Boston Public Library Author Talk

Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy

In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson takes readers on an intimate journey into the broken American criminal justice system. After Stevenson graduated from Harvard Law School, he started the Equal Justice Initiative, a law practice dedicated to defending some of America’s most marginalized people. Among the first cases he took on was that of Walter McMillian, a black man from Harper Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, who was sentenced to die for a murder he insisted he didn’t commit. Just Mercy follows the battle to free Walter while telling other dramatic stories of men, women, and children, innocent and guilty, who found themselves at the mercy of a system often incapable of providing justice. Stevenson is a professor of law at New York University School of Law. He has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, argued before the Supreme Court, and won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color. He is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant.”