Bryan Stevenson (born November 14, 1959) is an American lawyer, social justice activist, law professor at New York University School of Law and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative.
Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court, including a 2019 ruling protecting condemned prisoners who suffer from dementia and a landmark 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life-imprisonment-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger.
After his graduation from Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government, Stevenson worked as a staff attorney for the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta (1985) and then as executive director of the Alabama Capital Representation Resource Center (1989-95), where he represented capital defendants.
Funding: The Equal Justice Initiative is funded by foundations, corporations, individuals, and government grants.
The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.
Stevenson's five messages—identity matters, the need for proximity, changing the narrative, remaining hopeful, and the willingness to be uncomfortable—exemplify the actions and attitudes of Forum cities as they work to prevent youth violence and create healthier spaces for young people.
Milton, DEBryan Stevenson / Place of birthMilton is a town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States, on the Delmarva Peninsula. It is located on the Broadkill River, which empties into Delaware Bay. The population was 2,576 at the 2010 census, an increase of 55.5% over the previous decade. Wikipedia
September 11, 2013Walter McMillian / DiedLater life and death McMillian later developed dementia, believed to have been brought on by the trauma of imprisonment. He died on September 11, 2013.
Eva Ansley is a real person who has worked with Bryan Stevenson since the EJI was established and continues to work with him.
62Â years (November 14, 1959)Bryan Stevenson / Age
Equal Justice Initiative won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for Charitable Organization / Nonprofit in the category Web....Equal Justice Initiative.Formation1989FounderBryan StevensonTypeNon-profitPurposeProviding legal representation to those who may have been denied a fair trialLocationMontgomery, Alabama4 more rows
The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.
Website. bryanstevenson .com. Bryan Stevenson (born November 14, 1959) is an American lawyer, social justice activist, founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a law professor at New York University School of Law. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, Stevenson has challenged bias against the poor and minorities in ...
Based in Montgomery, Alabama, Stevenson has challenged bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system, especially children. He has helped achieve United States Supreme Court decisions that prohibit sentencing children under 18 to death or to life imprisonment without parole.
Stevenson has been particularly concerned about overly harsh sentencing of persons convicted of crimes committed as children, under the age of 18. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roper v. Simmons that the death penalty was unconstitutional for persons convicted of crimes committed under the age of 18.
National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Stevenson acquired six acres of former public housing land in Montgomery for the development of a new project, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, to commemorate the nearly 4,000 persons who were lynched in the South from 1877 to 1950.
Stevenson attended Cape Henlopen High School and graduated in 1978. He played on the soccer and baseball teams. He also served as president of the student body and won American Legion public speaking contests. His brother, Howard, takes some credit for helping hone Stevenson's rhetorical skills: “We argued the way brothers argue, but these were serious arguments, inspired I guess by our mother and the circumstances of our family growing up.” Stevenson earned straight A's and won a scholarship to Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. On campus, he directed the campus gospel choir. Stevenson graduated with a B.A. degree in Philosophy from Eastern in 1981. In 1985, Stevenson earned both a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School and an M.A. degree in Public Policy (MPP) from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, also at Harvard University. During law school, as part of a class on race and poverty litigation with Elizabeth Bartholet, he worked for Stephen Bright 's Southern Center for Human Rights, an organization that represents death-row inmates throughout the South. During this work, Stevenson found his career calling.
Stevenson has two siblings: an older brother Howard, Jr. and a sister Christy. Both parents commuted to the northern part of the state for work, with Howard, Sr., working at a General Foods processing plant as a laboratory technician and Alice as an equal opportunity officer at Dover Air Force Base.
In November 2018, Stevenson received the Benjamin Franklin Award from the American Philosophical Society as a "Drum major for justice and mercy.". This is the most prestigious award the society gives for distinguished public service.
Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. He had barely opened the nonprofit law office in Montgomery, Alabama, when he agreed to represent Walter McMillian, a Black man wrongly convicted of killing a white woman in the town that inspired To Kill a Mockingbird .
The Walter McMillian case is also significant because it was one of the very early cases where a death row prisoner was proved innocent after being sentenced to death despite death penalty reforms in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson, a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer and bestselling author of Just Mercy, EJI is a private, 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization located in Montgomery, Alabama. LEARN MORE ABOUT EJI. Bryan Stevenson. Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative.
1 / 8. Clients. Just Mercy tells the story of EJI’s clients, from Walter McMillian and Anthony Ray Hinton — who were exonerated from Alabama’s death row — to Joe Sullivan and Ian Manuel — who won release after being sentenced to die in prison for nonhomicide crimes in Florida when they were just 13 years old.
In Alabama, the trial judge has the authority to override a jury’s verdict of life and impose the death penalty, which is what happened. Judge override of life verdicts has been a unique characteristic of the death penalty in Alabama.
He and Bryan remained close friends, occasionally traveling together to talk to audiences about the death penalty. They appeared at a United States Senate hearing shortly after Mr. McMillian’s release to testify about the need for ending the death penalty and for reform of the criminal justice system.
Searing, moving . . . Bryan Stevenson may, indeed, be America’s Mandela. As deeply moving, poignant and powerful a book as has been, and maybe ever can be, written about the death penalty. Just Mercy takes us inside America’s broken criminal justice system and compels us to confront inequality and injustice.
Bryan Stevenson (born November 14, 1959) is an American lawyer, social justice activist, law professor at New York University School of Law and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, he has challenged bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system, especially children. He has helped achieve United States Supreme Court decisions that prohibit sentencing children under 18 to death or to life imprison…
Born on November 14, 1959, Stevenson grew up in Milton, Delaware, a small rural town located in southern Delaware. His father Howard Carlton Stevenson, Sr., had grown up in Milton, and his mother Alice Gertrude (Golden) Stevenson was born and grew up in Philadelphia. Her family had moved to the city from Virginia in the Great Migration of the early 20th century. Stevenson has two siblings: an older brother Howard, Jr. and a sister Christy.
Stevenson attended Cape Henlopen High School and graduated in 1978. He played on the soccer and baseball teams. He also served as president of the student body and won American Legion public speaking contests. His brother, Howard, takes some credit for helping hone Stevenson's rhetorical skills: “We argued the way brothers argue, but these were serious arguments, inspired I guess by our mother and the circumstances of our family growing up.” Stevenson earned straigh…
After graduating from Harvard in 1985, Stevenson moved to Atlanta, and joined the Southern Center for Human Rights full-time. The center divided work by region and Stevenson was assigned to Alabama. In 1989 he was appointed to run the Alabama operation, a resource center and death-penalty defense organization that was funded by Congress. He had a center in Montgomery, the state capital.
Stevenson is a lifelong bachelor and has stated that his career is incompatible with married life. He has resided in Montgomery, Alabama since 1985.
By Bryan Stevenson:
• Stevenson, Bryan (Summer 2006). "Confronting Mass Imprisonment and Restoring Fairness to Collateral Review of Criminal Cases" (PDF). Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. 41 (2): 339–367. OCLC 1002849873. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 18, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
• Bryan Stevenson at TED
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Bryan Stevenson on Charlie Rose
• Ezra Klein (December 27, 2018). "Best-of: Bryan Stevenson". The Ezra Klein Show (Podcast). Vox Media.