Brian Stevenson, a public interest lawyer, activist, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, recently spoke to Daily Kos about his work on death row and the inspiration behind his advocacy. Dedicated to helping the poor and incarcerated, his organization has successfully overturned more than 135 wrongful death row convictions and has won hundreds of other cases for those unfairly sentenced, including children tried as adults, those with mental illnesses, and the severely disabled. Stevenson told us the story that inspired his work, how we can help, and what he hopes to accomplish with an upcoming movie.
“The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. We have innocent people in our jails and prisons, a system that treats you better if you’re rich and guilty than poor and innocent, and those things won't change unless we educate people, unless we motivate people to start talking about these issues,” Stevenson said.
Through sharing his story in the film Just Mercy, Stevenson hopes to start a conversation on capital punishment, massive incarceration, and a fairer judicial system. He hopes people are not just entertained by the film but motivated to do more. “I’m hoping this film does facilitate discourse and conversation that continues for a long time so we can actually create a more reliable and more fair or just system for managing issues of public safety,” he told Daily Kos.
Based on Stevenson’s bestselling memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, the film, starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx, depicts the start of Stevenson’s career as a young lawyer working on Alabama's death row. Stevenson, a Harvard graduate, packs his bags and heads to Alabama, a state that he said “emerged as a place where there was a critical need.” Stevenson recalled the lack of public defenders in the state’s system and the worrisome numbers of people facing execution who did not have legal representation.
“It troubled me that there were innocent people facing execution. That so many poor people had been convicted because they didn't have the money to get the legal help they needed—that people of color were still mistreated and abused, especially in the criminal justice system,” he said.
These issues led Stevenson to found his organization, the Equal Justice Initiative, and work toward reversing wrongful convictions in Alabama. The film specifically focuses on one case in which an African American man is arrested and sentenced to death for the murder of an 18-year-old white girl in 1987. Upon reviewing the case, Stevenson notices discrepancies and the film follows his relationship with Walter “Johhny D” McMillian as he works to prove his innocence. Audiences can follow Stevenson’s journey to finding justice for McMillian and see the fear, anger, and tears that come with the fight against racial injustice the criminal justice system.
As a product of the civil rights movement, Stevenson grew up in a community where black children couldn’t go to public schools, he said. “I actually started my education in a colored school and lawyers came into our community and made them open up the public schools. That wasn't something that if you had a vote about would ever happen and I was intrigued that these lawyers had the power to protect people and to help people who were disfavored, poor, and marginalized.” This intervention resulted in Stevenson being able to attend high school and college. He then decided to attend law school because of his interest in the law. ”With law we can actually help people who may never be helped in the political process which requires majority support in a democracy,” Stevenson said. “ I wanted to help the next generation and when I went to Georgia and met people on death row who were literally dying for legal assistance, I was very compelled to work in that space.”
While a student, Stevenson worked at the Southern Center for Human Rights, an organization that provided legal services to people on death row. Through his involvement, Stevenson had the opportunity to go to death row in Georgia. There, he told us, he met “someone who had not met anyone other than a death row prisoner or death row guard during his two years.” Stevenson met with this individual on behalf of the legal organization to tell him he was not at risk of execution within the next year. This encounter shaped Stevenson’s path and career.
“This really powerful connection was formed and turned out he was exactly my age, we had the same birthday,” Stevenson said. He spoke with this man for hours, even past the time allowed. When the guards finally came in the room, they were angry, he said, and “they started putting this man back in handcuffs and shackles and they wrapped chains around him. I was so distressed to see what they were doing, to see how they were treating him. I tried to get them to stop being so rough.”
That’s when the man looked at him and said, “don’t worry about this Brian, you just come back.” Stevenson continued to recall that day: “Then he closed his eyes, drew his head back and he began to sing and he started singing ‘I’m pressing on the upward way, new heights I’m gaining every day; still praying as I onward bound, lord, plant my feet on higher ground.’ Hearing that man changed everything for me. That was the moment when I realized I wanted to help condemned people get to higher ground, but I also realized that that's how I was going to get to higher ground.”
Stevenson and his organization never thought they would get this type of attention. For years, they worked very covertly because they believed it was not helpful to draw a lot of attention to clients. They didn’t even have a sign on the building, he said. But 10 years ago, that changed. Stevenson began to fear that America had reached a point where civil rights cases may not be guaranteed a win.
“I was persuaded that our inability to get the justice we seek in court was a function of the environment outside of court and we needed to start talking about these issues more publicly,” he said. “I’ve always been persuaded that if people could see what I see on a regular basis, they would want the same things that I want,” Stevenson added. This thought process motivated him to first give a TED talk, then write his book. The organization also began to release reports and even opened a museum in Montgomery. “Now, we have this film and for me, its all part of the narrative work that I believe has to happen around the world when we have spaces that are being threatened by politics of fear and anger, and we’re being told to accept things that we should never accept or tolerate,” Stevenson emphasized.
When asked what advice he would give to those who wish to follow in his footsteps of activism and advocacy, Stevenson said, “I would tell them that they have to believe things they haven't seen. They have to stay hopeful, and that they need to get proximate to the people they care about, to the people they are trying to serve because if you allow yourself to be disconcerted and distant you won't see the things you need to see, you won't hear the things you need hear.”
“You have to be committed to doing things that are uncomfortable and inconvenient,” he continued. “You don't change the world by only willing to do things that are comfortable and convenient. We have to do those uncomfortable things and if we do them, I have no doubt that we will be able to push toward that time, that space where we can claim to live in a place where there is justice and fairness for every person.”
According to a March 2019 study from the Prison Policy Initiative, “the American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people in 1,719 state prisons, 109 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.” Not all of those who are incarcerated receive the fair trials they deserve, and many are serving sentences out of proportion to their crime.
The Equal Justice Initiative urges people to visit their site and connect with the organizations near them that provide services to those coming in and out of jails and prisons. Educating oneself is the first step toward advocacy and learning how one can change the system for the better. “Most people in America don't know who their local prosecutor is. They don't know who is making the decisions that shape the integrity and quality of justice in their community, and that's the first step: learning who these people are and asking questions,” Stevenson emphasized.
Just Mercy premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and is scheduled to be released in theaters on Dec. 25.