Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson
Born	Bryan Stevenson (1959-11-14) November 14, 1959 Milton, Delaware
Residence	Montgomery, Alabama
Nationality	American
Education	Eastern University (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.) Harvard Kennedy School (M.P.P.)
Occupation	Director of Equal Justice Initiative Professor at New York University School of Law
Known for	Founding Equal Justice Initiative
Notable work	Just Mercy
Parent(s)	Howard & Alice Stevenson
Website	BryanStevenson.com

Bryan A. Stevenson (born November 14, 1959) is an American lawyer, social justice activist, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law. Stevenson has gained national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and minorities in the criminal justice system. Stevenson has assisted in securing relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, advocated for poor people and developed community-based reform litigation aimed at improving the administration of criminal justice.

Early life

Born in 1959, Stevenson grew up in Milton, Delaware, located in Southern Delaware. Stevenson is the son of Howard Carlton Stevenson, Sr. and Alice Gertrude Golden Stevenson. Stevenson has two siblings: an older brother, Howard, Jr. and a sister, Christy. Stevenson's father, Howard Stevenson, Sr., worked at the General Foods processing plant as a laboratory technician. His mother, Alice, was a bookkeeper at Dover Air Force Base.

Stevenson's family attended the Prospect African Methodist Episcopal Church where Stevenson played piano and sang in the choir. His later views were influenced by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where churchgoers were celebrated for standing up after having fallen down. These experiences informed his belief that "each person in our society is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.”

When Stevenson was sixteen, his maternal grandfather, Clarence L. Golden, was stabbed to death in his Philadelphia home during a burglary. The killers received life sentences, an outcome Stevenson thought fair. Stevenson said of the murders: "Because my grandfather was older, his murder seemed particularly cruel. But I came from a world where we valued redemption over revenge."

Stevenson experienced segregation and its legacy as a child. He spent his first classroom days at a "colored" elementary school. By the time he entered the second grade, his school was formally desegregated but the old rules from segregation still applied, where black kids played separately from white kids and blacks were forced to used the back door. Stevenson's father, having grown up in the area, took the ingrained racism in stride.

Education

Stevenson attended Cape Henlopen High School and graduated in 1977. 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 in 1981.

After graduating from college, Stevenson received a full scholarship to attend Harvard Law School. During law school, as part of a class on race and poverty litigation with Elizabeth Bartholet, he worked for Stephen Bright's the Southern Center for Human Rights, which represents death-row inmates throughout the South. During this experience, Stevenson found his career calling. He also attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Career

Southern Center for Human Rights

After graduating from Harvard in 1985, Stevenson moved to Atlanta, Georgia and joined the Southern Center for Human Rights full-time.

Speaker

Mr. Stevenson spoke at TED2012 in Long Beach, California. Following his presentation, over $1 million was raised by attendees to fund a campaign run by Stevenson to end the practice of putting children in adult jails and prisons.

Author

Stevenson is the author of the critically acclaimed Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. It was named by Time magazine as one of the "10 Best Books of Nonfiction" for 2014. It won the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction.

Awards

• 2000 Olof Palme Prize
• 2009 Gruber Justice Prize
• 2014 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
• 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction

Publications

• "Confronting Mass Imprisonment and Restoring Fairness to Collateral Review of Criminal Cases," 41 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 339 (2006)
• "The Ultimate Authority on the Ultimate Punishment: The Requisite Role of the Jury in Capital Sentencing," 54 Ala. L. Rev. 1091 (2003)
• "The Politics of Fear and Death: Successive Problems in Capital Federal Habeas Corpus Cases," 77 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 699 (2002)
• "Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13-and 14-Year Old Children to Die in Prison" (2007)

External links

• Bryan Stevenson at TED
• Appearances on C-SPAN