Just Mercy (2019)
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A young defense attorney fights to exonerate a man wrongly convicted of murder in the Southern United States.
The story
In 1989, Harvard law graduate Bryan Stevenson travels to Alabama to defend poor people who cannot afford proper legal representation. He forms the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery to combat social injustices in criminal law, which have resulted in a high rate of African Americans being convicted and incarcerated. Stevenson visits a state prison to meet inmates on death row seeking appeals. Among them is Walter "Johnny D." McMillian, an African American man who was convicted of the 1986 murder of a young white woman. While McMillian maintains his innocence, Stevenson begins the arduous process of reviewing the evidence and uncovering the flaws in the prosecution's case.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1989, Bryan Stevenson travels to Alabama to defend the marginalized. He forms the Equal Justice Initiative and begins representing death row inmates. He takes on the case of Walter McMillian, who was convicted of murdering Ronda Morrison based on the testimony of a criminal, Ralph Myers. Stevenson discovers that Myers' testimony was coerced by police. Despite facing intimidation from local law enforcement and the dismissal of his initial appeals, Stevenson persists. He eventually secures a retrial for McMillian by appealing to the Supreme Court of Alabama. After a series of legal hurdles and a public appeal on 60 Minutes, the court grants a retrial. Ultimately, the charges against McMillian are dismissed, and he is released. The film concludes with an epilogue noting that McMillian remained a friend of Stevenson until his death in 2013, and a later investigation confirmed his innocence. It also notes the release of Anthony Ray Hinton, another man wrongly held on death row for 28 years.
- First release year
- 2019
- Runtime (minutes)
- 136
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Destin Daniel Cretton
- Writers
- Destin Daniel Cretton · co-written; Andrew Lanham · co-written
- Cast and characters
- Michael B. Jordan · Bryan Stevenson; Jamie Foxx · Walter McMillian; Rob Morgan; Tim Blake Nelson; Rafe Spall; Brie Larson
- Genres
- biographical; legal drama
- Themes
- justice; racial inequality; legal reform
- Tone and mood
- serious; urgent
- Premise and plot tags
- biographical; legal drama; true story
- Source material / true-story basis
- Stevenson's 2014 eponymous memoir
- Reception
- The film received positive reviews from critics and was noted for its solid performances and sense of urgency.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 68 · scale: 100 · review count: 50; CinemaScore · score: A+ · scale: A+ to F; PostTrak · score: 4.5 · scale: 5 · review count: 73% of people saying they would definitely recommend it
- Awards and nominations
- Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role · Screen Actors Guild Awards · 26th · nomination
- Production trivia
- The film was used in a psychology study at Stanford University.; The film was offered for free on streaming platforms in June 2020 to educate the public on systemic racism.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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