Bryan Stevenson

Study Guide Prepared by Melissanne Scheld September 2014

A Story of Justice and Redemption

Bryan

Stevenson

Teacher’s Guide

A NOTE TO EDUCATORS

e following guide has been prepared in conjunction with the national Common Core Standards. Each

chapter contains summary points, discussion questions for the class and activities requiring various skills

and interpretation of the text. e following list of Standards correlates to the discussion questions as a whole

whereas, for each of the activities, the relevant and specic Standards are indicated for each of the exercises.

English Language Arts: College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading: Key Ideas & Details:

CCRA.R.1-R.3, Integrations of Knowledge and Ideas: CCRA.R.7, CCRA.R.8, Range of Reading and Level of

Text Complexity: CCRA.R.10

English Language Arts: College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Writing: Text Types and

Purposes: CCRA.W.1-CCRA.W.3, Production and Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4, Research to Build and

Present Knowledge: CCRA.W.7-CCRA.W.9, Range of Writing: CCRA.W.10

English Language Arts: College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening:

Comprehension and Collaboration: CCRA.SL.1-CCRA.SL.3, Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: CCRA.L.4

English Language Arts: College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language: Conventions of

Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2, CCRA.L.6, Vocabulary Acquisition and Use: CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Reading: Literature: Key Ideas and Details: RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2, Integration of

Knowledge and Ideas: RL.11-12.7

English Language Arts: Reading: Informational Text: Key Ideas and Details: RI.11-12.1-12.3, Integration of

Knowledge and Ideas: RI.11-12.7-12.8, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: RI.11-12.10

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W.11-12.7-12.9, W.11-12.9.B

English Language Arts: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: SL.11-12.1-SL.11-12.3,

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: SL.11-12.4, 12.6

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11- 12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

English Language Arts: History/Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details: RH.11-12.1-RH.11.12.3, Cra and

Structure: RH.11-12.6, Integration of Ideas: RH.11-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

RH.11-12.10

PRE-READING ASSIGNMENT

Prepare a two-page essay for a law school application explaining the

reasons why you want to work with disadvantaged clients.

INTRODUCTION: HIGHER GROUND

• In 1983 —twenty-three years old and in law school—Bryan Stevenson meets

his rst death row client.

• From the 1970s to 2014, the U.S. prison population has increased from

300,000 to 2,300,000; the highest incarceration rate in the world.

• One in every een babies born in 2001 is predicted to spend time in jail.

One in three black males born in this century is predicted to be incarcerated.

• e United States has sent a quarter of a million children to adult prisons

and jails, some are under the age of twelve.

• e number of women in prison has increased 640 percent in the last

thirty years.

• Spending on jails and prisons by state and federal governments has risen

from $6.9 billion in 1980 to nearly $80 billion in 2014.

• Private prison builders and prison service companies have spent millions

of dollars to persuade state and local governments to create new crimes,

impose harsher sentences, and keep more people locked up so that they can

earn more prots.

• rough his work with the poor and the incarcerated, Stevenson concludes

that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.

CHAPTER 1

Mockingbird Players

SUMMARY

• Stevenson is a member of the bar in both Georgia and Alabama.

• Despite receiving a warning phone call from the local Judge Robert E. Lee Key about Walter

McMillian’s case, Stevenson continues on.

• In Monroe County, Alabama, a beloved eighteen-year-old white woman named Ronda Morrison

is brutally murdered with very little evidence pointing toward a perpetrator. e police are under

tremendous pressure to solve this mystery.

• Seemingly unrelated to Morrison’s murder, a poor woman named Vickie Lynn Pittman is also

murdered. Karen Kelly, a white woman with a drug problem and a criminal record, is accused of the

murder along with an accomplice, Ralph Myers.

• During an earlier child custody battle between Kelly and her husband, McMillian had previously

testied to having a relationship with Kelly. McMillian quickly loses public respect and his business

loses many customers, particularly whites.

• e accomplice, Myers, is not a particularly trustworthy person, and as a way to lessen his sentence for

the Pittman murder, he claims to have witnessed Walter McMillian at the scene of the Morrison crime.

• ere was no evidence against McMillian, but law enforcement targeted him because he was an

African American man involved in an adulterous interracial aair, which meant he was reckless and

possibly dangerous, even if he had no prior criminal history and a good reputation.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. How did Stevenson’s background prepare him for law school?

2. In the introduction, he discusses his grandmother’s background and what impact that had on his

career choices. What from your own personal background has inuenced your career choices?

3. What famous novel was written in Monroe County, AL, and how is it relevant to Just Mercy?

4. In what ways ‘Alabama’s economic policies disadvantage the state’s African American population?

5. Why was Ralph Myers considered to be so trustworthy by the Monroe County police department?

ACTIVITY

1. Research incarceration rates for other wealthy nations; prepare a document that compares how long

people serve for various crimes.

2. Research Loving v. Virginia. What surprises you about this case? Do you think these issues are still

relevant in our current times?

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Reading: Key Ideas and Details: CCRA.R.1-R.2, Integration of Knowledge and

Ideas: CCRA.R.7, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCRA.R.10

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3, Production and

Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: CCRA.W.7-W.9

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Reading: Literature: Key Ideas and Details: RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2

English Language Arts: Reading: Informational Text: Key Ideas and Details: RI.11-12.1-12.3, Integration of

Knowledge and Ideas: RI.11-12.8-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: RI.11-12.10

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W.11-12.7-12.9, W.11-12.9.B

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

English Language Arts: History/Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details: RH.11-12.1-RH.11.12.3, Cra and

Structure: RH.11-12.6, Integration of Ideas: RH.11-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

RH.11-12.10

Stand

SUMMARY

• Stevenson describes two cases in Gadsden, Alabama, where black men died at the hands of the police.

