Death Penalty Lawyer Called America’s Mandela

In a recent column in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof highlighted the work of Bryan Stevenson (pictured), referring to him as “America’s Nelson Mandela.” Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama, has focused his career on representing indigent defendants, especially those on death row throughout the south. In his new book, Just Mercy, Stevenson tells the story of representing and eventually winning the exoneration of Walter McMillian, a black man unjustly convicted and sentenced to death in 1988 for the murder of a white woman in Alabama. Kristof asked Stevenson if “such a blatant and racially tinged miscarriage of justice” is less common today. Stevenson said, “If anything, because of the tremendous increase in people incarcerated, I’m confident that we have more innocent people in prison today than 25 years ago.”

(N. Kristof, “When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 3,” New York Times, October 11, 2014; photo: James Davidson). See Race and Innocence.