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How does Henry (in the Introduction) make an impression on Bryan Stevenson?
Henry's gracious attitude surprises Stevenson.
Henry sings a spiritual as Stevenson departs the visitation room.
Stevenson's visit with Henry is his first death row experience.
How does America's current rate of incarceration compare to other nations?
Our rate of incarceration is higher than any other nation in the world
What is the concept of proximity?
Those who can humanize the incarcerated are able to understand how their plight effects society.
Why is Monroe County, home of Walter McMillian, ironically famous?
It is the home of Harper Lee. She is the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, the story of a black man unjustly accused of a crime against a white woman he did not commit.
What is the most likely reason that Walter McMillian was accused of the murder of Ronda Morrison?
It was well known that Walter was having an interracial sexual relationship.
Stevenson provides the history of the Attica prison riots of the 1970s. Readers learned about human rights abuses that included:
Keeping prisoners in casket-sized holes for solitary confinement.
being tortured by electric cattle prods
being chained to a hitching post.
Stevenson was accosted by police outside of his home in Atlanta. How did the police break the law?
They searched his car without just cause or a warrant.
During his interaction with the police in Atlanta, Stevenson remained calm. He reflected on his behavior as a youth, and that of other young black men. He said if this had happened when he was younger, he probably would have
run and been shot
Bryan's schedule representing clients fills up but he spends time speaking about social justice. Stevenson feels the need to talk about the Atlanta police incident. This experience makes him realize that:
Young people, low-income people, and people of color are at a greater risk of being presumed guilty by law enforcement.
According to the 6th Amendment of the US Constitution, "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." All the following often happened in jury trials in the South
All the black jurors in the pool would be dismissed and excused from serving on a jury case.
Jury cases in counties that were majority black would be moved to counties that did not have significant populations of African Americans.
Jurors were pulled from the voting rolls, which tended to be all white.
Where was Walter while the alleged murder took place at Jackson Cleaners?
Walter was replacing the transmission in his truck with a friend while more than a dozen people sold food in his yard.
Where were Walter McMillian and Ralph Myers held as pretrial detainees?
They were held on death row in a nearby town to exert more pressure, especially on Myers so he wouldn't recant his testimony.
Why was the electric chair eventually discontinued in all states (Nebraska was the last in 2008) that continued to use capital punishment?
Public Relations- the number of botched executions deemed cruel and inhumane
Stevenson and Eva Ansley encountered numerous issues while opening the non-profit law center serving Alabama's death row inmates. Among the most significant were
recruiting lawyers and losing funding and office space
Which of the following issues did Stevenson NOT experience in Alabama while representing death row clients?
A client for whom the state overturned his conviction
immediately, apologized for wrongful conviction, and freed him
An early Civil Rights Activist and historian, W.E.B. Dubois's short story, "Of the Coming of John" a black man is considered the bearer of hopes for a community. Stevenson read the story in college but after meeting Walter's neighbors and family, he thinks about the story differently. Which of the following examples is NOT a similarity to Stevenson's autobiography Just Mercy and to Dubois's character John's story?
Pro Bono lawyers take some death penalty cases for free to pay homage to the legal system. Stevenson and Dubois are both lawyers advocating for justice.
What is a "mitigation narrative"? Why is it important?
After spending time with a client, a lawyer builds this explanation to show context and history accounting for any bad choices or violent behavior.
Darnell Houston told Bryan Stevenson that Bill Hooks couldn't possibly have seen Walter's truck at Jackson's Cleaners. According to Houston, Hooks was working on cars at the NAPA Auto Parts store that Saturday all day with him and didn't leave. What happened after Stevenson got an affidavit with Houston's testimony?
Houston was charged with perjury and Stevenson's appeal was denied.
Stevenson finally got a rule 32 petition on Walter's case which included information not raised at trial, ineffective counsel, failure to disclose evidence, and police and prosecutorial misconduct, and new evidence of innocence. What happened next?
Stevenson's office received bomb threats
Why do you think Stevenson included stories of children, like Charlie, who had been incarcerated in adult prisons?
To show the reader that children often are at greater risk for victimization
After the terror of Charlie's experiences that led to prison and incarceration in an adult prison, how was Charlie's story resolved?