Lourida Run, thirty-nine, claimed that police had beaten him aer he committed a minor trac

violation and then refused to give him access to his asthma inhaler. He later died in his holding cell.

Other prisoners witnessed the attack.

• While working on the Run case, Stevenson learns of the death of a young black teenager who was pulled

over by the Gadsden police. Upon reaching for his new license, the teenager was shot and killed by the

ocer, who claimed that the deceased had been acting erratically. His parents described their son as

nervous but also law-abiding and respectful. No evidence of a gun or other wrongdoing was discovered.

• Stevenson himself has a terrifying encounter with the Atlanta police while sitting in front of his

apartment, listening to music late at night. Several police surround him, one pointing a gun. While he

is ultimately released without further incident, he is embarrassed, frightened, and angry that the police

violated numerous laws while searching his car. He les a complaint which is largely ignored.

• Rather than waging a war with the bureaucracy of the Atlanta police force, Stevenson decides to work

directly with those at the greatest risk—poor and young black men—by speaking directly to them at

youth groups, churches, and community organizations.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Does your state have Stand Your Ground laws? Do you support them?

2. Stevenson wished he had been more assertive with the police while they were illegally searching his

car. Do you think that would have been eective? How would you recommend someone respond in a

similar situation?

3. Do you think the police ocers acted appropriately? How else might they have approached the situation?

4. Likewise, did their supervisors respond fairly to Stevenson’s ocial complaint?

5. How did the senior citizen attending Stevenson’s church lecture earn his “medals of honor”?

CHAPTER 2

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Reading: Key Ideas and Details: CCRA.R.1-R.2, Integration of Knowledge and

Ideas: CCRA.R.7, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCRA.R.10

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3, Production and

Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: CCRA.W.7-W.9

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Reading: Literature: Key Ideas and Details: RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2

English Language Arts: Reading: Informational Text: Key Ideas and Details: RI.11-12.1-12.3, Range of

Reading and Level of Text Complexity: RI.11-12.10

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W.11-12.7-12.9

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

English Language Arts: History/Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details: RH.11-12.1-RH.11.12.3, Cra and

Structure: RH.11-12.6, Integration of Ideas: RH.11-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

RH.11-12.10

XACTIVITY

Research response to police misconduct in the United States; based on your information determine what approaches

are eective means of reducing police brutality and increasing accountability.

Trials and Tribulations

SUMMARY

• is chapter recounts Walter McMillian’s arrest, the days leading up to his trial, the trial itself, and the

verdict.

• Walter is arrested, but not for the murder of Ronda Morrison, because the district attorney’s oce had

not yet done enough research on McMillian. But they are under pressure to make an arrest. Based on

the dubious evidence provided by Ralph Myers, they put Walter in prison and continue to build their

case.

• Walter McMillian is placed on death row before his case even goes to trial; this is illegal. While there,

he meets other men who have been sentenced to death.

• e trial is moved from a community with a large black population to a more auent county with

a much higher white population, therefore decreasing the potential of black jurors serving on

McMillian’s jury.

• His family raises enough funds to hire a legal team with experience in civil rights, but not being from

the local area proved to be a hindrance for Walter’s defense team.

• ere is signicant evidence to defend Walter, including multiple witnesses placing him at a family sh

fry during the time of the murder.

• During the trial, nothing goes in Walter’s favor, and even though he’s innocent, aer less than three

hours of deliberation by the jury, Walter McMillian is found guilty of murdering Ronda Morrison and

sentenced to death.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What is the importance of the 1986 Batson v. Kentucky ruling?

CHAPTER 3

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: CCRA.SL.1-

SL.3, Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: CCRA.SL.4

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3, Production and

Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: CCRA.W.7-W.9

English Language Arts: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: SL.11-12.1-SL.11-12.3,

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: SL.11-12.4, 12.6

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

2. How does diversity in a jury aect its deliberations?

3. If you were in Chestnut or Boynton’s position, would you have tried to move the trial?

4. Who were some of Walter McMillian’s most important allies?

5. In your opinion, who is most to blame for Walter’s conviction?

6. Walter was both poor and black. Do you think his story would have played out the same if he had been

The Old Rugged Cross

SUMMARY

• In February 1989, Eva Ansley and Stevenson opened a new nonprot law center in Tuscaloosa,

dedicated to providing free, quality legal services to condemned men and women on death

row in Alabama.

• In this heartfelt chapter, Stevenson shares the details of the execution of a former Vietnam War

veteran, Herbert Richardson. Stevenson reveals details of Richardson’s earlier life that may have played

a role in the development of his mental health.

• “e Old Rugged Cross” recounts the nal hours before Richardson’s execution including painful

good-byes between Richardson and his family and some of Richardson’s nal thoughts. Stevenson also

reects on employees in the penal system that are paid to carry out death sentences.

• is chapter underscores the diculties many U.S. military veterans face in obtaining medical support.

• By the mid-1980s, nearly 20 percent of the United States jail and prison population had served in the

military. While the rate declined in the 1990s as the shadows cast by the Vietnam War began to recede,

it started to rise again as a result of the military conicts in the Middle East.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Describe the 1982 Supreme Court ruling related to death penalty appeals. What impact did that have across

the country?

2. When do judge overrides increase and for what reason?

3. Dene the 2002 Supreme Court case of Atkins v. Virginia.

4. Alabama’s capital statute requires that murder be intentional in order for a defendant to be eligible for

the death penalty. Why is this relevant in Richardson’s case?

5. Richardson was a U.S. war veteran who suered tremendous mental trauma while serving our nation.

How should that be factored into his defense?

6. What is “untimely” evidence? Was this a fair ruling, in your opinion, in Stevenson’s appeals ling?

7. Richardson remarks on the frequent oers of help from the prison sta during his nal day. What do

you make of these oers?

