Just Mercy: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

In 2010, the Supreme Court bans sentences of life without parole in non-homicide juvenile cases, ruling that it violates the eighth amendment as “cruel and unusual punishment.” Two years later, EJI fights on behalf of Evan Miller and Kuntrell Jackson before the Supreme Court, seeking a ban on mandatory life without parole sentences for juvenile homicide cases. They win the case, bringing hope for the possibility of release to over 2,000 people, including Trina Garrett and Ashley Jones. EJI wins a reduced sentence in the case of several young people whose convictions involved illegal jury selection, jury manipulation, inadmissible evidence, and failure to allow evidence of pertinent experiences, such as child abuse. EJI moves to tackle any incarceration of juveniles in adult facilities and the practice of prosecuting young children in adult courts. Stevenson argues that young children aren’t equipped to handle the procedures of adult court.

By the early 2010’s, EJI achieves success in dramatically slowing the execution rate in Alabama. The number of death sentences successfully reversed by EJI reaches 100. By 2013, Alabama reaches its lowest number of new death sentences since the reinstitution of the death penalty in the 1970’s. Still, individual cases of injustice remain. EJI is unable to secure relief for Anthony Ray Hinton, a “clearly innocent” man who had been on Alabama’s death row for nearly 30 years. Stevenson describes how Mr. Hinton’s underfunded lawyer failed to provide sufficient evidence and didn’t present the countless witnesses to Hinton’s alibi. The media “cit[es] innocence fatigue” and refuses to cover Hinton’s story. Stevenson describes the comfort he takes in overall progress against mass incarceration throughout the United States. In 2012, the number of incarcerated people declined for the first time “in decades.” California also ended the “three strikes” law that mandated long sentences for multiple petty crimes, and the state nearly banned the death penalty.

EJI finally launches a long-hoped-for “race and poverty” project. The project is focused on educating the public about the American history of racial injustice and its connection to modern societal problems. They talk to families in poor communities, host educational programming for high school students, and create and circulate reports and educational materials to “deepen the national conversation” about America’s racial history.

Stevenson describes four periods of America’s racial history and he explains how these periods are often misrepresented to the public as being isolated incidents in the larger historical narrative of progress. The first period is slavery. The second is the post-Reconstruction era, a period of organized violence against black people that is omitted from modern discussions of “terrorism.” Stevenson considers the death penalty to be a modern continuation of lynching. He describes how violence created an “enforced racial hierarchy” and how the law re-enslaved black people for petty crimes through “convict leasing.” Next, Stevenson describes how Jim Crow laws perpetuated “racial segregation, racial subordination, and marginalization.” Stevenson describes modern oppression through “innocent mistakes” against people of color, citing an occasion when a white judge assumed Stevenson was the defendant because he is black. The fourth stage, Stevenson writes, is mass incarceration of poor, black, and undocumented people, and the consequences this has on perpetuating inequality.

EJI’s Supreme Court victories mean a much bigger caseload. As they now pursue hundreds of individual sentences throughout the country, they encounter resistance from local courts. For example, a California judge commutes Antonio Núñez’s life sentence to 175 years. With persistence, EJI gets reasonable release dates secured for Antonio, Joe Sullivan, and Ian Manuel. They develop a re-entry program, which will help persuade the courts to change sentences. EJI prioritizes cases in Louisiana, where many “old-timers” have served decades for juvenile offenses. Many of these are at Angola prison, a former slavery-era cotton plantation where modern inmates were forced into dangerous labor and regularly punished with expanded sentences for petty violations. New programs rewarding good behavior, however, allow some of these lifers to become recognized mentors. EJI begins with the cases of Joshua Carter and Robert Caston, two men serving life at Angola for non-homicide crimes committed as children in the 1960’s.

Mr. Carter and Mr. Caston, now in their sixties, were both forced laborers at Angola who became disabled from labor-related injuries and medical neglect. Mr. Carter’s mother, now in her 90’s, “vowed […] she wouldn’t die until he came home from prison.” EJI schedules several hearings on their behalf. Each time they come to the New Orleans courtroom, the judge is too busy reviewing a long line of cases all scheduled for the same time. Eventually, EJI and the local counselor succeed in getting their hearings. The judge grants their motion for Mr. Caston’s release and gives a speech about the years he lost in prison. Suddenly, the busy courtroom, full of other lawyers and their clients, becomes silent. When she finishes, everyone starts clapping. Their motion for Mr. Carter is also approved, and the two men become the first juvenile lifers released following the Supreme Court’s ruling.

After the hearings, Stevenson meets an old woman outside the courtroom. She hugs him and tells him to sit down. She isn’t connected to any of the cases, she explains, but years before, her beloved grandson was killed by two other boys. When they were sentenced to life, her pain only intensified. A stranger saw her crying and comforted her. Soon after, she began coming to the courtroom to offer families of victims and the accused someone to “lean on.” She calls herself a “stonecatcher,” referencing Stevenson’s church speech in Monroeville years before. Stevenson had quoted Jesus’ words to a mob eager to kill an adulteress: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Stevenson had implored the congregation not to throw stones at Walter, but to be “stonecatchers.” The old woman warns Stevenson that stonecatching will make him sing “some sad songs,” but that those songs will keep him hopeful. She gives him a peppermint candy, a gesture he finds strangely comforting.