Just Mercy

In this chapter, Stevenson highlights the cases of several imprisoned people convicted of crimes they committed as young children. They are all EPI clients Stevenson has tried to help. The first is Trina Garnett. As a young child with intellectual disabilities, she watched her drunken, abusive father beat her mother and siblings and kill her dog with a hammer. After her mother died, her father began sexually abusing her. At fourteen, she accidentally caused a fire that resulted in the death of two boys. She is prosecuted as an adult, and due to mandatory minimum sentence, the judge is forced to condemn her to life in prison despite his “serious misgivings” (150). At an adult women’s prison, she is raped by a guard and becomes pregnant. She gives birth in shackles, her son is sent to foster care, and she receives no compensation for the crime against her.

The second case is that of Ian Manuel. Thirteen-year-old Ian shot a woman in the face during a botched robbery and was sentenced to life without parole. At an adult facility, he is held in solitary confinement so he will not be raped by older inmates. But solitary confinement causes Ian to mentally deteriorate—he begins cutting himself and ultimately spends eighteen solid years in solitary. He strikes up a correspondence with the woman he shot, and despite her pleas, “the courts ignored [her] call for a reduced sentence” (153). The third case is that of Antonio Nunez, who saw daily violence at home and within his gang-infested L.A. neighborhood. Antonio was shot in the street along with his older brother, who died. Traumatized, Antonio had several brushes with the law before becoming involved in a car chase and shootout at the age of fourteen. He was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping, as the judge deemed him unfit to be rehabilitated. Stevenson connects these juvenile offenders to George Stinney, a black child accused of killing a little white girl. He was nearly lynched but instead was convicted by an all-white jury and executed 81 days after the crime had been committed. He was fourteen. 

“Finally, the date for Walter McMillian’s hearing had arrived” (163). It took all of Stevenson and Michael’s efforts to get Walter a hearing at all, and they know that the new judge, Judge Norton, is already tired of the case. They are most concerned with Ralph Myers testimony—he is erratic and odd, and of course, he’s lied on the stand before. They do their best to prep him for testimony. Walter’s entire community comes out to support him at the hearing, a fact that clearly annoys DA Chapman and Sherriff Tate. Myers testifies first. He tells the courtroom that his previous testimony was all lies—Stevenson notes with pleasure that Judge Norton is now listening “with rapt attention” (170). Myers’ testimony is “direct and persuasive” (170).

On the second day of the hearing, Stevenson arrives on time to find all Walter’s black friends and family barred from the courtroom. When he is allowed to enter, Stevenson sees that the courtroom now includes a metal detector and a German Shepherd police dog. The benches are filled with white people. Livid, Stevenson complains and some of Walter’s supporters are allowed through. This includes Mrs. Williams, “an older black woman” (176) who, when she sees the police dog, cannot bear to enter the courtroom. After morning testimony, in which Myers’ caretakers at the psych facility confirm his story that he was threatened into testifying against Walter, Stevenson encounters Mrs. Williamson in the parking lot. She reveals that she was attacked by police dogs at the 1965 Civil Rights march in Selma. The next day, Mrs. Williamson walks past the dog.

The most damning evidence comes during the third day of the hearing. Stevenson presents Ralph Myers’ original interrogation tape, in which Sherriff Tate and others coercion of and threats against Ralph Myers. They confirm Ralph’s current testimony and were not originally provided to Walter’s original attorney, which is highly illegal. The DA chooses not to rebut. The judge asks both sides to create written briefs to help make his decision. 

In this chapter, Stevenson explores how prisons have replaced hospitals as repositories for people with severe, often incurable mental illnesses. He explains that in the nineteenth century, activists such as Dorothea Dix pushed for the transfer of the mentally ill from prisons, where they were abused by guards and other prisoners, to hospitals and private mental health facilities. However, by the mid twentieth century, abuse at these long-term treatment centers had become commonplace, and activists were now concerned that the rights of the mentally ill were being violated. People who had not committed crimes could not be involuntarily held, they argued. This “deinstitutionalization” led to greater freedom for those with mental illnesses, but this freedom also led to greater rates of incarceration in prisons and jails, which were not equipped to treat ill people.

One of Stevenson’s clients is George Daniel, a man who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident and developed hallucinations and erratic behavior patterns. Before his family could get him medical help, he fled on a bus and ended up in a scuffle with an armed policeman. In the scuffle, the policeman was killed. Ed Seger, the doctor who examined George, determined he was “malingering” (190)—that is, faking his psychosis. George was given the death penalty for the cop’s murder. As it turns out, Dr. Seger faked his credentials “for eight years” (190). Stevenson visits another mentally ill client, Avery Jenkins. In the parking lot, he sees a truck covered in Confederate flag bumper stickers and racist slogans. Stevenson is—against regulation—strip searched by the guard who owns that truck. In their first meeting, Stevenson can see how ill Avery is. Avery is unable to assist in his own defense, and just keeps asking about getting a chocolate milkshake.

At a hearing for Avery, Stevenson tells the court about the profound, traumatizing abuse Avery suffered while in foster care. He tells the court about how expecting Avery to live normally with no assistance was like expecting a legless man to climb stairs. Later, Stevenson encounters the strip search guard, who has been escorting Avery to the hearings and is now much kinder. The guard explains that he was also abused in foster care and appreciates what Stevenson did for Avery. He tells Stevenson he bought Avery a chocolate milkshake on the way home. Stevenson eventually gets Avery off death row and into a mental health facility. He later hears that the guard quit his job at the prison.