justmercy.eji.orgJust Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Book Movie People Join FAQ Share Donate Share this true story of justice and redemption. Facebook Twitter Copy Link Link copied Email Watch intro Watch intro Just Mercy A Story of Justice and Redemption A powerful true story about the Equal Justice Initiative, the people we represent, and the importance of confronting injustice, Just Mercy is a bestselling book by Bryan Stevenson that has been adapted into a feature film. Watch intro Watch intro Scroll Scroll About EJI & Bryan Stevenson Equal Justice Initiative EJI is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, challenging racial and economic injustice, and protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. Founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson, a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer and bestselling author of Just Mercy , EJI is a private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in Montgomery, Alabama. LEARN MORE ABOUT EJI About the Equal Justice Initiative 5:20 Bryan Stevenson Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. A widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned, he has won numerous awards, including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Genius” Prize and the ACLU’s National Medal of Liberty. LEARN MORE Bryan Stevenson Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. A widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned, he has won numerous awards, including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Genius” Prize and the ACLU’s National Medal of Liberty. LEARN MORE Justice needs champions, and Bryan Stevenson is such a champion. Desmond Tutu / Vanity Fair JUST MERCY — #1 New York Times Bestseller The Book An unforgettable true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to end mass incarceration in America — from one of the most inspiring lawyers of our time. Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated to defending the poor, the incarcerated, and the wrongly condemned. Just Mercy tells the story of EJI, from the early days with a small staff facing the nation’s highest death sentencing and execution rates, through a successful campaign to challenge the cruel practice of sentencing children to die in prison, to revolutionary projects designed to confront Americans with our history of racial injustice. One of EJI’s first clients was Walter McMillian, a young Black man who was sentenced to die for the murder of a young white woman that he didn’t commit. The case exemplifies how the death penalty in America is a direct descendant of lynching — a system that treats the rich and guilty better than the poor and innocent. Buy the book Amazon Penguin Random House Barnes & Noble Books A Million IndieBound Download discussion guide The message of this book . . . is that evil can be overcome, a difference can be made. Just Mercy will make you upset and it will make you hopeful. Ted Conover / The New York Times Book Review A searing indictment of American criminal justice and a stirring testament to the salvation that fighting for the vulnerable sometimes yields. David Cole / The New York Review of Books Inspiring . . . a work of style, substance and clarity . . . Stevenson is not only a great lawyer, he’s also a gifted writer and storyteller. The Washington Post Searing, moving . . . Bryan Stevenson may, indeed, be America’s Mandela. Nicholas Kristof / The New York Times As deeply moving, poignant and powerful a book as has been, and maybe ever can be, written about the death penalty. The Financial Times ACCOLADES Selected as a New York Times Best Seller Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Winner of a NAACP Image Award for Nonfiction Finalist for the Kirkus Reviews Prize Winner of a Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Selected as a An American Library Association Notable Book JUST MERCY The Movie Just Mercy takes us inside America’s broken criminal justice system and compels us to confront inequality and injustice. Based on the bestselling book, the Just Mercy movie presents the unforgettable story of Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and the case of Walter McMillian (Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx), who was convicted and sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. Watch the Movie DVD/Blu-ray Amazon Prime Apple TV Google Play Download discussion guide "An intimate, immediate and deeply moving portrait" that feels "fresh and urgent and more timely than ever." Ann Hornaday / The Washington Post I spent most of Just Mercy devastated by its most rueful death-row inmate, only to belatedly realize that it was [Rob] Morgan who was breaking my heart. Wesley Morris / The New York Times Just Mercy is a handsome, impeccably mounted tribute to [Stevenson’s] activism and also his fellow advocates. Justin Chang / Los Angeles Times The movie builds to a stirring resolution, based on the certainty that hatred, in all its terrible power, will never be as powerful as justice. Owen Gleiberman / Variety Foxx’s scenes are transfixing enough to make you hold your breath without realizing it. John DeFore / The Hollywood Reporter It’s searing and soaring, and it will start a million conversations in the country about the death penalty, about racial injustice, and about how poor Americans routinely get a third class justice system. Nicholas Kristof / New York Times columnist Watch trailer ACCOLADES Winner of ABA Silver Gavel Award Winner of the National Board of Review’s Freedom of Expression Award Earned audience score of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes Rated as A+ CinemaScore Michael B. Jordan Winner of BET Award for Best Actor Winner of Christopher Award Winner of Four NAACP Image Awards Winner of American Black Film Festival Movie of the Year Jamie Foxx Winner of American Black Film Festival Excellence in the Arts Award STARRING Michael B. Jordan , Jamie Foxx , Brie Larson , Rob Morgan , Tim Blake Nelson , Andrene Ward-Hammond , O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Karan Kendrick Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. He had barely opened the nonprofit law office in Montgomery, Alabama, when he agreed to represent Walter McMillian, a Black man wrongly convicted of killing a white woman in the town that inspired To Kill a Mockingbird . Walter McMillian insisted he had been framed. He told Bryan, I know it may not matter to you, but it’s important to me that you know that I’m innocent and didn’t do what they said I did, not no kinda way.” Bryan took on the case, determined to show that prosecution witnesses had lied on the stand. Eva Ansley grew up in Alabama, disgusted by the state’s unjust and abusive treatment of the poor and disfavored. Her commitment to finding legal help for people on Alabama’s death row led her to join Bryan Stevenson in opening EJI, where she took on every challenge from accounting to recruiting lawyers. Herbert Richardson was executed in 1989, despite the State of Alabama’s failure to provide him with timely and effective legal assistance. Ralph Myers served 30 years in prison and was released in 2017. He lived in Alabama until he passed away in December 2021. Brenda Lewis was an investigator on Mr. McMillian’s case. She continues to assist indigent people accused of crimes as an investigator at the Federal Defender in Mobile, Alabama. Anthony Ray Hinton spent 30 years on Alabama’s death row for a crime he did not commit. Even after EJI presented undisputed ballistics evidence that destroyed the State’s case against him, Alabama prosecutors refused to re-open the case. It took 12 more years of litigation and a United States Supreme Court ruling to secure his freedom. Minnie McMillian supported her husband Walter during his six years on...