In this #unabridgedbookclub episode, we discuss Bryan Stevenson's nonfiction book Just Mercy.  Stevenson discusses his work as an attorney with prisoners on death row and with individuals who were sentenced to life in prison when they were children.During our discussion, we strive to cover the plethora of issues raised by the book, including mass incarceration, the way we deal with mental disabilities and mental illness, the death penalty, and the role of poverty in the criminal justice system. Our conversation, like the book, is wide ranging both in topic and emotion as we reflect on what we gained from Stevenson's book. This truly is, as Sara says in the episode, a book that should be a "must read."

 

timeline

*Introduction: 00:00 - 01:42

*Just Mercy: 01:43 - 52:19

*​Book Pairings: 52:30 - 61:10

*Classroom Connections: 61:15 - 64:04

book pairings 

*Ashley - Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

*Jen - Ernest Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying

*Sara - Beth Macy’s Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America

other mentions and additional resources

*Equal Justice Initiative 

*"Michael B. Jordan Headlines Film Adaptation of Criminal Justice Memoir, 'Just Mercy'"

*"Lethal Injections: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)"

*Bryan Stevenson’s TED Talk: “We need to talk about an injustice”

*In the Dark Podcast (Season Two)

*Ian Richardson's Story

*Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

*Orange Is the New Black series

*Loving film

*Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “The Case for Reparations”

*Richard Wright's Black Boy and Native Son

*Patrisse Khan Cullers and Asha Bandele's When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

Check out what's coming up next.

 

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