Filming Underway for Movie Adaptation of ​‘Just Mercy’

Filming for the movie adap­ta­tion of Bryan Stevenson’s best-sell­ing book, Just Mercy, began August 27, 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama. The film will fea­ture Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther) as Stevenson and Oscar-win­ner Jamie Foxx (Ray, Django Unchained) as wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed death-row pris­on­er Walter McMillian.

Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, rep­re­sent­ed McMillian — a Black man framed for the 1986 mur­der of an 18-year-old White woman in Monroeville, Alabama — in McMillian’s appeal of his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. Like the book upon which it is based, the movie will tell the sto­ry of that rep­re­sen­ta­tion and McMillian’s exon­er­a­tion from death row. 

McMillian was con­vict­ed in a tri­al that last­ed only a day and a half. The pros­e­cu­tion pre­sent­ed three wit­ness­es who false­ly impli­cat­ed McMillian in the mur­der. The jury — com­posed of eleven Whites and one African American — ignored the tes­ti­mo­ny of six African-American ali­bi wit­ness­es who had been with McMillian at a church fish fry at the time of the murder. 

Although the jury con­vict­ed McMillian, the jurors rec­om­mend­ed that he be sen­tenced to life. However, the tri­al judge over­rode the jury’s sen­tenc­ing ver­dict and instead sen­tenced McMillian to death. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence on appeal, but Stevenson’s inves­ti­ga­tion revealed that pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness­es had lied and that pros­e­cu­tors had ille­gal­ly hid­den evi­dence that proved McMillian’s innocence. 

After Stevenson filed a motion for a new tri­al, the appeals court on February 23, 1993, reversed McMillian’s con­vic­tion and ordered a new tri­al. One week lat­er, on March 2, 1993, pros­e­cu­tors dis­missed the charges against McMillian and he was released. After spend­ing six years on death row, McMillian was exon­er­at­ed. The film is expect­ed to open in early 2020.