Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Impact of Systemic Racism on the Justice System

In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson closely examines the role that racism plays in the criminal justice system, showing how America’s history of racial tension has influenced mass incarceration, the death penalty, and life sentences. Through his experience as a lawyer with the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee and the Equal Justice Initiative, Stevenson realizes that the unfair system impacts members of the Black community more often and with more severe consequences than others. Using both stories and statistics, Stevenson illustrates the ways that systemic racism influences the justice system. He tells the whole stories of individuals from example cases instead of the small details made public to push biased narratives.

At the center of Just Mercy is Walter McMillian, a well-liked Black business owner whose relationship with a white woman results in a wrongful conviction and death sentence. Deputies transporting McMillian freely use the N-word. Based on McMillian’s financial independence, Judge Key assumes McMillian must be a criminal. Both incidents reflect racism accepted on a systematic, unquestioned level. Corrupt cops abuse defendants and easily stoke public fear to attain the verdict they want to the point of sentencing a man to death without evidence.  Stevenson also shares the story of Lourida Ruffin, a 39-year-old Black father severely beaten, denied asthma medication, and left to die in a cell by police following a traffic violation. Police in the same community shoot and kill a Black teenager reaching for his driver’s license during a traffic stop. From slavery to Civil Rights Era lynchings and laws designed to exclude Black jurors, Stevenson reveals a system of justice that is not blind but very much aware of racial differences.

Building Understanding Through Closeness

Stevenson demonstrates the idea of understanding by getting closer throughout Just Mercy as he weaves together several individual stories that give a more nuanced look at the collective experience of disadvantaged people in the justice system. Early in the book, Stevenson relates a story from his childhood about his grandmother telling him that true understanding requires closeness. Stevenson doesn’t find this closeness in the theory he studies at law school. Through his meeting with Henry, a death row inmate, Stevenson discovers their proximity in age and common interests, allowing him to better empathize with the prisoner’s humanity and hopefulness. Stevenson’s encounter with Atlanta police while listening to his car radio gives him an understanding of the fear and danger Black men and boys face in encounters with police. As Stevenson gets closer with McMillian, the mistreatment of his client feels personal. The guard with the Confederate flag tattoo gains a better understanding of Avery Jenkins when he learns that, like him, Jenkins was abused in the foster care system. By sharing his firsthand account of injustice, McMillian brings Stevenson’s students more insight into systemic problems. Through his stories and those of his clients, Stevenson reinforces that true understanding, as well as the empathy associated with it, can only be achieved through proximity.

The Effects of Trauma

The effects of trauma impact every individual in Just Mercy and continue to reverberate through their lives long after the traumatic events are over. Stevenson details trauma including severe physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault, and homelessness in the lives of his juvenile clients. Many clients first break the law by simply trying to escape the trauma of their everyday lives. Herbert Richardson experiences trauma in the Vietnam War that leaves him with debilitating headaches and nightmares. Left untreated, he eventually winds up in prison, just as almost twenty percent of combat veterans do. Ironically, offers of help arrive as his execution approaches, but the damage has already been done, for Richardson, his victim’s family, and the surrounding community.

The trauma of Walter McMillian’s false conviction causes his wife and children to abandon him even after he’s proven innocent. The community suffers as well, with families wondering how they can continue to raise their children to do the right thing when, in McMillian’s case, that did not seem to protect him from malicious prosecution. Walter’s suffering continues long after his release as shown by his mistaken belief that he’s back on death row when he’s in a care facility as well as the nurses who believe that anyone who’s been in prison is dangerous, innocent or not. Stevenson reveals that surrounding himself with the various traumas of his clients and the system often leaves him feeling broken and hopeless, but he resists the urge to give up. By building close relationships with his clients, Stevenson observes how much of the chaos in the justice system results from the effects of trauma without proper treatment.

Finding Hope in Darkness

Darkness runs through each of the stories in Just Mercy, but even through incidents of racism, corruption, abuse, neglect, murder, and other horrors, the force of hope remains. When Stevenson goes to meet a man on death row, he worries about how the man will react to the news that he doesn’t yet have a lawyer. Stevenson sees how powerful even the slightest reason for hope can be when the man sings for joy at the news that he will not be executed in the next year, regardless of whether he has a lawyer. As Stevenson arrives at SPDC, he immediately notes the hopefulness of the small staff of attorneys in spite of severe staffing and budget challenges and the serious nature of their work. Stevenson constantly discovers bits of hope in the hearts of his clients, and their hope both fuels his determination and breaks his heart. While his work often seems dark enough to break him, tiny bits of hope are the spark that keeps him going.

Even after witnessing his first execution, that of Herbert Richardson, Stevenson reveals hope for progress in mundane realities like office equipment and the potential for new staff members and additional funding. Though he notes part of his job involves keeping hope realistic, Stevenson shows that hope is essential in creating justice. When McMillian feels guilt for leaving his community on death row behind, Stevenson points out that his hard-won freedom provides them with hope in an otherwise dark place. As Stevenson tells the crowd at the dinner honoring Marsha Colbey, hope isn’t an abstraction, but a real need, providing light in the darkness of a broken justice system.