The Jennings promised to helped pay for his college.
Stevenson was able to transfer the case to a juvenile court and he was released when he was 18.
Mrs. Jennings refused to give up on Charlie. She said, "We've all been through a lot, Bryan ... if we don't expect more from each other, hope better for one another, and recover from the hurt we experience, we are surely doomed."
Why did Ian, one of the children photographed for Stevenson's report, desire the photographs from his photoshoot?
Ian was normally kept in solitary confinement. The photoshoot offered human contact and sensory experience for him.
What is a "super-predator"?
A youth who repeatedly commits violent crimes as a result of being raised without morals.
Antonio Nunez of South Central LA was the youngest person sentenced to life in prison for
participating in a faked kidnapping with several other people
At Walter's new evidentiary hearing, what was significant about all the witnesses for the defense on the first day?
They were all white and didn't owe any loyalties to Walter.
On the second day of the hearing, three issues below had changed from the first day.
Stevenson had trouble getting in the courthouse even though he was the defense attorney.
There was now a metal detector and a German shepherd in the courtroom
Walter's relatives were having trouble gaining access to the courtroom.
When Bryan and Michael go to the beach, why is Bryan very cautious about swimming in the water? His insight allowed him to speculate that his wariness was metaphorical or foreshadowing.
Bryan had read an article about the feeding times for sharks.
What was the most convincing evidence in Walter's new trial?
Tapes of Myer's interrogation including his ignorance of the Morrison murder, police intimidation, and no connection to McMillian.
Stevenson makes the claim that America's prisons have become "warehouses for the mentally ill." Which issue below HAS NOT contributed to the huge rise in the internment of people with alleged psychological issues?
accusations of possession and witchcraft
One of the EJI's client's, George Daniel, had been brain damaged in an auto accident but was sentenced in a capital punishment conviction for the death of an arresting officer. Numerous events led George to wander disoriented and barefoot into two different houses 700 miles from his home. The first homeowner's son removed him; the second homeowner called the police. The police offer and George wrestled and the police officer's gun discharged into his stomach, causing a fatal wound. Which of the following absurd things did NOT happen to George before the EJI took the case, filed an appeal, and a federal court overturned his conviction.
He was treated humanely and fairly. All the evidence that showed his injuries had caused his psychosis was brought into evidence. The court determined he was not fit to stand trial. He was given treatment for his mental health issues.
The correctional officer with the truck that contained pro-Confederate bumper stickers was menacing towards Stevenson and subjected him to a strip search. What surprised Stevenson about this man?
He listened to Stevenson's arguments in court, looked up the word "mitigation," and bought Jenkins a chocolate milkshake.
Media coverage on a high profile case is always a double-edged sword. Southern government officials often sued media outlets who printed positive stories on the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. What media event changed the way people of Monroeville and everyone else viewed Walter's case leading to the Alabama Bureau of Investigation to reopen the case?
A 60 Minutes segment led by journalist Ed Bradley reported on the case.
After the media coverage and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (ABI) investigation revealed hopeful revelations that Walter might be released, how did Stevenson and the EJI's goals differ from the ABI's?
The EJI wanted Walter released immediately; the ABI wanted to arrest a suspect for Morrison's murder first.
What is the tone that is captured by Stevenson in this passage at the end of Chapter 11: "As he walked to the car, Walter raised his arms and gently moved them up and down as if he meant to take flight. He looked at me and said, 'I feel like a bird, I feel like a bird.'"
Hopeful
In Chapter 12, "Mother, Mother," Stevenson outlines numerous cases of women charged with capital murder for the death of their children. Which one did not occur in the book?
Bridget Lee was convicted of killing her stillborn son with evidence from a medical examiner who had been discredited.
Victoria Banks was accused of killing a newborn even though she hadn't been pregnant; in fact, she had her tubes tied five years before her arrest.
Marsha Colbey was convicted of killing her stillborn son with no credible evidence that he was born alive using circumstantial evidence that she used to be a drug user, had a messy house (after a hurricane) and was too poor to seek pre-natal care.
Why is the name of Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women ironic?
Tutwiler was a famous advocate for humane treatment and education for prisoners but the prison was
notoriously sexually abusive and violent.
