Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
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10 In fact, it was in the 1950s … Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina all began to fly the Confederate battle flag in symbolic opposition to the Brown decision. James Forman Jr., “Driving Dixie Down: Removing the Confederate Flag from Southern State Capitols,” Yale Law Journal 101 (1991): 505.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: I’LL FLY AWAY
1 In a landmark ruling, New York Times v. Sullivan … New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964).
2 When he was first arrested … Several local newspapers highlighted the sodomy charge. Mary Lett, “McMillian Is Charged with Sodomy,” Monroe Journal (June 18, 1987); “Myers Files Sodomy Charges Against McMillan [sic],” Evergreen Courant (June 18, 1987); Bob Forbish, “Accused Murderer Files Sodomy Charges Against His Accomplice,” Brewton Standard (June 13–14, 1987).
3 “Those entering the courtroom”… Dianne Shaw, “McMillian Sentenced to Death,” Monroe Journal (September 22, 1988).
4 Despite all of the evidence … On the same day it published an article on the ongoing hearings in the McMillian case, the Mobile Press Register reminded readers in another article that Walter McMillian had been arrested and charged with the Pittman murder. Connie Baggett, “Ronda Wasn’t Only Girl Killed,” Mobile Press Register (July 5, 1992). A Monroe Journal article about the McMillian proceedings also mentioned Walter McMillian’s indictment in the Pittman murder. Marilyn Handley, “Tape About Murder Played at Hearing for the First Time,” Monroe Journal (April 23, 1992).
5 “Convicted Slayer Wanted in East Brewton”…“Convicted Slayer Wanted in EB Student Murder,” Brewton Standard (August 22, 1988).
6 “Myers and McMillian were part”… Connie Baggett, “Infamous Murder Leaves Questions,” Mobile Press Register (July 5, 1992).
7 “Too many of these [out-of-town] writers”… Editorial, “ ‘60 Minutes’ Comes to Town,” Monroe Journal (June 25, 1992).
8 The Journal added that Chapman offered … Marilyn Handley, “CBS Examines Murder Case,” Monroe Journal (July 8, 1992).
9 The local writers complained … Connie Baggett, “DA: TV Account of McMillian’s Conviction a ‘Disgrace,’ ” Mobile Press Register (November 24, 1992).
10 The attorney general’s motion … Motion from State to Hold Case in Abeyance, McMillian v. State, 616 So. 2d 933 (Ala. Crim. App. 1993), filed February 3, 1993.
11 But Havel had said that these … Václav Havel, “Never Hope Against Hope,” Esquire (October 1993), 68.
CHAPTER TWELVE: MOTHER, MOTHER
1 Cook, who worked at the elementary school … State v. Colbey, 2007 WL 7268919 (Ala. Cir. Ct. 2007) (No. 2005-538), 824.
2 Enstice had a history of prematurely … State v. Colbey, 2007, 1576.
3 The pathologist subsequently performed an autopsy … State v. Colbey, 2007, 1511–21.
4 She not only concluded … State v. Colbey, 2007, 1584.
5 In fact, nationwide, most women …“Case Summaries for Current Female Death Row Inmates.” Death Penalty Information Center, available at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/case-summaries-current-female-death-row-inmates, accessed August 13, 2013.
6 She testified that her conclusion … State v. Colbey, 2007, 1585.
7 Dr. McNally testified that Mrs. Colbey’s … State v. Colbey, 2007, 1129, 1133.
8 Enstice’s conclusion was … State v. Colbey, 2007, 1607.
9 Police investigators went into her home … State v. Colbey, 2007, 1210, 1271, 1367.
10 Ms. Colbey consistently maintained … State v. Colbey, 2007, 1040, 1060.
11 Ms. Colbey rejected the State’s offer … Supplemental Record at State v. Colbey, 155.
12 Time magazine called the prosecution … John Cloud, “How the Casey Anthony Murder Case Became the Social-Media Trial of the Century,” Time (June 16, 2011).
13 The criminalization of infant mortality … This phenomenon of charging women, particularly poor women and women of color, who give birth to stillborn babies or children who live only a short time, now seems commonplace to a casual observer of current events. Michelle Oberman, “The Control of Pregnancy and the Criminalization of Femaleness,” Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law, and Justice 7 (2013): 1; Ada Calhoun, “The Criminalization of Bad Mothers,” New York Times (April 25, 2012).
