Just Mercy

Arghhh, I feel like such a total asshole for giving this 3-stars, but I gotta stick to my Goodreads rating principles. And 3 stars is what I felt when I read this!

This book is ABOUT a 5-star person (Bryan Stevenson, who graduated from Harvard Law and then founded the Equal Justice Initiative - working to reverse the unfair, unjust and often incorrect sentencing of death row inmates). This book is ABOUT 5-star humanity: mercy, compassion, forgiveness - as well as 0-star humanity: brutality, violence, our worst decisions. There are moving, tearful moments of depth and complexity. I found it really hard to listen to the stories of some of Stevenson's clients, such as the mentally disabled young man with multiple sclerosis who dreams of becoming a journalist.

I guess the reason I actually had trouble getting into it is that my eyes instantly glaze over whenever legal stuff is mentioned. I know, I know. It's important! There are some great law podcasts out there. But I had trouble focusing on the different cases, and keeping track of them all. Stevenson uses one particular case as the core focus, and he includes stories from a number of other clients: demonstrating different aspects of the often inhumane, almost always very racist judicial system - for example, treating minors as adults and sentencing them to life imprisonment or even the death penalty. The grisliness and ludicrous brutality of the death penalty itself.

Definitely an important story, about important issues. I think I would have been better able to absorb it as a documentary, just to help me keep track of all the cases.