FYC – The True Story of ‘Just Mercy’ and Bryan Stevenson

The new film “Just Mercy” by Destin Daniel Cretton is based on the true story of attorney and civil rights activist Bryan Stevenson (played in the film by Michael B. Jordan). Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. In this interview, he talks about how his interest revolved around prisoners on death row with no money, no power, and no legal defense.

In the film, Jamie Foxx plays Walter McMillian, a prisoner on death row from Monroeville, Alabama. The irony of it is that Monroeville is where Harper Lee grew up and where she based “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The same crime and punishment in “Mockingbird” plays out with the McMillian story.