Bryan Stevenson is an American lawyer, professor, author, and social justice activist focused on challenging the criminal justice system's bias against poor and minority defendants.
After studying law and public policy at Harvard University, Stevenson worked for the Southern Center for Human Rights in the 1980s and 1990s, later going on to found the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. The non-profit organization provided legal assistance to people facing the death sentence, as Alabama was the only state not to guarantee legal defense for death-row prisoners, despite having the highest rate of per capita death penalty sentences. In 2014, he released the memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.
Stevenson has received many awards and prizes for his public service and writing, including a MacArthur Fellowship and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction. A film based on Just Mercy was released in late 2019, garnering Stevenson and the EJI increased media attention for their causes.
Bryan Stevenson's memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption covers the author's career as a public interest lawyer in the Deep South, focusing primarily on Walter McMillian's wrongful conviction and sentencing to death row. Though...
