Since the 1980s, Bryan Stevenson has established himself as one of America’s most effective lawyers in obtaining the exoneration of death row inmates. From Alabama trial courts to the U.S. Supreme Court, his advocacy has freed the wrongly condemned and produced important legal precedents. Now in his mid-50s, Stevenson has written a gripping memoir that details his modest upbringing, Harvard education, struggles as a black lawyer in the Deep South, frustrations in representing the poor, building a successful public interest law practice from scratch, and triumphs against a criminal justice system that too often (at least 152 times since 1973) sentences innocent people to die.
Born in 1959, Stevenson grew up in a segregated settlement on the eastern shore of the Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware. A “racial hierarchy” prevailed that “required symbols, markers, and constant reinforcement,” such as the wide displaying of the Confederate flag. “Black people around me were strong and determined,” he writes, “but [were] marginalized and excluded.” This personal history is enlivened by the author’s recollections of his grandmother, who was the daughter of Caroline County, Virginia, slaves.
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