Just Mercy Sheds Light on a Number of Injustices With One Story

Just Mercy is a vitally important true story about a part of American racism that continues to this day. The mass incarceration of United States citizens is an injustice that rarely seems to get the attention it should. If anything, it’s one of those everyday atrocities that we just seem to have accepted. But to put it simply, the U.S. incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world. The country makes up about 5% of the global population, but has almost a quarter of the entire world’s prison population. 

How can this be possible? Since 1970, the U.S.’ incarcerated population has grown by 700%, which far outpaces both the growth of the general population and the crime rate. This disproportionate locking up of people can only be feasible with mass, egregious injustices, which skew unfairly towards minorities. According to the ACLU, one out of every three black boys born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino boys - compared to one of every 17 white boys. Naturally, minorities also face overly harsh sentences. 

There are an innumerable amount of topics and factors you could talk about with this issue - how black boys caught with a minuscule amount of marijuana get imprisoned for years whilst white men run dispensaries and rake in cash, the school-to-prison pipeline, or how prison labor can be viewed as slavery reinvented - but Just Mercy chooses to focus on a rather incendiary case: The wrongful conviction of Walter “Johnny D.” McMillian, a black man in Alabama who was sentenced to death for the murder of an 18-year-old white girl. 

Based off his memoir, the film follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), who, fresh out of Harvard, could’ve gone and worked anywhere, but chooses to head to Alabama to defend death row inmates. These convicts, he states several times to different people, often receive poor, if any, legal representation, and he believes they deserve help despite whatever they may have done. Not exactly a radical stance, but it still aggravates the people of Monroeville where Bryan sets up shop, and he finds little support in town besides local advocate Eva Ansley (Brie Larson). 

Bryan represents several men on death row, but the case of Walter McMillian’s (Jamie Foxx) catches his attention immediately. Walter was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a young girl, but under a controversial doctrine, the presiding judge imposed a “judge override”, ignoring the jury’s decision and giving Walter a death sentence. Director Destin Daniel Cretton (who was behind a fantastic film called Short Term 12), shows how these unfair and often racist punishments are widespread. 

Walter’s cell mates and only friends include Herbert Richardson (Rob Morgan), a Vietnam war vet who was the only survivor of an attack that killed his entire platoon. Richardson was left traumatized and disabled by the war, factors that were completely ignored at his trial, where he was sentenced to death for the accidental killing of a woman. Anthony Ray Hinton (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), another inmate, was convicted with a single, flimsy piece of evidence. His public defense attorney told him: "All of y'all Blacks always say you didn’t do something." and "Y'all Blacks always sticking up for each other." The judge stated that he knew Hinton was guilty just from looking at him. 

But Walter’s case is especially absurd. The only evidence against him is the testimony of a convict who, in addition to already having reason to lie, was seemingly coerced by police into making a false statement. Evidence that proves Walter’s innocence, like the fact that dozens of friends and family were with him at home at the time of the murder, is overwhelming, so Bryan and his team push for his immediate release. But the case draws national attention, and they soon become embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings where the odds are stacked against them. 

Cretton keeps the cast tight and manageable, who, thanks to strong performances from all, work as a strong reminder of the human toll of these injustices. The director also manages to advocate for several issues at once. For example, the film pushes the notion that capital punishment is unjust in every sense, not just for the minorities that face the brunt of its cruelty. One in 25 people executed on death row are actually innocent, and Cretton manages to explain several factors of this disturbing fact, such as the pressure by officials to obtain a death sentence, inadequate legal counsel, and the way it’s inflicted upon the most vulnerable, such as the mentally ill, due to bias.

Cretton naturally weaves all of this educating into Just Mercy’s concise story without ever losing focus. He also avoids it becoming overly manipulative - it’s a personal, emotional, story, but it’s also something that thousands of other people experience - by allowing dramatic moments to play out in silence rather than with an overpowering score. Still, much of the film still feels a bit generic. I’d hesitate to use the word ‘safe’, but despite its subject matter, the movie doesn’t feel especially provocative or eye-opening, unless of course you’re completely unfamiliar with the issues it portrays. And despite the characters showing vulnerability, they often still feel distant and lacking much personality. Walter and his cell mates are arguably an exception.

Of course, these things don’t make Just Mercy a bad film by any means. If this movie is able to spark more conversations about the ongoing injustice of the U.S. prison system, then I hardly see how that could ever be a bad thing. It’s still a moving and vital story that needs to be told and understood, presented in a way that’s utterly respectful and crucially informative, even when its approach is overly familiar.