One Lawyer Keeps the Pressure On For Criminal Justice Reform

By Carla Murphy Oct 21, 2014

Making the rounds on national media this week is public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson whom Desmond Tutu calls, "America’s young Nelson Mandela." His new memoir, "Just Mercy," is about a man wrongly convicted and put on death row and it promises to keep the country’s attention squarely on the 2.2 million people currently incarcerated in the United States–and the unjust ways that many of them arrive there. Stevenson’s mainstream media tour is yet another indication that, following the success of Michelle Alexander’s, The New Jim Crow, the country is ready to at least talk about criminal justice reform and reducing mass incarceration.

Stevenson is executive director of Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative. Watch his recent "Daily Show" interview with Jon Stewart above. And if you haven’t already seen it, check out Stevenson’s more intimate 2012 TED talk, too.