Attorney-activist Bryan Stevenson and “Just Mercy” star Michael B. Jordan spoke with Brut about the death row case that inspired the film.
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00:00My great-grandfather was enslaved and had to believe in freedom that he hadn't seen.
00:05My grandparents were terrorized by lynching and had to believe in a security that they
00:09hadn't achieved.
00:10My parents were humiliated by segregation and yet found a way to have a hope for a better
00:17future and I just want to honor their aspirations, their hope, their courage, their strength,
00:23their determination and give that to my clients and the people that I work with today.
00:54It is ordered, adjudged, and decreed that Walter McMillan is to face death by electrocution.
01:02I look to Brian as like my North Star in a lot of my decisions.
01:07In between his Supreme Court cases that he was fighting, you know, weekly, he would still
01:12find the time to help us, you know, whenever we felt the stress.
01:16So, it was a, you know, it was a team effort.
01:19And the only witness they got made the whole thing up.
01:26And none of that matter when all y'all think is, is I look like a man who could kill somebody.
01:35But that's not what I think.
01:37Well, it's funny, when Walter McMillan was released, we actually had to go back to death
01:44row to get his stuff.
01:46But when we got down to the gate, it was so exhilarating to have them open the gate and
01:53walk through it with him as a free person.
01:56And I just was feeling so excited that I actually said to Walter, I said, Walter, that was so
02:02great, let's go back in and do it again.
02:05And he always would say yes, but that's the one time he said, no, I'm not going back in there.
02:10And I've had that moment several times.
02:13It's this kind of priceless joy, this unparalleled joy when someone can walk into their freedom
02:21and reclaim their life and be rejoined with their family and loved ones.
02:25It's precious and priceless.
02:27And it's moments like that that sustain you when you have to do harder things, difficult things.
02:32There's a conversation that needs to be had constantly.
02:37And hopefully this movie sparks the emotions in the people and make them feel like they
02:43want to be a part of the solution.
02:45Make them feel like it's not too big for them to feel like they can't make a difference,
02:51they can't make a change.
03:02They don't let you forget that these are human beings whose lives, whose dignity, whose basic
03:16rights have been trampled, have been violated.
03:19And we've got to restore those rights.
03:21We've got to allow that dignity to be seen and experienced.
03:26And it's what motivates me, to be honest, is to know that there is an urgent need that
03:31we have to meet if we're going to really achieve the justice that matters.
03:36If we have a system that treats you better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor
03:40and innocent, if we have a system that is so flawed by these kinds of errors, if we
03:45have a system compromised by bias and racism, if we have a system that's been politicized,
03:50that's unwilling to reform itself when you see these kinds of mistakes, we don't deserve
03:55to kill.
03:56And it's one of the reasons why I believe that we should abolish the death penalty.
04:02I just think it requires a kind of perfect system that we don't have.
04:07Living in Montgomery, you are always aware of the generation that came before you.
04:26We're just a couple of blocks from where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat.
04:30We're just a few blocks from Dr. King's, Martin Luther King's church, and E.D. Nixon,
04:35who organized people, and Fred Gray, a lawyer who represented Dr. King.
04:39All of these people inspire me.
04:41I feel like I'm standing on their shoulders.
04:45And they did so much more with so much less that I'm humbled by the kind of things they achieved.
04:51I was motivated to say never again.
04:54And we haven't really created spaces in this country that motivate people to say never again
04:58to bigotry and hate and bias and racism.
05:01And I think that's left us vulnerable.
05:03And that's why, for me, it was urgent and a priority and necessary.