Critical Conversations with Bryan Stevenson: Works of Bryan Stevenson

"Just Mercy takes us inside America’s broken criminal justice system and compels us to confront inequality and injustice. Based on the bestselling book, the Just Mercy movie presents the unforgettable story of Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and the case of Walter McMillian (Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx), who was convicted and sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit."

"This feature documentary focuses on Stevenson's life and career – particularly his indictment of the U.S. criminal justice system for its role in codifying modern systemic racism – and tracks the intertwined histories of slavery, lynching, segregation and mass incarceration. Highlighting watershed moments involving cases and clients, True Justice offers a rare glimpse into the human struggle that is required when the poor and people of color are wrongly condemned or unfairly sentenced, and explores the personal toll it has taken on Stevenson and his colleagues."

The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

"Relying on rarely seen first-person accounts of the domestic slave trade, EJI’s critically acclaimed research materials, videography, exhibits on lynching and recently composed content on segregation, this museum will explore the history of racial inequality and its relationship to a range of contemporary issues from mass incarceration to police violence."

"Set on a six-acre site, the memorial uses sculpture, art, and design to contextualize racial terror. The site includes a memorial square with 800 six-foot monuments to symbolize thousands of racial terror lynching victims in the United States and the counties and states where this terrorism took place."

The permission for educational screenings of this film is granted by Netflix. Subscription is required. "The title refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads, 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.' The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from an array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis."

Kerr, Lisa. University of Toronto Law Journal. Winter 2017, Vol. 67 Issue 1, p104-123. 20p.

Toobin, Jeffrey. New Yorker. 8/22/2016, Vol. 92 Issue 25, p38-47. 9p

Aired on April 2, 2010