What is the "collateral consequences of incarcerating women"?
Most women prisoners have minor children whose lives are disrupted and harmed by their mothers' absences.
Was Walter McMillian able to sue and seek compensation for being wrongfully charged and imprisoned on death row?
Yes, but only for a few hundred thousand dollars
When Bryan Stevenson goes to Sweden to receive the Olaf Palme International Human Rights Award for the EJI, he describes the Swedish criminal justice system. How is it compared to the US criminal justice system?
It is more focused on rehabilitation and the punishments are humane
What is the "prison-industrial complex"?
The overlap of for-profit interests of the US prison system, multi-national corporations, small private businesses and the inmate population in the social and political economy of the United States.
Joe Sullivan was sentenced to life in prison Florida at age 13 for sexual assault. Even after all that Bryan Stevenson has seen and experienced, how was his first visit with Joe shocking?
Joe's wheelchair was stuck in a 4 x 4 foot cage and it took quite a bit of effort, including tipping it and violent pulling to get it dislodged.
Why is it ironic that Stevenson frequently represented teens who had committed violent crimes?
Stevenson's grandfather had been robbed, attacked and stabbed to death by teens.
In 2005, the Supreme Court made a significant ruling regarding the death penalty. What was it?
The Supreme Court banned the death penalty for juvenile offenders.
Stevenson makes a convincing argument about the arrested development of a young teen sentenced to life in prison who is permanently damaged by the trauma of a terrible childhood and a violent prison experience. In fact, when he visits Joe, he cuts short his update on Joe's case in front of the US Supreme Court. Instead, what did they talk about?
Joe recited a poem that another inmate had helped him write and he couldn't remember the last line. Then, they laughed.
Paul Farmer, the renowned physician who has spent his life trying to cure the world's sickest and poorest people, once quoted writer Thomas Merton to Stevenson. Dr. Farmer said, "We are bodies of broken bones."
Stevenson continued, "I guess I'd always known but never fully considered that being broken is what makes us human. We all have our reasons. Sometimes we're fractured by the choices we make; sometimes we're shattered by things we would never have chosen. But our brokenness is also the source of our common humanity, the basis for our shared search for comfort, meaning, and healing. Our shared vulnerability and imperfection nurtures and sustains our capacity for compassion. We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. Or we can deny our brokenness, forswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our own humanity."
Stevenson said, "Being close to suffering, death, executions, and cruel punishments didn't just illuminate the brokenness of others; in a moment of anguish and heartbreak, it also
exposed my own brokenness. You can't effectively fight abusive power, poverty, inequality, illness,
oppression, or injustice and not be broken by it."
People in political power and in the criminal justice system were broken by a skewed commitment to "fairness" that has been broken by cynicism, prejudice, and profit.
Veterans have been broken by war.
The justice system is broken. g) People cheering the deaths of condemned prisoners are broken by seeing victory instead of humanity.
Stevenson's clients have been broken by mental illness, poverty, racism, disease, drugs, alcohol, pride, fear,
hopelessness, the foster care system, and anger. Their families are broken, too.
Fear and vengeance have broken us as a society that we throw away children, the disabled, the sick, and the weak to prove we are tough.
The power of just mercy is that it belongs to the
undeserving
Bryan Stevenson closes the book with an epilogue announcing that Walter McMillian died of advanced dementia at age 72 while at his sister's house. The Postscript featured news that Anthony Ray Hinton was found innocent and released after more than 30 years on Alabama's death row. He was the 152th person who was exonerated and proved innocent after being wrongly convicted and sentenced to death. Ian Manuel and Antonio Nunez have a chance of being released. Trina Garnett's case is pending before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court sent Joe Sullivan's case back to Florida for resentencing. He was originally supposed to be released in 2014 but will now be released in December 2019.
Bryan Stevenson certainly is a stonecatcher.
What does this mean?
It is a Biblical allusion where Jesus said he who is without sin cast the first stone. The woman in the courtroom whose grandson was murdered now comforts both the victims and the accused. She comforted Stevenson and called him a fellow stonecatcher.
What are the themes of Just Mercy?
power and oppression
the media and public opinion
empathy and humanization
What kind of writing is Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy?
narrative memoir