Just Mercy

Stevenson opens the book by describing his first visit to a death-row inmate he has no legal obligation to help. Why does he open here, and what does it establish about the book's argument before the first page of argument?

The book's central case is set in Monroeville, Alabama — Harper Lee's hometown and the inspiration for To Kill a Mockingbird. Is Stevenson's choice of this setting a coincidence? What is he arguing by placing Walter McMillian's wrongful conviction in the hometown of Atticus Finch?

Stevenson says 'Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done.' Do you agree? Are there crimes for which this is not true? Where does the book draw the line, and where does it refuse to?

Stevenson, a Harvard-trained lawyer, is stopped and harassed by police outside his own apartment. How does he use this personal experience as argument? Is personal testimony a form of evidence? Why or why not?

The United States executes fewer people today than it did in the 1990s, and fewer states use the death penalty. Has Stevenson won? What would winning actually look like?

Debbie Baigrie — the victim Ian Manuel shot — becomes one of his most consistent advocates. How does her advocacy challenge or complicate the conventional argument that justice for victims requires harsh punishment for perpetrators?

Stevenson argues that poverty, not guilt, is the best predictor of who receives the death penalty. What evidence does he present for this claim? Do you find it convincing?

Herbert Richardson is a Vietnam veteran with severe PTSD who committed a crime the court decided merited execution. The state executed him. Do you think the state was wrong? What should happen instead?

Just Mercy has been removed from school reading lists in several states for being 'divisive' and 'anti-police.' Is it? How would you define 'anti-police,' and does Stevenson's argument fit that definition?

The book alternates between Walter McMillian's central case and chapters on other EJI clients. Why does Stevenson use this structure? What would be lost if the book were only about Walter?

Stevenson founded EJI in Montgomery, Alabama — the capital of the Confederacy, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. Is the location symbolic, strategic, or both?

Ian Manuel was sentenced to life without parole for a non-homicide offense he committed at age thirteen. His victim eventually advocated for his release. He was released after twenty-six years. Is this a success story? What has justice achieved here?

Stevenson is a person of faith, and the book is full of theological language (mercy, grace, redemption, standing in the gap). Does his religious framework strengthen or weaken his argument for a secular reader?

The book describes Ralph Myers, the false witness against Walter McMillian, with significant sympathy. Why? What would be lost if Stevenson had made Myers a villain?

Stevenson describes the accumulating emotional toll of the work — vicarious trauma, burnout, the weight of deaths he couldn't prevent. Why does he include this? What does it do for his argument?

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any country on earth. Just Mercy was published in 2014. Has the situation improved, worsened, or stayed the same since then? Research and argue.

Stevenson argues that the true measure of a society is how it treats 'the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.' By this measure, how does the United States score? What evidence from the book supports your answer?

Compare Just Mercy to To Kill a Mockingbird. Both are about lawyers defending Black men against unjust criminal charges in Alabama. What does Stevenson's real case say about Harper Lee's fictional one?

Just Mercy never uses the phrase 'criminal justice reform.' Stevenson consistently uses the word 'justice' on its own. What is the difference? Why does the distinction matter?

Stevenson describes watching Herbert Richardson be executed. He sits in the parking lot afterward, unable to move. He doesn't tell us what he thought or felt — only that he couldn't move. Why does he withhold the interiority at this moment?

The book was published in 2014. What has happened to the death penalty in the United States since then? Has public opinion shifted? Have the legal doctrines Stevenson fought for expanded or contracted?

Stevenson argues that proximity to the condemned creates compassion, and compassion is where justice begins. What does he mean? Is compassion a prerequisite for justice, or can justice exist without it?

Walter McMillian was exonerated in 1993 and lived until 2013. Stevenson describes him as never fully recovering from his time on death row. What does this tell us about what exoneration can and cannot undo?

Just Mercy was challenged and removed from school reading lists. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, which makes similar arguments using statistics rather than stories, was not as widely challenged. What does this tell you about how stories and data function differently in political discourse?

Stevenson's title Just Mercy comes from the biblical verse Micah 6:8: 'What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly.' What does it mean to love mercy — as distinct from doing justice? Are they the same thing?

Stevenson says the opposite of poverty is not wealth — it's justice. What does he mean? How does this reframe the discussion of poverty and crime?

EJI's National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery opened in 2018, four years after Just Mercy was published. It commemorates victims of racial terror lynching. How does this memorial extend the book's argument? What does marking the dead do that legal advocacy cannot?

Stevenson chose to work in Alabama rather than in a major Northern city. He chose Montgomery rather than a more progressive city. What strategic and symbolic logic drives these choices?

The 2019 film adaptation of Just Mercy stars Michael B. Jordan as Stevenson and Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillian. The book is told from Stevenson's perspective; the film gives more attention to Walter. How does the shift in perspective change the argument?

If you were wrongly convicted and facing execution, what would you want a lawyer to be able to do for you that Walter McMillian's lawyers could not? What systemic changes would give them that power?