CHAPTER 4

8. At this point in Just Mercy, Stevenson’s legal defense center is seriously underfunded while also highly

in demand. Not many people would have the stamina to continue facing the major challenges he is

facing. What impact does Richardson’s execution have on him? How would you feel in his position?

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Reading: Key Ideas and Details: CCRA.R.1-R.2, Integration of Knowledge and

Ideas: CCRA.R.7, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCRA.R.10

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3, Production and

Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: CCRA.W.7-W.9

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

English Language Arts: History/Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details: RH.11-12.1-RH.11.12.3, Cra and

Structure: RH.11-12.6, Integration of Ideas: RH.11-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

RH.11-12.10

Of the Coming of John

SUMMARY

• Stevenson visits the home of Walter McMillian and meets his extended family. ey hold him in very

high regard and have pinned their hopes on Stevenson being able to help exonerate Walter.

• e family is in disbelief that Walter has been found guilty since he was with them at the exact time of

Ronda Morrison’s murder.

• Darnell Houston, a black auto parts store clerk, contacts Stevenson to conrm that one of the

eyewitnesses for Walter’s case lied under oath. His sworn adavit, which should help free Walter, only

creates a legal situation for himself.

• Stevenson then meets with the new district attorney of Monroe County aer ling a motion with the

Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals for a retrial. e DA informs him that the court has denied the

request despite Houston’s new testimony.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What is the origin of this chapter’s name?

2. While Stevenson is meeting Walter’s family, do you think he is condent Walter will be free? How

would you handle that situation?

3. How is the relationship between Stevenson and Walter changing? What does the author cite as an

important activity for lawyers to do when defending death row prisoners? Why?

4. Why does it annoy Stevenson that To Kill a Mockingbird is a point of pride in Monroeville?

5. How would you characterize Stevenson’s mood at the end of this chapter?

6. Based only on what you know up to this point, are you hopeful for Walter’s release?

ACTIVITY

Listen to Stevenson’s 2013 TED Talk and write a response to the topics he covers. Does hearing his voice change how

you read his book?

CHAPTER 5

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Reading: Key Ideas and Details: CCRA.R.1-R.2, Integration of Knowledge and

Ideas: CCRA.R.7, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCRA.R.10

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3, Production and

Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: CCRA.W.7

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

English Language Arts: History/Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details: RH.11-12.1-RH.11.12.3, Cra and

Structure: RH.11-12.6, Integration of Ideas: RH.11-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

RH.11-12.10

Surely Doomed

SUMMARY

• Bryan Stevenson is contacted by the grandmother of a fourteen-year-old boy named Charlie who is

being held in an Alabama jail facing capital murder charges.

• e Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for juveniles in a 1989 ruling; a year earlier the Court

barred the death penalty for children under the age of een.

• Stevenson hears the horric details of Charlie’s case: Charlie’s mother was beaten unconscious by her

drunken boyfriend who Charlie then shot. e live-in boyfriend, who frequently beat the mother, was

oen drunk, and was an intimidating presence to the young boy.

• When Stevenson visits with Charlie in an adult jail (not a juvenile detention center), he has a dicult

time communicating, but over time Charlie reports being abused by other inmates. He is scared,

scarred, and alone. Stevenson succeeds in having Charlie relocated.

• Months later, Stevenson mentions Charlie during a talk he is giving to a church group on incarcerated

children. Charlie’s story is so moving to an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Jennings, that they begin

writing letters to Charlie while he is held in the detention center.

• Over time they form a very close and important bond with Charlie, encouraging him to earn his

equivalency degree, and later nancing his college education.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. In what ways has the judicial system failed to protect Charlie?

2. What special circumstances of the murder victim lead to greater struggles for Charlie? Does this seem fair?

3. How does Stevenson nally convince Charlie to speak with him?

4. What is your opinion of Mr. and Mrs. Jennings?

ACTIVITY

Research and write a two-page paper on children and incarceration in your state. How are “minor” and “adult”

dened? Are there extenuating circumstances to crimes that change these denitions? Cite actual cases from your

state where these laws were tested.

CHAPTER 6

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Reading: Key Ideas and Details: CCRA.R.1-R.2, Integration of Knowledge and

Ideas: CCRA.R.7, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCRA.R.10

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3, Production and

Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: CCRA.W.7-W.9

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Reading: Literature: Key Ideas and Details: RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2

English Language Arts: Reading: Informational Text: Key Ideas and Details: RI.11-12.1-12.3, Range of

Reading and Level of Text Complexity: RI.11-12.10

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11–12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W.11-12.7-12.9, W.11-12.9.B

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

English Language Arts: History-Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details: RH.11-12.1-RH.11.12.3, Cra and

Structure: RH.11-12.6, Integration of Ideas: RH.11-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

RH.11-12.10

Justice Denied

SUMMARY

• In this chapter we see both a setback and a break.

• e Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals denies McMillian’s appeal despite Stevenson’s argument

that there was no credible corroboration of Myers’ testimony and that under Alabama law, the State

couldn’t rely exclusively on the testimony of an accomplice, there was prosecutorial misconduct,

racially discriminatory jury selection, and an improper change of venue and a challenge to Judge

Robert E. Lee Key’s override of the jury’s life sentence.

• Stevenson and a newly hired addition to his legal organization—Michael O’Connor—continue to

research McMillian’s case as they prepare to appeal the Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision. eir

discoveries include:

• Proof that an eyewitness, Bill Hooks, was paid by the sheri for his testimony.

• Hooks’ travel expenses for appearing at McMillian’s trial were paid by the sheri,

but this was never disclosed.

• Hooks was released from the Monroe County jail immediately aer making his statement

condemning Walter.

• Ralph Myers’ claim of knowing Walter before the murder was proven false.

• e sh fry Walter attended while the murder was committed was now conrmed.

