True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality (2019)

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True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality was released on June 26, 2019, in the USA. The American film was produced by HBO Documentary Films and Kunhardt Films. The film was directed by George Kunhardt and Peter W. Kunhardt. The movie was displaying how Bryand Stevenson fights for equality in the legal system [1].

Bryan Stevenson[2]

Plot

The film focuses on the life and career of Bryan Stevenson, in particular his incrimination of the U.S criminal legal system for his role in arranging modern systemic racism, and traces the histories of slavery, lynching, segregation, and mass confinement. The film starts with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)'s commitment to the equal legal system for the poor and convicted in Alabama, as well as the early influences that led Bryan Stevenson to become a lawyer for the poor and imprisoned. Started in the 1980s, he started as a young lawyer and witnessed with his own eyes how the legal system was unfair where the death penalty sentence was given by the Supreme Court to the convicted based on racial bias. Then, the film shows how the Court has created an unequal system since 1875 and still continue to oppress the multicolored race such as African Americans with biased judgment. Later on, the film shows a unique point of view toward the poor and multicolored people who struggle to fight for the unfair legal system and the price that they have to pay for fighting the unfair sentenced[3].

Black Empowerment

The film portrays how Stevenson dedicates his life to empower the poor and falsely convicted who most of them are African Americans. His dedication can be seen through his life where he seemed to not marry and has no children since his dedication may not create a time for family. Sian Sanneh, his colleague, says "Bryan is the work, there's no way to separate him from the work. It is his full self he pours into it. Stevenson also tries to wake people's perceptions of the prejudice in the U.S legal system through public speaking, his book, and even a film that portrays the unequal justice for African Americans[4]. In one scene, Stevenson won a case prohibiting mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole for children 17 and younger. Till today, Stevenson and EJI's staff have released more than 125 falsely convicted from the death penalty. Moreover, he has initiated the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery for honoring 4,000 lynching victims due to racism[5].

Controversy

True Justice highlights prejudice and informs viewers of the distance we still have to go, as a nation, to live up to our own Constitution. For instance, in the case in the 1980s, while Stevenson's client was innocent, the death penalty is given to him with a bias prejudice assumption. The film describes the death penalty itself and how it is used to capture ideas within the law such as the death penalty given to African Americans seemed to be a "legal lynching". Stevenson also brings on the racism he and his family have faced - he remarks about his great grandparents released from slavery, the Jim Crow laws of the south that were faced by his parents, and the immense social prejudices that Stevenson himself faced[6].

References

  1. True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality (2019). IMDb. Retrieved January 18 2021
  2. Bryan Stevenson. The Undefeated. Retrieved January 18 2021
  3. True Justice. EJI. Retrieved January 18 2021
  4. Jamiles Lartey. Bryan Stevenson: the lawyer devoting his life to fighting injustice. TheGuardian. Retrieved January 18 2021
  5. Michael A. Fletcher. HBO film ‘True Justice’ recounts Bryan Stevenson’s crusade for the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. The Undefeated. Retrieved January 18 2021
  6. Paige Lee. The Importance of ‘True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality’. The Daily Utah Chronicle. Retrieved January 18 2021