Bryan Stevenson, Eastern alum of the class of 1981, has recently been receiving national attention in regards to his work against the injustice within the legal system. Racial bias, false convictions, unreliable eyewitness testimonies, and botched executions are just a few of the issues that plague the American Justice system within the 21st century.
In January of 1983, Stevenson traveled to Atlanta for a month-long internship where he worked with an organization that advocated for the human rights of those who have the death penalty. From that experience, he began to see the depth of injustices occurring for those who were unable to afford appropriate legal representation.
In October of this year, New York Times recognized Stevenson’s memoir, “Just Mercy”, as a work that focuses on the personal story of an activist lawyer fighting desperately against injustice, and the clients and people that he encounters along the way. He writes of his first case, with Mr. Walter McMillian, who was falsely accused of murdering a white woman despite eyewitness evidence proving otherwise. After hard work and perseverance, McMillian was released in 1993, providing a foundational case for Stevenson, both professionally as well as personally.
Since then, he has aided in freeing many people from excessive punishment, and has even argued five times in front of the Supreme Court. “Just Mercy” has been nominated for the prestigious Kirkus Prize, and New York Times has called Stevenson “America’s Young Nelson Mandela”. As founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative he believes that “The opposite of poverty is not wealth. In too many places the opposite of poverty is justice.”
Sources: New York Times, Eastern.edu, NYU Law Magazine
Lenora Kirkland 
Colin Tomczak 
Ella Curcuruto