14 This new information led the prosecutor … Stephanie Taylor, “Murder Charge Dismissed in 2006 Newborn Death,” Tuscaloosa News (April 9, 2009).
15 We won her freedom after establishing … Carla Crowder, “1,077 Days Later, Legal Tangle Ends; Woman Free,” Birmingham News (July 18, 2002).
16 In time, the Alabama Supreme Court … Ex parte Ankrom, 2013 WL 135748 (Ala. January 11, 2013); Ex parte Hicks, No. 1110620 (Ala. April 18, 2014).
17 Some jurors indicated that they found … Supplemental Record, State v. Colbey, 2007, 516–17, 519–20, 552.
18 Several revealed that they had … Supplemental Record, State v. Colbey, 2007, 426–27, 649.
19 Another juror admitted trusting … Supplemental Record, State v. Colbey, 2007, 674.
20 Approximately 75 to 80 percent … Angela Hattery and Earl Smith, Prisoner Reentry and Social Capital: The Long Road to Reintegration (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2010).
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: CRUEL AND UNUSUAL
1 Joe was made to say in court …
DEFENSE COUNSEL: All right. If you can’t identify me, then I may not have to kill you.
DEFENDANT: If you cannot identify me, I maybe won’t kill you.
WITNESS: It sounds—there’s a tone in your voice that’s just like that, only you said it very loud to me that time in a belligerent way.
PROSECUTOR: I don’t want to argue about it. Are you able to say that’s the voice of the person?
WITNESS: There’s a tone in that voice that makes me know its that person.
PROSECUTOR: So you are saying the person who just spoke to you is the person that said that to you that day?
WITNESS: It sounds like the voice.
PROSECUTOR: All right.
WITNESS: It’s been six months. It’s hard, but it does sound similar. But it’s said in a different way. See, the tone—it was said to me very belligerent in a loud voice.
Tr. I 86–88 (emphasis added).
2 Despite numerous potentially meritorious grounds … See Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 744 (1967). The brief asserted that counsel could perceive no issues worthy of appellate consideration.
3 “A rapid and dramatic increase”… Brief of Petitioner, Sullivan v. Florida, U.S. Supreme Court (2009). Charles Geier and Beatriz Luna, “The Maturation of Incentive Processing and Cognitive Control,” Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior 93 (2009): 212; see also L. P. Spear, “The Adolescent Brain and Age-Related Behavioral Manifestations,” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 24 (2000): 417 (“[A]dolescence is of its essence, a period of transitions rather than a moment of attainment.”); also 434 (discussing radical hormonal changes in adolescence). Laurence Steinberg et al., “Age Differences in Sensation Seeking and Impulsivity as Indexed by Behavior and Self-Report,” Develpmental Psychology 44 (2008): 1764; Laurence Steinberg, “Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice,” Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 5 (2009): 459, 466.
4 We argued in court that, relative to … See B. Luna, “The Maturation of Cognitive Control and the Adolescent Brain,” in From Attention to Goal-Directed Behavior, ed. F. Aboitiz and D. Cosmelli (New York: Springer, 2009), 249, 252–56 (cognitive functions that underlie decision-making are undeveloped in early teens: processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory do not reach maturity until about the age of fifteen); Elizabeth Cauffman and Laurence Steinberg, “(Im)maturity of Judgment in Adolescence: Why Adolescents May Be Less Culpable than Adults,” Behavioral Science and Law 18 (2000): 741, 756 (significant gains in psychosocial maturity take place after the age of sixteen); Leon Mann et al., “Adolescent Decision-Making,” Journal of Adolescence 12 (1989): 265, 267–70 (thirteen-year-olds show less knowledge, lower self-esteem as dec
ision-makers, produce less choice options, and are less inclined to consider consequences than fifteen-year-olds); Jari-Erik Nurmi, “How Do Adolescents See Their Future? A Review of the Development of Future Orientation and Planning,” Develpmental Review 11 (1991): 1, 12 (planning based on anticipatory knowledge, problem definition, and strategy selection used more frequently by older adolescents than younger ones).
5 “the products of an environment”… Sullivan v. Florida, Brief of Petitioner, filed July 16, 2009.
6 Former juvenile offenders who had later become … Brief of Former Juvenile Offenders Charles S. Dutton, Former Sen. Alan K. Simpson, R. Dwayne Betts, Luis Rodriguez, Terry K. Ray, T. J. Parsell, and Ishmael Beah as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioners, Graham v. Florida/Sullivan v. Florida, U.S. Supreme Court (2009).
