Bryan Stevenson is a US lawyer, determined to help people.

After attending Harvard Law and John F Kennedy School of Government, he knew he wanted to work in Human Rights. Working for the Southern Centre for Human Rights, he was assigned to the state of Alabama. Seeing a desperate need for legal support, he established the EJI – Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama.

This was the only state that did not provide legal assistance to anyone on death row, So Bryan and others working in the EJI decided to do just that.

There were many that needed help. Walter McMillan was his first case and a tough one. He had been placed on death row even before he was convicted of a crime he did not commit. A white woman had been murdered and a false testimony from a white man was taken as evidence that Walter committed the crime.

The evidence proving he didn’t was mismanaged by his first lawyers and condemned him to death by electric chair. It didn’t take long before EJI and Bryan could clearly see this was a racist driven case – as are many more he investigates throughout this book.

This unabridged true story young adult edition of the original book shocked me over and over and over again. I sat shaking my head at the injustice over and over and over again. It also inspired me as Bryan and his colleagues at EJI fought against the odds, lack of hours, funds and heinous racism, for people who had been sent to death row when innocent.

He exposes time and time again, the injustice against children, disabled, intellectual disabled, or just plain innocent men and woman – mostly African American. Over the years, the EJI work to change laws and free many incarcerated men and woman who should never have been in prison, let alone death row, in the first place.

Now I’ve read the book, I’m going to watch the movie….

Author – Bryan Stevenson

Age – 13+

Non-Fiction

(2019, Young Adult Edition, USA, American, Prison, Death Row, Non-Fiction, Crime, Murder, Innocent, Family, Faith, Human Rights, Racism, Prejudice, Alabama, Law, Attorney, Lawyer, Court Room, Guilty, Conviction, Determination, Love, Broken People, Empathy, Understanding, Tolerance, Patience, Society)