I have appreciated Bryan Stevenson ever since I saw his TED Talk years ago.

 

This story highlights in stark and human terms how broken our criminal justice system truly is. 

This week I read Lafayette and the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell and Lethal Warriors by David Philipps. I am still working my way through Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, which I hope to finish by the end of next week. I am adding Eye on the Struggle by James McGrath Morris (biography of Ethel Payne) and The True American by Anand Giridharadas (true crime).

I am just binging on non-fiction, as it grabbing me so much more than fiction. I went a little OTT at the library and pulled a bunch of books. I have two read-a-thons I am doing towards the latter half of the month.

 

 

1. No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller by Harry Markopolos

         My current read is how Markopolos discovered the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme and was the whistleblower that brought Madoff down. He is not kind AT ALL to the SEC. 

 

2. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

           I want to learn more about criminal justice reform, so I am starting here.

 

3. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States by Sarah Vowell

              For the July 4th holiday, I am trying Vowell for the first time.

 

4. Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson

               Heard nothing but good things about this book.

 

5. The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas

              True Crime that doesn't involve Wall Street.

 

6. Lethal Warriors: When the New Band of Brothers Came Home, Uncovering the Tragic Reality of PTSD by David Philipps

                This is a really long title.

 

7. Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America's Most Elusive Serial Killer Revealed by Robert Graysmith

                 True Crime.

 

8. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

                      True Crime plus history.

 

9. Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard

                      Not a true crime book, lol. Manicure on the cover is beautifully done.

 

10. Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press by James McGrath Morris

                    Also not a true crime book. I wish she was more of a household name today as she was when she was working. 

 

 

 

I finished Conspiracy of Fools (the story of the rise and collapse of Enron) this morning, went bowling and lunch with the kids, then came home and started No One Would Listen (written by the whistleblower of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme). So No One is my focus to knock out this weekend. After that, I want to get to Just Mercy and for the holiday, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States. 

 

I am getting backed up on reviewing, which is bad for me because it is COYER time and part of COYER is reviewing. So this weekend I will be here writing reviews  - sorry in advance for the review wave coming. Also writing my personal essay and resume for grad school this weekend, as that is all that is left on my end for the application process. I will probably write while watching season two of 30 Rock, my show of the summer to binge this year. 

My friend, Michael, read this and liked it. Then my cousin Kari, she of the technicolor hair, posted something on FB about how life transforming this book was to her. I think she might be a recovering Evangelical. So, of course, I had to check it out.

The book tells the story of Bryan Stevenson's work as a defense lawyer for people on death row. Our system of capital punishment is seriously lacking in any semblance of justice. Many of the people Stevenson encounters were clearly innocent, were seriously disabled, were children when convicted, were framed, grew up in seriously dysfunctional environments (poverty coupled with abuse), or multiples of the above. Most of them were people of color as well. The public defender system in most states, certainly so in Alabama, which is the focus of Stevenson's work in this book, is pretty much broken. Public defenders were limited to a fee of $500, which wasn't enough to make any efforts worthwhile. So, mostly, they took their fees and did next to nothing.

The book switches back and forth between various cases on which Stevenson was concerned, and the one case in particular of Walter McMillian. McMillian was essentially framed by the "authorities" in his town, who needed a fall guy on which to hang a murder. The only evidence was false testimony from one person, false testimony that had many obvious flaws. Testimony by other people that McMillian was elsewhere at the time of the murder were ignored. But McMillian was a black man who had had an affair with a white woman, so that was all the "facts" the "authorities" needed. I found it creepy to be spending Holy Week reading the story of an innocent man condemned to death by the "authorities". In McMillian's case, he was eventually exonerated...after several decades in death row. WTF Alabama? WTF good Southern Evangelical Christians?

I've always been opposed to capital punishment because I spent too many years in Sunday School. After all, Moses, King David, and Saul of Tarsus were all murderers, but were redeemed in some way to do great things. So, who am I to judge anyone as not, like one the afore mentioned trio, being another fluke among murderers? But, after reading this book, one can see that our system of capital punishment is clearly unjust, way too many innocents, disabled people, and children are condemned to death in this country. Our system of justice needs serious reform. Of course the folks who think the racist Jeff Sessions is fit to be Attorney General of the U.S. will not have much stomach for reform. Of course, it's not just Sessions' Alabama that's the problem. Here in so-called "liberal" Massachusetts, we now use our jails as holding pens for the mentally ill. As a nation, we'll surely have some serious problems to try to explain away when we meet St. Peter at the Pearly Gates.