Just mercy has put the spotlight on the incredible work of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), but there are so many unfamiliar stories that have made Bryan Stevenson's nonprofit a leader in justice and justice. equality.
Stevenson, civil rights lawyer and author portrayed by Michael B. Jordan in the critically acclaimed film, launched the Equal Justice initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1989 with the hope of tackling reform of criminal justice and racial injustice in our country. According to their mission statement, "The Equal Justice Initiative is determined to end mass incarceration and excessive sentence in the United States, to combat racial and economic injustices and to protect the basic human rights of the most vulnerable in American society . "
The more than 80 Equal Justice workers know that the poor and people of color are disproportionately imprisoned. According to their website, African Americans make up 42% of those sentenced to death and 34% of those executed, but only 13% of the American population is black, according to the US Census Bureau. While the EJI advocates for parole reform, secure conditions of detention and increased support for children in prison, their work with wrongfully convicted children sets them apart from other justice-focused nonprofits. To date, they have obtained cancellations, relief or release for more than 135 wrongly sentenced death row prisoners, and obtained relief for hundreds of others who have been wrongly convicted or sentenced without charge reasonable cause.
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Walter McMillian, the subject of Just mercy, may be the most famous success story of the Equal Justice Initiative, but there are other faces and names that deserve to be known, including:
- Lydia Diane Jones was released from prison on August 17, 2006 for a crime she did not commit. In November 1997, she moved to her parents' house to help care for her sick father and let her ex-boyfriend live in her empty house. She was unaware at the time that her ex-boyfriend was selling drugs at her house. When she came to get some belongings, the officers made an unexpected forced entry and forced Jones at gunpoint. She was arrested four months later for drug trafficking, then sentenced to life in prison without parole. After six years in prison, EJI obtained his release.
- Marsha Colbey was released from prison on December 12, 2012. After Hurricane Ivan, the mother of six, then pregnant, transferred her family to a FEMA trailer. She started premature labor and gave birth to a stillborn baby during her stay. She was unable to revive the baby and then buried him in a marked grave near the trailer. A state medical examiner claimed that the baby was born alive, which led to a conviction for qualified murder in 2007. She was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole - but the IYC succeeded to obtain a release in 2012.
- Anthony Ray Hinton was exonerated from death row on April 3, 2015. Thirty years earlier, he had been arrested and charged with two murders for the sole reason that his mother's revolver had been used in two robberies in Birmingham fast-food restaurants , which resulted in the deaths of John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vason. The police had no suspects, and Hinton worked in a locked warehouse 24 kilometers away while the crime was committed - but he was still arrested. He served 30 years in prison before his release.
In addition to their work in the courtroom, the Equal Justice initiative regularly conducts thoughtful conversations about race in the United States. As their website says, "EJI thinks we need a new era of truth and justice that begins with confronting our story of racial injustice."
In the hope of educating more people about the realities of the black community in America, they opened the Legacy Museum: From Eslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama in 2018. The museum, which is built on the site of an old warehouse where slaves were imprisoned, uses first-person accounts to tell the truth behind "the slavery of African Americans, the evolution of lynchings of racial terror, segregation Race and Racial Hierarchy Legalized in America ". Just a four-minute walk away, you'll find the country's first memorial dedicated to blacks enslaved, those terrorized by lynching, African-Americans affected by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color who faced suspected guilt and police violence.
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Black Lives Matters' protests after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery continue to highlight the important work accomplished by Stevenson and the EJI. "We have to take into account our history of racial injustice. I think everything we see is a symptom of a bigger disease. We have never honestly addressed all the damage that has been done over the past two centuries and a half where we enslaved the blacks, "Stevenson said The new yorker. "It is not only anger for what happened to George Floyd or Breonna Taylor or Ahmaud Arbery. It is anger to continue living in a world where there is this presumption of dangerousness and guilt everywhere where you go."
In light of recent events, companies like Amazon, Apple and Etsy have donated to the Equal Justice Initiative to help Stevenson and his colleagues continue their life-changing work. Make a donation, please click here.
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