Theme: Who is Bryan Stevenson?
Supplementary Lesson Plan for 2016-17 Campus Read “Just Mercy,” by Bryan Stevenson
Total Time 1hr.
Lesson Objectives
By the end of this lesson/discussion/panel participants and/or students should be able to:





Describe briefly the biography of Bryan Stevenson
Identify Bryan Stevenson’s major accomplishments
Explain why it is important to get close to issues related to their passions
Discuss different ways in which they could utilize various resources in campus
Identify possible academic enhancements that they can take advantage of while in college that
could foster progress toward desired major or career goals
Required Materials: Projector/Screen
Beginning the Lesson


Ice Breaker Activity
o Engage students or participants in an icebreaker activity of your choice
o Have students or participants describe the reason why they chose their majors or careers
Explain to your audience the objectives of the lesson/session
Body (discussion)


Provide an overview of Bryan Stevenson’s biography using lesson notes provided below
Share a TED clip, or select quotes from the Bryan Stevenson book. These quotes may be in the
form of bookmarks or you can have the readers turn to specific pages. Quotes should be projected
on the screen.
A Sample of Quotes
“I was uncertain about what I wanted to do with the lives of the poor, America’s history of racial
inequality, and the struggle to be equitable and fair with one another. It would have to do with the
things I’d already seen in life so far and wondered about, but I couldn’t really put it together in a
way that made a career path clear” (p.4).
“Not long after I started classes at Harvard I began to worry I’d made the wrong choice. Coming
from a small college in Pennsylvania, I felt very fortunate to have been admitted, but by the end
of my school year, I’d grown disillusioned. At one time, Harvard Law School was a pretty
intimidating place, especially for a twenty-one-year-old” (p.4)
1. How do you identify with Bryan Stevenson’s apprehensions expressed in the above
excerpts?
2. If you encounter doubts regarding your major, a course you are taking, or even career;
what would be an appropriate course of action?
3. Discuss different ways in which you could utilize the following resources at WVU:
o Career Services Center
o Advisor
o Tutoring
1
4. Why are academic enhancements such as study abroad, internships, undergraduate
research, etc. important to you as a student?
Bryan’s grandmother always hugged him tightly. “You can’t understand the most important
things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close,” she told me all the time (p.14).
5. Why is this important to Bryan?
6. How applicable is this message to students today? Or As you begin your collegiate
studies, how will you get close to the issues that are most important to you?
7. Ask the audience to share
General Discussion Questions



What resonated with your after reading the introduction section of the book?
What are some quotes that you may want to share with the group?
Why do you think Stevenson’s book is relevant to our society today?
Conclusion


Summarize the main ideas discussed during the session
Pause reflective questions
Lesson Notes
Bryan Stevenson Biography
https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.biography&personid=20315
http://blogs.law.nyu.edu/magazine/2007/bryan-stevenson%E2%80%99s-death-defying-acts/








Born in 1959, in rural Milton Delaware to working class parents Howard Stevenson Sr. and Alice
Stevenson. Bryan’s dad worked at the General Foods processing plant while his mother worked
as a clerk Dover Air Force Base
Both of his grandparents were descendants of slaves
Bryan’s granddad (Clarence) was killed by burglars who stabbed him when resisted as they were
stealing his TV
Attended a colored elementary school
He majored in philosophy in college, law school became a post-graduation plan. While studying
law, he also pursued a degree in public policy in the Kennedy School of the Government. He
says, “I was uncertain about what I wanted to do with the lives of the poor, America’s history of
racial inequality, and the struggle to be equitable and fair with one another. It would have to do
with the things I’d already seen in life so far and wondered about, but I couldn’t really put it
together in a way that made a career path clear” (p.4).
In 1983, Bryan interned in the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee (SPDC) in Atlanta,
Georgia. This is where he first met a condemned man
A 1985 graduate of Harvard, with both a Master’s in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of
Government and a J.D. from the School of Law School of Law
After graduation in 1985, he moved South and started working as a staff attorney with the
Southern Center for Human Rights
2








In 1989 he founded the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a private, nonprofit law organization that
focuses on social justice and human rights in the context of criminal justice reform in the United
States
EJI litigates on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people wrongly convicted or
charged, poor people denied effective representation and others whose trials are marked by racial
bias or prosecutorial misconduct
Since 1989, he has been the Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)
In 1998, he joined the clinical faculty at New York University of Law
Bryan is nationally and internationally recognized. He is a:
o 1989 recipient of the Reebok Human Rights Award
o 1991 ACLU National Medal of Liberty
o 1995 recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship Award Prize
o 1996 Public Interest Lawyer of the Year by the National Association of Public Interest
Lawyers
o 2000 recipient of the Olaf Palme Prize in Stockholm, