Bryan Stevenson Chapter Summary

Bryan Stevenson’s a black man from a poor family in Delaware grew up to be a lawyer, whose legal career was focused on helping marginalized people wrongly convicted or punitively sentenced for non-homicidal crimes. This work of literature was mostly focused on his account of the injustices, blatant racism and discrimination that the Criminal Justice System inflicted on the poor marginalized people of Alabama and other southern states. Stevenson presented a variety of cases throughout the book, however his main focus was on the case of Walter McMillian, a Black man falsely convicted of murder and was sentenced to death in Alabama in the 1980’s. Stevenson was the founder of Equal Justice Initiative, an organization that provides legal representation

McMillian was the main focus of this book, there were other cases presented showing the blatant racism and oppressive nature of the U.S during those times, especially towards poor young men and women of color. Through the work of EJI, Bryan was able to overturn death row conviction and reduce sentences for children and adolescents. As presented in the book it was not uncommon for a person with mental illness, a child of thirteen years old, or an innocent person to be sentenced to death or receive a life without parole sentence. In concert with the Juvenile Justice Department, Bryan was able to overturn some convictions, reduce sentence, but for some it was too late. One specific story outlined in this book was that of Antonio Nunez, a young man sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibly of parole for a kidnapping charge. When Antonio was thirteen, he and his brother was shot during a drive by, Antonio was critically injured and his brother died. Antonio was diagnosed with PTSD and moved out of South Central for his own safety. Antonio spent about six months in Nevada but was summoned to move back to California because he was on probation. When Antonio moved back, one night he went with two older men, who kidnapped a man and when pursued by the police, shots were fired towards the police. Although no one was injured during the incident, Antonio at the tender age of fourteen was sentenced to imprisonment without the possibly of parole. Bryan took on Antonio’s case arguing that children imprisoned to life without the possible of parole was cruel and unusual punishment. The California Court of Appeal ruled in Antonio’s case agreeing with Bryan that Antonio’s life imprisonment sentence was unconstitutional. Antonio, along with a number of other children’s cases and Bryan’s unwavering effort to help these children helped the Supreme Court pass the law that ruled the imprisonment of children without the possibly for Parole for non-homicidal crimes