Bryan Stevenson

Powerful. Persuasive. Compelling reading.
Not long ago a friend made a comment to the effect that African Americans need to stop looking back, stop rehearsing and remembering their struggles. I wish I could have handed her this book. The Civil Rights Movement accomplished great things — and there is still so much more to be done. Stevenson has done and is doing this work.

Threaded together with the ongoing-story of Walter McMillian, an innocent man sent to death row, Stevenson presents the difficulties of mass incarceration particular to those who live in poverty. I've never been especially interested in the death penalty or our prison system, but Stevenson's writing changed that. I've chosen this as a text for my class on argument and persuasive writing next quarter.

"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 an 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." (18)
… (mer)

“When I hung up the phone that night I had a wet face and a broken heart. The lack of compassion I witnessed every day had finally exhausted me....As I sat there, I thought myself a fool for having tried to fix situations that were so fatally broken....

"For the first time I realized that my life was just full of brokenness. I worked in a broken system of justice. My clients were broken by mental illness, poverty, and racism. They were torn apart by disease, drugs and alcohol, pride, fear, and anger. I thought of Joe Sullivan and of Trina, Antonio, Ian, and dozens of other broken children we worked with, struggling to survive in prison. I thought of people broken by war, like Herbert Richardson; people broken by poverty, like Marsh Colbey; people broken by disability, like Avery Jenkins. In their broken state, they were judged and condemned by people whose commitment to fairness had been broken by cynicism, hopelessness, and prejudice....

"It took me a while to sort it out, but I realized something sitting there while Jimmy Dill was being killed at Holman prison. After working for more than twenty-five years, I understood that I don’t do what I do because it’s required or necessary or important. I don’t do it because I have no choice.

"I do what I do because I’m broken, too."

We live in society that values suffering, that believes that struggle and hardship are virtues that are reflected in material success, but also those in poverty and prison must accept their suffering as penance for their sins. This is the Christian ethos, with a uniquely American, classist angle. Christ would have been a successful entrepreneur today, while Judas would be on death row. Virtue is reflected in wealth.

Stevenson manages to balance a devastating dissection of the foundational flaws in our criminal justice system, while still creating a hopefulness that struggle against injustice can still produce meaningful results.


… (mer)