• Walter’s truck was converted to a low-rider months aer the murder despite Hooks testifying

that he saw Walter’s low-rider parked at the scene of the crime.

• And perhaps the most signicant piece of new evidence: Ralph Myers, the State’s main

eyewitness, recanted his testimony to Stevenson and O’Connor.

• While in prison, Myers has a change of heart and desperately wants to correct the lies he told that

placed Walter on death row, but Stevenson and O’Connor can’t directly trust him so they further

investigate not only Ronda Morrison’s murder but also Vickie Lynn Pittman’s. ey speak with the

imprisoned Kitty Kelly, who conrms Myers’ new version of the truth.

• e lawyers also meet with the aunts of Vickie Lynn Pittman, who are frustrated about their rights

as the victim’s family. e 1991 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Payne v. Tennessee upheld the ability of

prosecutors to present evidence about the character of the victim in a capital sentencing trial. Millions

of state and federal dollars were authorized to create advocacy groups for crime victims in each state.

Victim services and outreach became critical components of the prosecutorial function, but not for

Pittman’s family.

CHAPTER 7

• Many poor and minority victims complained that they were not getting calls or support from local

police and prosecutors. Many weren’t included in the conversations about whether a plea bargain was

acceptable or what sentence was appropriate. Furthermore, a family’s victimization might be ignored

if they had relatives who were incarcerated. e expansion of victims’ rights ultimately made formal

what had always been true: Some victims are more protected and valued than others.

• e case of McCleskey v. Kemp presented convincing empirical evidence that the race of the victim is

the greatest predictor of who gets the death penalty in the United States. e study conducted for that

case revealed that oenders in Georgia were eleven times more likely to get the death penalty if the

victim was white than if the victim was black. In Alabama, even though 65 percent of all homicide

victims were black, nearly 80 percent of the people on death row were there for crimes against victims

who were white. Black defendant and white victim pairings increased the likelihood of a death

sentence even more.

• Despite collecting a signicant amount of evidence from individuals, Stevenson did not have access

to police records or other ocial documents. By ling a Rule 32 petition that would allow for another

trial as long as new evidence could be presented, he would obtain a discovery including access to the

prosecutor’s les.

• e Monroe County Circuit Court approves the discovery request. Stevenson and O’Connor are not

greeted warmly when they go to retrieve les from the district attorney’s oce. Soon aer, they start to

receive bomb threats.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why do you think the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the appeal at the start of this

chapter?

2. Does Myers seem any more reliable now than when he was put on the stand against Walter?

3. What are your feelings about Payne v. Tennessee?

4. How does the race of the victim factor into decisions about sentencing?

5. Stevenson and his team are able to discover a signicant amount of new evidence. inking back to

Chapter 5, are you any more hopeful now for Walter’s release?

ACTIVITY

• Based on the Supreme Court case of McCleskey v. Kemp, the class should break into teams of ve

students. Each team should appoint two people to represent McCleskey, two people to represent

Kemp, and one to act as a Supreme Court judge. Both sides should present evidence on which only the

judge should base a decision. Once each judge has made a ruling, the class should come together, and

each judge will present the decision along with the inuencing reasons.

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: CCRA.SL.1-

SL.3, Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: CCRA.SL.4

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3

English Language Arts: Reading: Literature: Key Ideas and Details: RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2

English Language Arts: Reading: Informational Text: Key Ideas and Details: RI.11-12.1-12.3, Integration of

Knowledge and Ideas: RI.11-12.8-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: RI.11-12.10

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W.11-12.7-12.9, W.11-12.9.B

English Language Arts: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: SL.11-12.1-SL.11-12.3,

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: SL.11-12.4, 12.6

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

English Language Arts: History/Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details: RH.11-12.1-RH.11.12.3, Cra and

Structure: RH.11-12.6, Integration of Ideas: RH.11-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

RH.11-12.10

• Was there one prevailing decision? Did it seem like the judges were basing their decisions only on the

facts presented directly to them, or were they also using their own emotions and previous thoughts on

the matter?

All God’s Children

SUMMARY

• In 2014, at the age of y-two, Trina Garnett has served thirty-eight years in prison. She has mental and

physical health issues and survived a rape by a prison guard. She is one of nearly ve hundred people

in Pennsylvania who have been condemned to mandatory life imprisonment without parole for crimes

they were accused of committing when they were between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. It is the

largest population of child oenders condemned to die in prison in any single jurisdiction in the world.

• Ian Manual was sentenced to die in prison by the State of Florida for a non-homicide crime when

he was just thirteen years old. Juveniles housed in adult prisons are ve times more likely to be the

victims of sexual assault. Rather than protect Ian, who was small for his age, by sending him to a

juvenile facility or keeping him separated from adult prisoners, prison ocials put him in solitary

connement, where he remained for eighteen years.

• By 2010, Florida had sentenced more than a hundred children to life imprisonment without parole for

non-homicide oenses. All of the youngest condemned children—thirteen or fourteen years of age—

were black or Latino. Florida had the largest population in the world of children condemned to die in

prison for non-homicides.

• In California, fourteen-year-old Antonio Nuñez was found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and

attempted murder of police ocers. Under California law, a juvenile has to be at least sixteen to

be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for murder. But there is no minimum age for

kidnapping, so the Orange County judge sentenced Antonio to imprisonment until death, asserting

that he was a dangerous gang member who could never be rehabilitated, despite his dicult

background and the absence of any signicant criminal history.

• At fourteen, Antonio became the youngest person in the United States condemned to die in prison for

a crime in which no one was physically injured.

• Many black and brown children develop criminal records for behavior that more auent children

engage in with impunity.

• e horric 1944 trial of George Stinney reected the racial politics of the South. It is an example of

how policies and norms once directed exclusively at controlling and punishing the black population

have ltered their way into our general criminal justice system today.

• Death-in-prison sentences like those served by Trina, Ian, and Antonio were insulated from legal

challenges or appeals by a maze of procedural rules, statutes of limitations, and legal barricades

designed to make successful postconviction challenges almost impossible.

• Stevenson decides to work on appeals for each of them.

CHAPTER 8

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Reading: Key Ideas and Details: CCRA.R.1-R.2, Integration of Knowledge and

Ideas: CCRA.R.7, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCRA.R.10

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3, Research to Build and

Present Knowledge: CCRA.W.7-W.9

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Reading: Literature: Key Ideas and Details: RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2

English Language Arts: Reading: Informational Text: Key Ideas and Details: RI.11-12.1-12.3, Integration of

Knowledge and Ideas: RI.11-12.8-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: RI.11-12.10

• He also publishes a report to draw attention to the plight of children in the United States who have

been sentenced to die in prison. e plan is to include photographs of the children, but only Florida

will grant permission for a photographer to enter the prison.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What evidence did criminologists have in 1991 to support their “super-predator” theory? What role

did race play in this theory? What do we now know about the validity of these predictions?

2. How would you have changed the ruling in Trina, Ian, and Antonio’s sentencing?

3. Describe what life was like for each of them before they were arrested. Should that understanding

about their backgrounds make a dierence in their sentencing?

4. Is justice being served when children are sentenced to die in prison?

5. How does Ian channel his emotions?

6. How would you react to receiving a letter like the one Ian writes to Stevenson?

ACTIVITY

• Research the Scottsboro Boys from newspapers during and soon aer the trial. Were papers in the

north covering the trial? Was the coverage dierent than in the local papers?

• en compare coverage of Trayvon Martin’s case. Were Florida newspapers covering this story the

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W.11-12.7-12.9, W.11-12.9.B

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

English Language Arts: History/Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details: RH.11-12.1-RH.11.12.3, Cra and

Structure: RH.11-12.6, Integration of Ideas: RH.11-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

RH.11-12.10

CHAPTER 9

I’m Here

SUMMARY

• e Rule 32 trial begins. Stevenson requests ve days, but the judge only allows two and a half.

• Many of Walter’s family, friends, and black community members show up in support on the rst day.

• e entire courtroom listens as Ralph Myers recants his original testimony. He is direct, well spoken

and believable. e rst day goes well.

• e second day brings early-morning surprises. Many white supporters of the State are allowed into

the courtroom early, lling up the visitors chairs while many of Walter’s family and supporters are

turned away. ose who can nd space must rst pass through a metal detector and cross paths with

an intimidating police dog.

• One elderly community leader, Mrs. Williams, had been emotionally scarred in 1965 by the police

and their attack dogs in Selma. She is too daunted to enter the courtroom and regrets not being able

to support Walter. e next day she gathers her courage, passes the dog, and lets all in the courtroom

know she is there; she was there.

• e third exhausting day goes well again, and the State puts on no rebuttal case, to Stevenson’s

surprise. ey anxiously await the judge’s ruling, fearing retaliation from those who fought so hard to

keep Walter in prison.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Does it seem like the judge now believes Ralph Myers?

2. What are your impressions of Mrs. Williams?

3. Stevenson remarks on several physical actions he takes during the trial. What are they and

are they eective?

4. Of all the evidence presented in this trial, which is the most likely to sway the judge’s ruling?

Which is the least likely?

5. Should Stevenson and O’Conner be concerned?

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3, Production and

Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

ACTIVITY

Using all of the same evidence Stevenson lists, prepare notes as if you were Stevenson. In what order would you

present the evidence to make the strongest case? Would you call (or ignore) any other witnesses? What would you

emphasize during your opening and closing remarks?

Mitigation

SUMMARY

• e internment of hundreds of thousands of poor and mentally ill people has been a driving force in

achieving record levels of imprisonment.

• Today, more than 50 percent of prison and jail inmates in the United States have a diagnosed mental

illness, a rate nearly ve times greater than that of the general adult population.

• e number of seriously mentally ill individuals in jail or prison is more than three times higher than

in hospitals; in some states that number is ten times higher.

• Corrections ocers are not always well trained to handle mental-health issues.

• While visiting Avery Jenkins, Stevenson is intimidated but not deterred by one of the corrections

ocers. Later Stevenson is touched by an act of kindness from that same corrections ocer.

• During Jenkins’ trial for a murder committed during a psychotic episode, medical professionals

explained that the psychosis and other serious mental health problems that burdened Jenkins could

lead to dangerous behavior, but this behavior was a manifestation of a serious illness, not a reection

of his character.

• Stevenson argues that we get angry when people fail to recognize the need for thoughtful and

compassionate assistance when it comes to the physically disabled, but because mental disabilities

aren’t visible in the same way, we tend to be dismissive of the needs of the disabled and are quick to

judge their decits and failures.

• Stevenson is able to win a retrial for Jenkins, who is removed from death row and placed in a facility

better equipped to deal with his mental health.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Recount the story of George Daniel and list each example of how he may have been treated unfairly.

Does everyone in the group agree?

2. If you were the prison warden where Avery Jenkins was held, would you allow your sta to proactively

declare their political opinions?

3. Who is Dorothea Dix and why is she important to this chapter?

4. Did your state play a role in the massive deinstitutionalization rates of the 1990s? What impact do

those actions have on today’s society?

CHAPTER 10

5. What does Stevenson mean when he uses the phrase “mitigation” in court?

ACTIVITY

• e Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) exists on donations. Based on what you’ve read so far in Just Mercy,

assume the role of head fund-raiser for the EJI and compose a two-page letter to potential donors

explaining why people should support the work of the EJI. What facts and/or examples would you use

to underscore your points?

• Exchange letters with your classmates and decide which letter would have the best likelihood

of eliciting donations.

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3, Production and

Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4

College and Career Readiness: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: CCRA.SL.1-

SL.3, Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: CCRA.SL.4

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4

English Language Arts: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: SL.11-12.1-SL.11-12.3,

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: SL.11-12.4, 12.6

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

I’ll Fly Away

SUMMARY

• e ruling from Walter McMillian’s Rule 32 hearing is nally in, and it is not favorable. Despite an

overwhelming amount of evidence, the court focuses only on Ralph Myer’s recantion. e court rules

that Myers had told the truth in the original trial despite his own admission that he had lied.

• e district attorney successfully argues that Myers must have been pressured to recant, however no

actual evidence to support that claim is presented, which makes the judge’s ruling hard to understand.

• But Stevenson and his legal team continue ghting and le an appeal in the Alabama Court of

Appeals. Based on the newly discovered evidence, Stevenson is still hopeful for relief for Walter. Even

if the court is unwilling to rule that Walter is innocent and should be released, the withholding of

exculpatory evidence is extreme enough that the court would have a hard time avoiding the case law

requiring a new trial.

• e television program 60 Minutes covers the McMillian case and does not portray the county and

the prosecution in a very favorable light, but the heightened awareness of the dubiousness of the case

convinces the Monroe County district attorney to bring in the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (ABI)

to reinvestigate the case.

• e detectives nd zero proof of Walter’s guilt but strong evidence of his innocence. e DA agrees

and joins Stevenson’s petition to drop all charges against Walter. e court rules in favor and aer six

years on death row, Walter is a free man and returns to his family and community.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Did the judge’s ruling surprise you?

2. Do you think the 60 Minutes segment hurt or helped Walter’s case?

3. Václav Havel, the great leader, says people in dicult situations need what one thing? How did having

this help Walter and his family?

4. Walter’s unfair incarceration took a permanent toll on his family. Can you relate to Walter’s wife’s

reaction?

5. Did Walter nally obtain justice?

6. Do you nd this case to represent the best or the worst—or something else —of our justice system?

CHAPTER 11

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, W.11-12.2, W.11-12.2.A,

W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of Writing:

W.11-12.4

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

ACTIVITY

Stevenson cites Havel as an inspiration of hope. Who or what is your inspiration? Write a one-page paper discussing

what gives you hope.

Mother, Mother

SUMMARY

• Marsha Colbey was a poor white woman with a husband and six children living in a FEMA trailer

when she became pregnant. Both she and her husband had jobs, but their wages were low, and she still

did not have enough money for prenatal medical visits.

• She delivered a stillborn baby whom she loved and named; the family mourned the death and

buried the infant next to their home. An untrusting and suspicious neighbor reported Colbey to the

authorities.

• e infant’s body was exhumed and before performing a formal examination, a forensic pathologist

with a history of premature and incorrect declarations determined Colbey’s baby was born alive and

would have survived with the aid of medical attention. Colbey was swily arrested.

• America struggles with high rates of infant mortality—much higher than in most developed countries.

e inability of many poor women to get adequate health care, including prenatal and postpartum

care, is a serious problem in this country.

• In 2006, Alabama passed a law that made it a felony to expose a child to a “dangerous environment”

in which the child could encounter drugs. ousands of mothers with children living in poor,

marginalized communities where drugs are rampant were put at risk of prosecution.

• e Alabama Supreme Court interpreted the term “environment” to include the womb and the term

“child” to include a fetus. Pregnant women can now be criminally prosecuted if there is any evidence

that they used drugs at any point during their pregnancy.

• For Marsha Colbey, there was little proof of any wrongdoing, but spurred on by a media narrative of

a bad (i.e. poor) mother gone crazy, a jury with many admitted biases found her guilty and she was

sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

• Two-thirds of all women in prison are there for nonviolent, low-level drug crimes or property crimes.

ousands of women have been sentenced to lengthy terms in prison for writing bad checks or for

minor property crimes that trigger mandatory minimum sentences.

• e collateral consequences of incarcerating women are signicant. Approximately 75 to 80 percent of

incarcerated women are mothers with minor children who have become more vulnerable and at-risk

and will remain so even aer their mothers come home.

• In 1996, Congress passed welfare reform legislation that gratuitously included a provision that

authorized states to ban people with drug convictions from receiving public benets and welfare

including public housing, food stamps, and other basic services. e population most aected by this

CHAPTER 12

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: CCRA.SL.1-

SL.3, Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: CCRA.SL.4

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

misguided law is formerly incarcerated women with children, most of whom were imprisoned for

drug crimes.

Stevenson and his team took on Colbey’s case, using the unfair jury selection as the basis for a retrial. It took

two years to settle the legal case and then another year to wrangle the Department of Corrections into giving

her full credit for the time she already served. She was nally freed in December 2012 aer ten years of wrongful

imprisonment.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Who is the most guilty of wrongdoing in Marsha’s case?

2. Do you think the verdict would have been dierent if the accused was the father of the infant?

3. What if Marsha was wealthy?

4. In what ways are female inmates more at risk than male inmates?

5. In your opinion, why do Alabama taxpayers allow their money to fund abusive institutions such as the

Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women? Does Tutwiler seem better or worse than some of the other prisons

Stevenson has described?

6. Reect on the statistics Stevenson cites for the imprisonment rates of women compared to men in the

past decade. Why are these rates so dierent?

ACTIVITY

• Working in teams of four, take on the role of Commissioner of the Alabama Department of

Corrections. Imagine you have been asked to create a plan to make improvements at Tutwiler Prison.

What would you prioritize? What new expectations would you put in place? Why would you make

these choices?

• Each team should present the plan to the class. Do you agree with your classmates’ recommendations?