Chapter FIFTEEN: BROKEN
1 James “Bo” Cochran had been released … Cochran v. Herring, 43 F.3d 1404 (11th Cir. 1995).
2 But then a few years later, rates of execution …“Facts About the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center (May 2, 2013), available at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/FactSheet.pdf, accessed August 31, 2013.
3 By 2010, the number of annual executions … There were 46 executions in 2010 compared to 98 in 1999. “Executions by Year Since 1976,” Death Penalty Information Center, available at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions-year, accessed April 29, 2014.
4 New Jersey, New York, Illinois … Act of May 2, 2013, ch. 156, 2013 Maryland laws; Act of April 25, 2012, Pub. Act No. 12-5, 2012 Connecticut Acts (Reg. Sess.); 725 Illinois Comp. Stat. 5/119-1 (2011); Act of March 18, 2009, ch. 11, 2009 New Mexico laws; Act of December 17, 2007, ch. 204, 2007 New Jersey laws.
5 Even in Texas, where nearly 40 percent … In 2010, eight people were sentenced to death in Texas, following a recent trend in the state of eight to fourteen death sentences per year. In the 1990s, however, Texas routinely sentenced between twenty-four and forty people to death each year. “Death Sentences in the United States from 1977 by State and by Year,” Death Penalty Information Center, available at www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-sentences-united-states-1977-2008, accessed August 31, 2013.
6 Alabama’s death-sentencing rate …“Alabama’s Death Sentencing and Execution Rates Continue to Be Highest in the Country,” Equal Justice Initiative (February 3, 2011), available at www.eji.org/node/503, accesssed August 31, 2013.
7 The Court ruled unanimously in our favor … Nelson v. Campbell, 541 U.S. 637 (2004).
8 Many states were using drugs … Ty Alper, “Anesthetizing the Public Conscience: Lethal Injection and Animal Euthanasia,” Fordham Urban Law Journal 35 (2008): 817.
9 When the news spread that the drugs … In early 2011, Hospira, Inc., the sole U.S. producer of the lethal injection drug sodium thiopental, halted production of the drug due to concerns of its use in lethal injections. Nathan Koppel, “Drug Halt Hinders Executions in the U.S.,” Wall Street Journal (January 22, 2011). Similarly, Danish company Lundbeck stopped selling execution drug pentobarbital to prisons in states that carry out the death penalty. Jeanne Whalen and Nathan Koppel, “Lundbeck Seeks to Curb Use of Drug in Executions,” Wall Street Journal (July 1, 2011).
10 Drug raids of state correctional facilities … Kathy Lohr, “Georgia May Have Broken Law by Importing Drug,” NPR (March 17, 2011), available at www.npr.org/2011/03/17/134604308/dea-georgia-may-have-broken-law-by-importing-lethal-injection-drug, accessed August 31, 2013; Nathan Koppel, “Two States Turn Over Execution Drug to U.S.,” Wall Street Journal (April 2, 2011), available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576236931802889492.html, accessed August 31, 2013.
11 The U.S. Supreme Court, in Baze v. Rees … Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35 (2008).
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE STONECATCHERS’ SONG OF SORROW
1 On May 17, 2010, I was sitting … Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48 (2010).
2 Two years later, in June 2012 … Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012).
3 His jury was illegally selected … Shaw v. Dwyer, 555 F. Supp. 2d 1000 (E.D. Mo. 2008).
4 He was given a mandatory … Banyard v. State, 47 So. 3d 676 (Miss. 2010).
5 The Court emphasized the trial court’s … Evans v. State, 109 So. 3d 1044 (Miss. 2013).
6 I believe that there are four institutions … Alex Carp, “Walking with the Wind: Alex Carp Interviews Bryan Stevenson,” Guernica (March 17, 2014), available at www.guernicamag.com/interviews/walking-with-the-wind/, accessed April 30, 2014.
7 I had to go back to an appellate court … People v. Nunez, 195 Cal.App. 4th 404 (2011).
8 But to coerce a confession from him … State v. Carter, 181 So. 2d 763 (La. 1965).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BRYAN STEVENSON is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and a professor of law at New York University Law School. He has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, argued five times before the Supreme Court, and won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color. He has received numerous awards, including the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant.
www.eji.org
Bryan Stevenson is available for select readings and lectures. To inquire about a possible appearance, please contact the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau at 212-572-2013 or speakers@penguinrandomhouse.com.