Reading event
to feature bestseller

“Just Mercy,” the true story by Bryan Stevenson of his experience as a young attorney defending an innocent death row inmate, has been selected for Marion City Library’s “Everyone Is Reading” program.

The program seeks to encourage community dialog by having as many residents as possible read the book then discuss it at a community forum planned for 7 p.m. Feb. 15.

Copies of the book, a New York Times bestseller, are available for checkout at the library.

Winner of the Carnegie Medal and the NAACP Image Award for non-fiction, the book focuses on mercy and redemption and includes a call to reform the criminal justice system.

It recounts one of Stevenson’s first cases as founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending the poor, the wrongly condemned, and others trapped in the justice system.

It is the story of Walter McMillian, a young man sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Stevenson into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship.

Reviewers have termed it an unforgettable account of a young lawyer’s coming of age, a window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion.