Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

This book is one of the best books I have read so far. Without spoiling much the book is about a man who helps people who have been wrongly convicted and sentenced to either life in prison, or given the death sentence. The book includes real stories of this man and his encounters with these people in prisons. The book has depressing moments as well as good moments but this isn’t a novel type of book. It serves to shed some light on a topic not many discuss which is the point of view of an inmate in prison. The book does a great job at including various controversial topics and talking about them in an unbiased way. The author simply talks about these topics from his experience. This book helped to enlighten me and made me realize that even though we see people being arrested maybe for a murder case, or any other horrific type of crime, there is always the possibility that the person might be innocent and we could be celebrating the imprisonment of someone who did no harm. Just mercy also sheds light on how these inmates are inhumanely treated which is another part of life not many of us stop to think about. This book gets five stars for me since it doesn’t attempt to sugar coat the harsh realities of life , and although this might be more depressing for some I believe it is necessary for us learn about these realities that might be happening around us without our knowledge.

" We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others. The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it's necessary to recognize that we all need mercy. we all need justice and - perhaps - we all need some measure of unmerited grace." This one paragraph gives you an idea of what Bryan Stevenson believes and why he works so tirelessly for those who have been treated unjustly, or require some mercy. If this one paragraph doesn't move you, find another book, if it does I highly recommend reading it.

With all the respect and applause this book deserves: What a (sad) great book! I learned so much through this book and it opened my eyes to a side of US history I was oblivious to, I did not grow up in America and the only US history I studied was in during high school. This book opened my eyes and the door to new book titles on the same subject that I can't wait to read and learn so much from. I can't wait for this movie to become available on DVD to watch it. There is so much history that needs to be taught in school about all this unfairness and racial discrimination we still see today, so that we can fully understand everything people of color have had to endure. A couple of the books that were mentioned in here that are on my next reading list are 1) "Slavery by another name" by Douglas A. Blackmon, and 2) "The new Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander. I hope that you - like me - like this book and become more interested in this part of history, and that it motivates you to act in a way that advocates for those in need and who face adversity in today's present. A truly remarkable book! Thanks.