欧宝娱乐

After being forever changed by Bryan Stevenson's "Just Mercy" and Anthony Ray Hinton's "The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row," I knew I had to read this book. Anything with a connection to the Equal Justice Initiative has my full attention and wholehearted support.

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"The United States is the only country in the world that sentences thirteen- and fourteen-year-old offenders, mostly youth of color, to life in prison without parole, regardless of the scientifically proven singularities of the developing adolescent brain--a heinous wrinkle in the scandal of mass incarceration. In 1991, Ian Manuel, then fourteen, was sentenced to life without parole for a non-homicide crime. In a botched mugging attempt with some older boys, he shot Debbie Baigrie, a young white mother of two, in the face. But as Bryan Stevenson, attorney and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has insisted, none of us should be judged by only the worst thing we have ever done... Here is the at once wrenching and inspiring story of how he endured the savagery of the United States prison system, and how his victim, an extraordinary woman, forgave him and bravely advocated for his freedom, which was achieved by a crusade on the part of the [EJI] to address the barbarism of our judicial system and bring about 'just mercy.'"

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"It is a curiosity that a state-funded institution, run by professionals, would systematically place human beings in the most toxic of settings and then, when this made them sick, conclude that the problem was coming from inside of those human beings. There is likely no diagnosis that accurately captures the range of harm and its consequences for the mind and body of someone subjected to solitary confinement. The diagnoses given to me and the drugs used to bring them under control all seemed ultimately aimed at keeping me there longer."