At the same time, the murder of a beloved local white woman, Ronda Morrison, rattled the town. A successful black businessman from a poor community in Monroeville, Walter lost his reputation after his affair with Karen Kelly, a white woman.

In Alabama, Stevenson represents many death row inmates, though the book focuses on the case of Walter McMillian. He moves to Atlanta to work for the SPDC, and he eventually relocates to Montgomery, Alabama to found EJI. After meeting and befriending Henry, a death row inmate, Stevenson recognizes his passion for prison justice and for fighting against the death penalty. The story of Stevenson’s career begins when, while attending Harvard Law School, he interns with the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee (SPDC). He ultimately argues that society should choose empathy and mercy over condemnation and punishment.īorn to a poor black family in rural Delaware, Stevenson grew up questioning the racial and economic inequality that he witnessed in his community.

Throughout the book, Stevenson provides historical context, as well as his own moral and philosophical reflections on the American criminal justice and prison systems. Though the book contains profiles of many different people, the central storyline is that of the relationship between Stevenson, the organization he founded (the Equal Justice Initiative, or EJI), and Walter McMillian, a black man wrongfully accused of murder and sentenced to death in Alabama in the late 1980’s. Just Mercy is Bryan Stevenson’s account of his decades-long career as a legal advocate for marginalized people who have been either falsely convicted or harshly sentenced.

Just mercy book sparknotes