From the Bookshelf of Bound Together…

Just Mercy

Bryan Stevenson

Start date: July 1, 2020

Finish date: September 30, 2020

Discussion: If the Truth be Known...

Why we're reading this: Non-fiction selection
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If the Truth be Known...

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* Non-fiction Selections
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2025 Sept/Oct Nonfiction ~~ Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown
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What Members Thought

Jun 19, 2015 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015-read, usa, race, audible-us, bio

I sat glued to the audiobook narrated by the author himself. He is easy to understand, even if he does read it a bit quickly. HE knows who is who but I have to be given time to learn that. The speed, but only in the beginning, was difficult. He reads with feeling, and THAT is good. Here is an unselfish man with empathy.

I emigrated from the US in the 70s, so this book filled me in on what has happened to the justice system since then....... Shocking! Justice? Is there any justice left? Justice on ...more

44 likes · Like · see review

Feb 16, 2020 ☮Karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, nonfiction, overdrive, read-in-2020

4+

"Capital punishment means them without the capital get the punishment," a trial lawyer from Atlanta's Southern Prisoners Defense Committee once said to Bryan. Executions had just resumed in the South for men on death row without any representation. Bryan did clerical work for the organization while still a law student and helped out however possible.

Later Bryan continued down that path toward helping those on death row who had been unfairly condemned. His work evolved to helping women prisone ...more

34 likes · Like · see review

May 20, 2017 Irene rated it really liked it

Brian Stevenson, a graduate of Harvard Law School, has spent his career fighting for those wrongly incarcerated, victims of systemic injustice perpetrated by the judicial system against the poor, largely African American population of Alabama and across the country. I have read many articles about the racial injustice in death penalty cases, by police departments, in the defense of the indigent and more. But, in this book, Stevenson allows us to get to know several individuals personally. As I r ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Feb 26, 2020 Bucket rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bio-auto-bio, race, hella-sweet-book-club-read, politics, life-and-death, reviewed, class

An excellent treatise by an equal justice lawyer who is both down in the trenches and speaking on hilltops to change our justice system. This book is an indictment of our system -- not only its racial inequities but it's overly harsh treatment of everyone through mandatory minimums, 3 strikes, trying and sentencing juveniles as adults, and extensive use of the death penalty in some states. The bottom line is that the system fails everyone except the very rich most of the time.

Stevenson tells the ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 30, 2018 Lisa rated it it was amazing

I would give this book 10 stars if I could. It is without a doubt the most moving and powerful book I have read in a long time, maybe ever. We have serious problems in this country and I don't have any answers on how to solve them. But I know we will never solve them until we acknowledge them and actually talk about them. This author is a perfect example of what one person can do with sufficient passion, commitment, and compassion. I recommend everyone read this and talk about it. Really talk ab ...more

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Jan 11, 2021 Melanie rated it really liked it

I'm not sure how someone can read this book and still believe the death penalty is a fair and reasonable punishment. I have also read the Cadaver King and the Country Dentist by Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington which emphasize all the more why the death penalty should be very restricted. I haven't seen the movie, but this book is very moving involving several different cases. I cannot see how people can knowingly put an innocent person to death. ...more

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Jul 11, 2020 Christina, Join Me on Storygraph! rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020

You'd think, given the horrors described, that this would be heartbreaking and heavy. While to some extent, that's an accurate evaluation, this felt like a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel. Enlightening, hopeful, and trying to help us become a better America. ...more

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Jun 17, 2020 Susan rated it it was amazing

What a powerful, and emotional read. Everyone should read Just Mercy to understand the unjust laws our country has done to black, and poor, disabled... and yes, children. I was sickened, and floored by the read. It will open your eyes. I recommend it highly.

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