Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is a memoir by Bryan Stevenson that documents his career as a lawyer for disadvantaged clients. The book, focusing on injustices in the United States judicial system, alternates chapters between documenting Stevenson's efforts to overturn the wrongful conviction of Walter McMillian and his work on other cases, including children who receive life sentences and other poor or marginalized clients.
Initially published by Spiegel & Grau, then an imprint of Penguin Random House, on 21 October 2014 in hardcover and digital formats and by Random House Audio in audiobook format read by Stevenson, a paperback edition was released on 16 August 2015 by Penguin Random House and a young adult adaptation was published by Delacorte Press on 18 September 2018. The memoir was later adapted into a 2019 movie of the same name by Destin Daniel Cretton and, commemorating the film, "Movie Tie-In" editions were released for both versions of the memoir on 3 December 2019 by imprints of Penguin Random House.
The memoir has received many honors and won multiple non-fiction book awards. It was a New York Times best seller and spent more than 230 weeks on the paperback nonfiction best sellers list. It won the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, given annually by the American Library Association. Stevenson's acceptance speech for the award, given at the Library Association's annual meeting, was said to be the best that many of the librarians had ever heard, and was published with acclaim by Publishers Weekly. The book was also awarded the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction and the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Nonfiction. It was named one of "10 of the decade's most influential books" in December 2019 by CNN.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is a memoir by Bryan Stevenson that documents his career as a lawyer for disadvantaged clients. The book, focusing on injustices in the United States judicial system, alternates chapters between documenting Stevenson's efforts to overturn the wrongful conviction of Walter McMillian and his work on other cases, including children who receive life sentences and other poor or marginalized clients.
Initially published by Spiegel & Grau, then an imprint of Penguin Random House, on 21 October 2014 in hardcover and digital formats and by Random House Audio in audiobook format read by Stevenson, a paperback edition was released on 16 August 2015 by Penguin Random House and a young adult adaptation was published by Delacorte Press on 18 September 2018. The memoir was later adapted into a 2019 movie of the same name by Destin Daniel Cretton and, commemorating the film, "Movie Tie-In" editions were released for both versions of the memoir on 3 December 2019 by imprints of Penguin Random House.
The memoir has received many honors and won multiple non-fiction book awards. It was a New York Times best seller and spent more than 230 weeks on the paperback nonfiction best sellers list. It won the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, given annually by the American Library Association. Stevenson's acceptance speech for the award, given at the Library Association's annual meeting, was said to be the best that many of the librarians had ever heard, and was published with acclaim by Publishers Weekly. The book was also awarded the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction and the 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Nonfiction. It was named one of "10 of the decade's most influential books" in December 2019 by CNN.
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Find Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
2 books in catalog
Nonfiction literature documenting the American legal system gained a landmark memoir with Just Mercy, an account of capital defense work on behalf of marginalized death row prisoners and juvenile offenders. Bryan Stevenson wrote the bestselling narrative drawing from decades of litigation as a public interest attorney advocating for the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned.
Born on November 14, 1959, in Milton, Delaware, Bryan Stevenson earned his undergraduate degree from Eastern University in 1981 before graduating from Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School with a J.D. and M.P.P. in 1985. That same year, he began representing capital defendants as a staff attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. In 1989, Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, where he continues to serve as executive director. He joined the clinical faculty at New York University School of Law in 1998 and later became the Aronson Family Professor of Criminal Justice. Over his career, Stevenson has argued multiple cases before the United States Supreme Court—winning rulings that banned mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles and protected condemned prisoners with dementia. He has won relief for dozens of death row prisoners, earned national acclaim challenging bias against the poor and people of color, and received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant.
Stevenson's prose combines legal history, courtroom reportage, and personal narrative to critique systemic racial and economic bias in the American criminal justice system. His work focuses on the human cost of mass incarceration, excessive sentencing, and the denial of adequate legal counsel to impoverished defendants. Through detailed case accounts, Stevenson frames legal reform as a moral necessity centered on human dignity and equal justice. This perspective connects closely with complementary works on systemic inequity in the region, such as Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, which illuminates how rural poverty and institutional neglect affect vulnerable communities in Alabama.
2 books in catalog
Nonfiction literature documenting the American legal system gained a landmark memoir with Just Mercy, an account of capital defense work on behalf of marginalized death row prisoners and juvenile offenders. Bryan Stevenson wrote the bestselling narrative drawing from decades of litigation as a public interest attorney advocating for the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned.
Born on November 14, 1959, in Milton, Delaware, Bryan Stevenson earned his undergraduate degree from Eastern University in 1981 before graduating from Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School with a J.D. and M.P.P. in 1985. That same year, he began representing capital defendants as a staff attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. In 1989, Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, where he continues to serve as executive director. He joined the clinical faculty at New York University School of Law in 1998 and later became the Aronson Family Professor of Criminal Justice. Over his career, Stevenson has argued multiple cases before the United States Supreme Court—winning rulings that banned mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles and protected condemned prisoners with dementia. He has won relief for dozens of death row prisoners, earned national acclaim challenging bias against the poor and people of color, and received the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant.
Stevenson's prose combines legal history, courtroom reportage, and personal narrative to critique systemic racial and economic bias in the American criminal justice system. His work focuses on the human cost of mass incarceration, excessive sentencing, and the denial of adequate legal counsel to impoverished defendants. Through detailed case accounts, Stevenson frames legal reform as a moral necessity centered on human dignity and equal justice. This perspective connects closely with complementary works on systemic inequity in the region, such as Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, which illuminates how rural poverty and institutional neglect affect vulnerable communities in Alabama.
