Henry on death row that he becomes sure of his work. Henry’s song helps Stevenson see Henry as a man similar to himself. Stevenson begins the book with this story because his ability to see the human being behind the alleged crime is what makes him a great defense attorney.
Stevenson uses the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Monroe County native Harper Lee to show that the ideal of justice in the county is a work of fiction. Through the story of Walter McMillian, Stevenson demonstrates a system plagued by racism and corruption. As the chapter title “Mockingbird Players” suggests, many officials merely pretend to administer justice. Stevenson shows McMillian from different people’s viewpoints. To Judge Key, he is a drug dealer and a likely member of the Dixie Mafia with money stashed county-wide. To the town, he’s a well-liked, independent, Black business owner, at least until his interracial affair becomes public. Then, based on unreliable witness statements, McMillian is a murderer. Stevenson illustrates how lies based on fear, racism, and corruption combine and lead to McMillian’s arrest, conviction, and death sentence. While Harper Lee’s celebrated novel symbolizes justice, with a white lawyer risking everything to defend his Black client, Stevenson shows reality stands in stark opposition. If the sheriff and district attorney have their way, McMillian will end up dead at the hands of the state like Lee’s character Tom Robinson.
Systemic racism in the justice system has resulted in a presumption of guilt for many citizens without connections or capital. Instead of innocent until proven guilty, Black men are generally treated as guilty until proven otherwise, and this presumption of guilt can become a death sentence. Through the story of Lourida Ruffin, a 39-year-old Black father who dies in jail after being beaten by police and denied his asthma medication, Stevenson highlights how a minor infraction can lead to death. He reinforces the concern with a story of a black teenager who’s shot and killed by police following a traffic stop. Stevenson gets a first-hand lesson in the dangers one evening as he sits in his car outside his Atlanta apartment listening to Sly and the Family Stone. Acting on a complaint, police officers point a gun at Stevenson and demand an explanation, even without any evidence of a crime. Stevenson shows how the officer’s assumptions put him in a life-or-death situation. Only his presence of mind prevented him from running and getting shot. Stevenson’s frustration with the lack of recourse for his experience foreshadows the uphill battle Stevenson will face.
