Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults): A True Story of the Fight for Justice

When Stevenson arrives to meet his new client, Joe Sullivan, he finds the man in his wheelchair, with the wheelchair stuck inside a small cage. The wheelchair is jammed so tight the prison guards must turn the cage on its side to dislodge him, as Joe cries the entire time. Despite this, he is friendly and cheerful when Stevenson introduces himself. Joe was a 13-year-old boy with an intellectual disability, neglected and abused by his father, when he was arrested for burglary and rape. At the time, he admitted to the burglary, but insisted someone else had committed the rape after he left. DNA evidence that might have proven his innocence was destroyed at some point. Now, 20 years later, Stevenson files a petition that his life-without-parole sentence at the age of 13 is unconstitutional.

Having already succeeded in proving that the death penalty for child offenders is cruel and unjust, Stevenson and the EJI are hopeful they can make a similar case for child offenders sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. At the same time Stevenson gets involved in another, similar case. Evan Miller is just 14 years old when he is convicted of killing a middle-aged man who had given him and other children drugs. Stevenson petitions for a lesser sentence considering Evan’s history of parental abuse and drug addiction, but the prosecutor demands life imprisonment, arguing: “I think he should be executed. He deserves the death penalty” (219). The prosecutor is disappointed that the law no longer allows him to execute a 14-year-old boy, and a sentence of life in prison is the next best thing.

This motivates Stevenson to file an appeal with the Supreme Court in 2009. He argues that children are “human works in progress” because they are biologically and psychologically still developing. Science shows that brain chemistry strongly influences the behavior of teens, and on top of the usual biological stressors, “those who grow up poor, or in environments marked by abuse, violence, dysfunction [...] are left vulnerable to the sort of extremely poor decision-making that results in tragic violence” (222). Stevenson argues that just as a death sentence for children is a “once-and-for-all judgment” placed on a human still capable of change, so too is a sentence of life imprisonment. Additionally, this kind of sentencing violates international law and is illegal in every other country in the world.

Walter is diagnosed with advanced dementia, becoming increasingly confused, forgetting things just hours after they happen, drinking heavily, and experiencing anxiety. He needs constant care. Finding a facility that will take him proves difficult, however, as many assisted-living facilities refuse anyone convicted of a felony. It doesn’t matter that Walter was wrongfully convicted and has since been exonerated. A social worker on staff with EJI finds him a temporary place. Walter’s confusion increases, and he believes he has been put back on death row. Eventually, he returns home and his sister does her best to care for him.

At the same time, Stevenson is asked to help Jimmy Dill, whose execution is only months away. Stevenson is overstretched and exhausted, still working on dozens of cases including those of Antonio, Trina, Ian, and Joe, and a new execution is being scheduled every other month in Alabama. Though the rate of death sentences in the state dropped in the late 1990s, it remains higher than in the rest of the country, and “by the end of 2009, Alabama ha[s] the nation’s highest execution rate per capita” (231). Still, Stevenson agrees to help Jimmy Dill.

Unfortunately, every motion EJI files on Jimmy’s behalf fails. They are told it’s too late. While sitting on the phone with Jimmy on the night of his execution, Stevenson has an epiphany. He remembers a time when, as a child, he made fun of a boy with a stutter and his mother made him apologize and tell the boy he loved him. Jimmy also has a stutter that grows worse as he becomes emotional. Stevenson cries and grows angry, wondering, “Why do we want to kill all the broken people? What is wrong with us, that we think a thing like that can be right?” (237).

Stevenson realizes that his life’s work is centered on brokenness—the brokenness of the people he represents, and the brokenness of the justice system. His own feeling of brokenness is what fuels him. In fact, he believes everyone is broken in some way. He concludes that every person has a choice to embrace that brokenness and show compassion, or deny it and thus “deny our own humanity” (239). After a dark moment of wanting to quit because of Jimmy Dill’s execution, he decides “it [is] time to be brave” because there is more work to do (241).

On May 17, 2010, the US Supreme Court declares that sentences of life in prison without chance of parole given to children are cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional. The victory is enormous. Across the country, sentences are reduced so that some will be released within a few years. Stevenson is encouraged that overall incarceration rates are slowing for the first time in decades. The EJI launches new initiatives on race and poverty, intended to deepen and change the conversation around race issues in the US, particularly in regards to lynching and racial injustice in the legal system.

Stevenson lists “four institutions in American history that have shaped our approach to race and justice but remain poorly understood” (245). The first is slavery. The second is what Stevenson calls the “reign of terror against people of color” (245), which began in the Reconstruction period after the Civil War and continued through the end of World War II. Integral to this institution is the “racial terrorism of lynching” (246), which led to the modern death penalty and traumatized generations of Black Americans. The third institution is Jim Crow, and the fourth is mass incarceration, which works to criminalize, imprison, and disenfranchise marginalized communities.

As the EJI aids thousands of incarcerated people who were sentenced as children, Stevenson takes on the cases of Joshua Carter and Robert Caston, both imprisoned in Louisiana for over 40 years for crimes committed as children. Stevenson argues both cases on the same day, and both men are released for time served.

As he leaves the courtroom, he notices an older Black woman who has attended both hearings. He assumes she must be related to either Carter or Caston, but discovers she is not. Her grandson was murdered 15 years ago by young boys whose convictions only made things worse. Now she comes to the courthouse to bear witness and help when she can. She explains:

All these young children being sent to prison forever, all this grief and violence. Those judges throwing people away like they’re not even human, people shooting each other, hurting each other like they don’t care. It’s a lot of pain. I decided that I was supposed to be here to catch some of the stones people cast at each other (254).

She can tell that Stevenson is a stonecatcher like her.

On September 11, 2013, Walter passes away following a bad fall that fractured his hip. He lived with his sister for the last two years of his life. Stevenson speaks at his funeral and explains that they all owe Walter something for the many hardships he endured. Walter endured injury and trauma, but kept his dignity through it all, and his strength and resilience should be celebrated.

Stevenson tells everyone what Walter taught him about life and justice. For one thing, the real question about the death penalty is not whether someone deserves to die for the crimes they commit, but whether we have the right to kill. Most importantly, Walter taught him about the value of mercy, that it is “just when it is rooted in hopefulness and freely given,” that it is powerful and “transformative when it is directed at the undeserving” (260).

Stevenson concludes his memoir with a brief recap of the EJI’s progress since the Supreme Court ruling in 2010. Since the publication of the original memoir in 2014, nearly 2,000 life-sentence prisoners who were convicted as children have been resentenced, and nearly 200 have been released. Ian Manuel and Joe Sullivan have both been released, and both Antonio Nuñez and Trina Garnett have received reduced sentences and will soon be eligible for release. For Stevenson and the EJI, the work continues.