Skip to main content

Review: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson



Review: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Bryan Stevenson
Spiegel & Grau
2015

I missed this one in its original offering, but I am glad to have discovered it in paper.   Yes, this is about justice and mercy from a lawyer’s own experience and practice.  A single case serves as the base story line for this book, but there’s plenty of others interspersed as well.  This reads as well as most recent fiction, but it’s true and with endnotes too.  

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and RedemptionStevenson originally worked with death row inmates primarily in the Alabama prisons.  If you are from Alabama I’ll tell you now it isn’t a pretty story of the legal system in that state.  Not only in the days gone by, but also in more recent times.  Other states take some hits too, so he didn’t single just Alabama out.  And they aren’t all in the South. This book has been compared to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.  It does carry a sad resemblance. 

What the author is attempting to do, however, is to bring to the forefront some issues with the justice system in the USA that need the light of day on them.  We all know that there’s stuff that has happened, but for me I wasn’t aware of the frequency and breadth.  And it isn’t just a minority issue.  But before your hair burns too far down, he’s not a total far, far left progressive as far as his treatment of his story.  He is wants the reader to see justice dispensed with mercy as the title suggests.  That’s what we all want to see happen and he has taken up cases that were brought to his attention in service of that credo. His original involvement had to do with the reviews that death row inmates apparently are entitled to have before their execution.  Something that some were not able to obtain and his career grows from that point.

It’s worth your time to read.  I learned about some practices that I didn’t know existed in our legal system.   I imagine you will also.

I received this book form the publisher in return for a review.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Sex, Jesus, and the Conversations the Church Forgot by Mo Isom

Review: Sex, Jesus, and the Conversations the Church Forgot Mo Isom Baker Books 2018 I picked this one up after I’d seen a video promo by the author, http://moisom.com/sexandjesus#.   Sounded like she had something to say.   She does.   And even if you don’t think it applies to you it does in ways that aren’t necessarily related to sex, but just as a human being with desires.    Isom subscribed to many of the conversations that govern relationships in general, and those with men, for her generation, the millennials.   This book is not her life story, but it does describe some moments that were important to her journey then and now.   Her openness to share those times surprised me.   Her point without spoiling the book is that she had not understood what linked sexual intimacy to ordinary life, the why’s, if you will.   Was it not taught, discussed?   Or was she not interested in hearing might be a valid...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense by Dr. Larry Crabb

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense Dr. Larry Crabb Baker Books 2018 I chose this book because the title intrigued me.   When God’s Ways Make No Sense.    There have been plenty of times when that seemed truer than I’d like to admit.   Are we even allowed to say something like that?   Even if we think it.   So, an author willing to take on that topic had my attention. And mostly because I wanted his take on what to do about it? As it turns out Crabb pretty much gave away his case very early on in his book with a single scripture quote.   The basic idea is God is GOD and we are not.   His motives and actions are incomprehensible to mankind and He owes no explanation for them either.   Crabb admits near the end of his book that he is not a theologian which I knew going into this book, but his arguments are theology.   Or at least I think so.   I found his repeated circling the topic a bit frustrating. ...
1 comment
Read more

Review: The World of Jesus: Making Sense of the People and the Places of Jesus’ Day by Dr. William H. Marty

Review: The World of Jesus: Making Sense of the People and the Places of Jesus’ Day Dr. William H. Marty Bethany House Publishers 2013 If you have ever tried to keep track of who is who during the period that is the between the testaments time and afterward you will have a good appreciation for what Dr. Marty has done with this short book.   It’s still like reading a soap opera plot but at least this help keep the characters sorted out.   The political and social changes came fast and frequently back then with the land of the Jews right in the midst of it all.   For me this is a reminder that it was not any easier back then in that region than it is today.    So if you are looking for a place to start an exploration of that period this might be a good overview to pick up first.    This book was provided in exchange for a review by the publisher.
Post a Comment
Read more