Bryan Stevenson on Criminal Justice Reform, Courage, and Mercy

In this bonus episode of the Ideation Podcast, Bryan Stevenson, Founder/Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and inspiration for the recent movie Just Mercy, shares his stories and thoughts on criminal justice reform, courage, mercy, and being influenced by civil rights heroes like Rosa Parks. This interview was originally recorded backstage at Catalyst Conference in Atlanta a few years ago. We think Mr. Stevenson’s thoughts are not only timeless but also timely for the conversations we’re having today in our society around racial equity.

 

Under Mr. Stevenson's leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

Mr. Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court, including a 2019 ruling protecting condemned prisoners who suffer from dementia and a landmark 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life-imprisonment-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger. Mr. Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 135 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row and won relief for hundreds of others wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced.

Mr. Stevenson has initiated major new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts that challenge inequality in America. He led the creation of two highly acclaimed cultural sites which opened in 2018: the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. These new national landmark institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, and the connection to mass incarceration and contemporary issues of racial bias. Mr. Stevenson is also a Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law.