Just Mercy (Documentary & Book) - Nomi’s Pics

Naomi Weisman is a Canadian, Australian and mother of three, who loves to ramble with her dog, cook for family and friends, and laugh whenever possible.

Today is the final Sunday of Black History Month, so I’ve chosen to review Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson and the associated movie starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.

So, to begin with, we have to talk about the 13th Amendment, which was ratified into the Constitution of the United States at the end of the Civil War in 1865 and effectively ended the institution of slavery. It states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

It is important to read this amendment carefully in order to understand how a new form of slavery was able to grow out of what should have been a dawning of equal rights for all Americans. I would encourage anyone interested to watch a Netflix documentary called 13th. It examines the beginnings of the mass incarceration of African-American males in the late 19th century and beyond and the free labor allowed to proliferate as a result.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is a biography written by the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), Bryan Stevenson. Raised in southern Delaware by parents who emphasized education and activism, Bryan became passionate about equal rights in the justice system, especially for minors, while attending Harvard Law School.

As a young lawyer, he became involved full-time with the Southern Center For Human Rights. The center divided work by region, and Stevenson was assigned to Alabama, the only state that did not provide legal assistance to people on death row.

This book explains the motivation behind the work that Stevenson does. It describes the sad story of Walter McMillan, a death-row inmate who maintained his innocence from the beginning of his ordeal. Through an appeal of the case, Stevenson was able to discredit every element of the prosecution's initial case, which led to McMillian being exonerated and released from jail in 1993.

The documentary also explores the harsh sentencing of persons convicted of crimes they committed as children. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional for persons convicted of crimes they committed under the age of eighteen. The book also describes the cases that fell victim to the inequities of the criminal justice system, which were gut-wrenching—many were stories of middle-aged or elderly men who had been incarcerated since their teens.

Just Mercy is one of those experiences that changed me a little bit. That is my favorite kind of read. Although it’s not fiction, it’s a page-turner. I was engrossed in all that Stevenson had to teach me, and I felt invested in the people and ideas he introduced me to in every chapter.

Just Mercy, the documentary, is a very accurate adaptation of the book. It introduces us to Bryan Stevenson, Walter McMillan, and a host of other inmates that Stevenson worked with over the years—men with heart-breaking stories and, sometimes, beautiful outcomes. 

Jamie Foxx, who portrays Walter McMillan, is so believable. I felt his pain and felt that I understood exactly how his ordeal affected the rest of his life, especially after he was released. Michael B. Jordan portrays the author, Bryan Stevenson. His performance is a triumph. I feel as though I know Stevenson after having watched the film.

In November 2022, I traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, to visit the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Incarceration, which opened in 2018. Located in an old industrial area of the city, the museum is housed in a historic slave warehouse. 

In addition to a comprehensive description of the institution of slavery, exhibits include materials on lynching, racial segregation, and mass incarceration from the late 19th century to the present day. Stevenson articulates how the treatment of people of color under the criminal justice system relates to the history of slavery and the later treatment of African Americans in the Southern USA.

Navigating through this museum is a humbling experience. When you enter, you feel like you are in the slave hold at the bottom of a ship. It is oppressive and suffocating. The next room brings you to images of men, women, and children in chains being auctioned off to the highest bidder.

The final few rooms introduce you to how the justice system sentenced Black Americans unfairly and to the proliferation of lynchings by whites, often in partnership with law enforcement, that went unchallenged. The our wraps up with a room celebrating hundreds of civil rights activists from the late 19th century to current day.

Similar to my experience after reading Just Mercy and watching the movie, this museum and its interactive multimedia approach changed me. It deepened my understanding of the African-American, Canadian, Caribbean historical and present-day legacy slavery has left behind in its vast wake. The importance of this knowledge cannot be underestimated.

I have visited Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center the preeminent Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, several times. It is set up in a very similar way to the Legacy Museum in that it moves you through the rise of the Nazi regime, into the different stages of WW2, and the culmination of what led to the death of over six million European Jews. Both museums leave you wondering how society enables this hatred, iniquity, and these racial constructs to thrive.

I realize that this is a lot. If all you do is read the book, watch the movie, or visit the museum, you will do yourself some good. In all three instances, Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative shine a light on systems he is helping dismantle, and part of that dismantling is educating all of us. That is a great thing.

I love this quote: “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” Bryan Stevenson