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4

English Language Arts: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: SL.11-12.1-SL.11-12.3,

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: SL.11-12.4, 12.6

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

Recovery

SUMMARY

• In 1992, the year before Walter’s release, thirty-eight people were executed in the United States, the

highest number in modern history, and executions reached an all-time high of 98 in 1999.

• In 1993 Walter McMillian is released from prison. e media coverage brings national attention to his

release. Walter and Stevenson are regularly invited to public speaking events.

• e EJI is selected for the Olaf Palme International Human Rights Award; Walter stays home and

Stevenson travels to Sweden to accept the award.

• While in Stockholm, Stevenson watches a documentary on Walter’s case and sees Walter react in

uncharacteristically emotional ways that trouble him.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Why does Stevenson want to encourage news stories about Walter being released as a free man?

2. Stevenson is concerned about Walter returning to his life in his hometown. Are those concerns realistic?

3. Should wrongfully imprisoned people receive nancial restitution from the state? If so, how should the

amount be determined?

4. What impact does the conservative majority in Congress have on Stevenson’s work?

5. Why does the Swedish documentary disturb Stevenson?

ACTIVITY

Research laws in your state regarding restitution for wrongly imprisoned people and prepare a one-page summary

along with your thoughts on whether you agree with these decisions. Use at least one example from a recent case.

CHAPTER 13

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Reading: Key Ideas and Details: CCRA.R.1-R.2, Integration of Knowledge and

Ideas: CCRA.R.7, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCRA.R.10

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3; Research to Build and

Present Knowledge: CCRA.W.7-W.9

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Reading: Literature: Key Ideas and Details: RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2

English Language Arts: Reading: Informational Text: Key Ideas and Details: RI.11-12.1-12.3, Range of

Reading and Level of Text Complexity: RI.11-12.10

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4, Research to Build and Present Knowledge: W.11-12.7-12.9

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

English Language Arts: History/Social Studies: Key Ideas and Details: RH.11-12.1-RH.11.12.3, Cra and

Structure: RH.11-12.6, Integration of Ideas: RH.11-12.9, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

RH.11-12.10

Cruel and Unusual

SUMMARY

• Florida is one of a few states that allow the prosecutor to decide to charge a child in adult court for

certain crimes and has no minimum age for trying a child as an adult.

• Joe Sullivan, a thirteen-year-old with mental disabilities, is sentenced to life in prison with no chance

of parole for a crime he did not commit. While in prison, he attempts suicide several times and

develops multiple sclerosis, leaving him wheelchair-bound. Prisons are not equipped for this.

• Between 1990 and 2005, a new prison opened in the United States every ten days. Prison growth and

the resulting “prison industrial complex” made imprisonment so protable that millions of dollars

were spent lobbying state legislators to keep expanding the use of incarceration to respond to just

about any problem including health care issues like drug addiction, poverty that had led someone

to write a bad check, child behavioral disorders, and managing the mentally disabled poor. Even

immigration issues generated responses from legislators that involved sending people to prison.

• During their rst visit, Stevenson quickly comes to the assessment that Joe Sullivan should

not be serving life in prison without parole and les a petition to challenge the sentence as

unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. He’s hopeful that a 2005 Supreme Court ruling

that recognizes important dierences between children and adults and required that kids be

shielded from the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment will help persuade a court to nd

Joe’s sentence is unconstitutional.

• e Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment precedent requires not only that a particular sentence oend

“evolving standards of decency” but also that it be “unusual.” In 2002, there were about a hundred

people with intellectual disability facing execution when the Court banned the death penalty for

people with intellectual disabilities. In 2005, there were fewer than seventy-ve juvenile oenders on

death row when the Court banned the death penalty for kids, but more than 2,500 children in the

United States had been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

• e United States is the only country in the world that imposes life imprisonment without parole

sentences on children.

• In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Joe Sullivan and Terrance Graham’s cases.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What mistakes did the police make in Joe Sullivan’s case?

CHAPTER 14

2. What is the Eighth Amendment and what are its origins?

3. Stevenson focused on two subsets of children serving life sentences—which two, and why do you think

he chose them?

4. What prominent person gave Stevenson’s U.S. Supreme Court case public support. and why is it signicant?

5. Stevenson does not reveal the outcome of his Supreme Court hearing by the end of this chapter. What

do you think will happen?

6. Reect on the types of things kids do, and that you have done as a kid, that could lead to criminal

charges. In your opinion, are there ever reasonable situations where minors should be charged as

adults?

ACTIVITY

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Reading: Key Ideas and Details: CCRA.R.1-R.2, Integration of Knowledge and

Ideas: CCRA.R.7, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCRA.R.10

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Production and Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4; Research to

Build and Present Knowledge: CCRA.W.7-W.9

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

College and Career Readiness: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: CCRA.SL.2-

SL.3, Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: CCRA.SL.4, CCRA.SL.6

English Language Arts: Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration: SL.11-12.1, 12.1A,

SL.11-12.3, Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: SL.11-12.4, 12.6

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

Broken

SUMMARY

• Walter is diagnosed with dementia and his health starts to decline. is, along with the pending U.S.

Supreme Court hearing for Sullivan, numerous death row cases, and continuous funding issues all

start to overwhelm Stevenson.

• e increasing rate of executions in Alabama went against the national trend. Media coverage of all

the innocent people wrongly convicted had an eect on the death-sentencing rate in America, which

began to decline in 1999.

• By 2010, the number of annual executions fell to less than half the number in 1999. Several states were

seriously debating ending the death penalty. New Jersey, New York, Illinois, New Mexico, Connecticut,

and Maryland all took capital punishment o the books. Even in Texas the death-sentencing rate had

dropped dramatically, and the pace of executions had nally slowed.

• Alabama’s death-sentencing rate had also dropped from the late 1990s, but it was still the highest in

the country. By the end of 2009, Alabama had the nation’s highest execution rate per capita.

• In 2005 Stevenson argued a case at the U.S. Supreme Court that raised questions about the

constitutionality of certain methods of execution.

• Many states used drugs that had been banned for animal euthanasia because they caused a painful

and torturous death. e drugs weren’t readily available in the United States, and so states had started

importing them from European manufacturers. When the news spread that the drugs were being

used in executions in the United States, European producers stopped making them available. e

drugs became scarce, which prompted state correctional authorities to obtain them illegally, without

complying with FDA rules that regulate the interstate sale and transfer of drugs. Drug raids of state

correctional facilities were a bizarre consequence of this surreal drug dealing to carry out executions.

• Simply punishing the broken—walking away from them or hiding them from sight—only ensures that

they remain broken and we do, too. ere is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity.

• Stevenson writes that if we acknowledged our brokenness, we could no longer take pride in mass

incarceration, in executing people, in our deliberate indierence to the most vulnerable.

• When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you

can’t otherwise see; you hear things you can’t otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that

resides in each of us.

• Stevenson is honored to meet Rosa Parks and she advises him to remain brave.

CHAPTER 15

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the ways in which the system failed Jimmy Dill.

2. How is Walter judged at the nursing facility?

3. What eect did the events of September 11, 2001 have on the ght to appeal the death penalty?

4. To whom does the title of this chapter refer?

5. And the book title?

6. is chapter makes reference, not for the rst time, to a correctional facility breaking the law. To

what is Stevenson referring?

ACTIVITY

In this chapter, Stevenson feels overwhelmed and is ready to quit. Write him a letter outlining all the reasons you

would encourage him to continue on at the EJI.

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3, Production and

Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11-12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11-12.2,

W.11-12.2.A, W.11-12.2.B, W.11-12.3, W.11-12.3.A, W.11-12.3.D, W.11-12.3.E, Production and Distribution of

Writing: W.11-12.4

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.2A, L.11-

12.2B, L.11-12.6

The Stonecatchers’

Song of Sorrow

SUMMARY

• On May 17, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that sentences of life imprisonment without

parole imposed on children convicted of non-homicide crimes are cruel and unusual punishment

and constitutionally impermissible. It was the rst time the Court had issued a categorical ban on a

punishment other than the death penalty.

• Two years later, in June 2012, Stevenson and the EJI won a constitutional ban on mandatory life-

without-parole sentences imposed on children convicted of homicides.

• More than two thousand condemned people sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for crimes

committed when they were children were now potentially eligible for relief and reduced sentences.

• Along with their work on behalf of children, EJI’s work on the death penalty had also taken a hopeful

turn. e number of death row prisoners in Alabama for whom they’d won relief reached one

hundred.

• For the rst time in close to forty years, the country’s prison population did not increase in 2011. In

2012, the United States saw the rst decline in its prison population in decades.

• Under the new ruling, sentences were being overturned, yet some judges wanted to get as close to

life expectancy or natural death as possible before they would create release opportunities for child

oenders. For example, Antonio Nuñez’s judge in Orange County, California, replaced his sentence of

life imprisonment without parole with a sentence of 175 years (this was later reduced).

• In other cases, inmates were released immediately. Stevenson argues successfully for the release of

Robert Caston, who served forty-ve years, and Joshua Carter, who served more than y years.

• Stevenson takes on the task of implementing a project to change the way we talk about racial history

and contextualize contemporary race issues.

• e EJI created a reentry program for newly released clients who had already been in prison for

decades and had very few, if any, support systems to help them reenter society.

• e nal words of this chapter are “Go on, go on.”

CHAPTER 16

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Explain the title of this chapter; can you think of anyone who ts the description of a stonecatcher?

2. According to Stevenson, what are the four institutions in American history that have shaped our

approach to race and justice? Do you agree?

3. With regard to the EJI’s reentry program, what specically do you think this program should include?

What allowances would you make for people of dierent ages?

4. Two separate and surprising reactions occur during Robert Caston’s hearing —what are they and why are

they meaningful?

5. Why are wrongful convictions and illegal trials involving young children very common?

ACTIVITY

Write a review of Just Mercy for e New York Times Book Review. What strengths and potential weaknesses did

you nd in this book? Would you recommend it to others? What suggestions would you make for inclusion/

deletion in the second edition?

CORRELATES TO COMMON CORE STANDARDS

College and Career Readiness: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: CCRA.W.1-W.3; Production and

Distribution of Writing: CCRA.W.4

College and Career Readiness: Language: Conventions of Standard English: CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2,

CCRA.L.6

English Language Arts: Reading: Literature: Key Ideas and Details: RL.11–12.1, RL.11–12.2

English Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposes: W.11–12.1, 12.1.A, 12.1.B, 12.1.D, W.11–12.2,

W.11–12.2.A, W.11–12.2.B, W.11–12.3, W.11–12.3.A, W.11–12.3.D, W.11–12.3.E, Production and Distribution

of Writing: W.11–12.4

English Language Arts: Language: Conventions of Standard English: L.11–12.1, L.11–12.2, L.11–12.2A,

L.11–12.2B, L.11–12.6

Epilogue

FINAL ASSIGNMENT

Reread the two-page application you prepared in advance of reading

Just Mercy. Based on your reading and classroom discussions, revise this essay

to include any new thoughts you may have about the American justice system.

SUMMARY

• Walter passes away.

• At his funeral service, Stevenson shares the following thoughts:

• e death penalty is not about whether people deserve to

die for the crimes they commit. e real question of capital

punishment in this country is, Do we deserve to kill?

• Walter taught Stevenson that mercy is just when it is

freely given and rooted in hopefulness. Mercy is most

empowering, liberating, and transformative when it is

directed at the undeserving.