Just Mercy

I have just read the book "Just Mercy:  A Story of Justice and Redemption",  by Byran Stevenson, and I recommend it.

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Hebrews 13:3

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.  Mathew 25: 35-37

In these words of Jesus written in the gospel of Mathew the message is pretty clear.  Attending to the hungry, thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the prisoner, whom Jesus referred to as the least of these, is like doing it for and to Jesus.  We are taught to serve the "least of these" and in every church and community where we have  lived and participated, there have always been ample opportunity for service to the needy.   In my life's work  I have done at least a bit of the first six on this list, but practically nothing of the last - visiting the prisoner.  

Only a few times, once each in Ecuador, El Salvador, and Minnesota, did I visit and try to advocate for prisoners - cases of people incarcerated unjustly.  But overall, visiting and giving comfort to prisoners is, sadly, a big void in my practice as a follower of Christ. 

Why is that?  Am I fearful and judgmental, or is it that the prisoners are so completely out of sight that I avoid them and hope I don't have to deal with them.  

One who has thrown himself into a life of working to help the incarcerated is Bryon Stevenson, the author of, "Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption."  It is a gripping memoir that personalized the struggle against injustice, racism, and mistreatment of prisoners.  He has brought comfort and release of the prisoners in numerous cases - while exposing the unfairness of the criminal justice system in this country, especially as applied to children, the poor and the black population. 

Stevenson, who is black, grew up in poverty. His great-great grand parents had been slaves in Virginia. His grandfather was murdered in a Philadelphia housing project when Stevenson was a teenager.  After college he went to Harvard Law School and developed a passion for working with  prisoners on death row.  He eventually moved to Montgomery Alabama and co-founded a non-profit called the Equal Justice Initiative. (EJI)

The book tells the stories of some of his clients.  There are many stories in this book, but the core narrative is the story of Walter McMillan who was innocent of a murder for which he was convicted and sent to death row.  McMillan lived in Monroeville, Alabama the home of Harper Lee who wrote the book “To Kill A Mockingbird.”  Stevenson also tells about several cases of children as young as age 14 who got life sentences without the possibility of parole - essentially condemned to death in prison.  Stevenson took one of these cases all the way to the United States Supreme Court in 2012. The Court held that mandatory life sentences without parole for children violated the eighth amendment.

The book tells horrific stories of injustice and suffering, but one comes to the end of most of the chapters feeling that the title gets it right… these are also stories of redemption, that brought tears to my eyes.  It is, in the end, a book of hope.  Stevenson does not write directly about his faith, but he doesn't have to… his life is a living example of the power of redemption and of accompanying the "least of those" of whom Jesus referred.  

I am sorry to say I had never heard of the EJI or Bryan Stevenson, but in reading this book, he had an impact on me.  I came away with the feeling that I should do something… and now I ponder what that might be.  Hopefully a life-time of apathy toward the prisoner can be jarred out of me, at least a little bit.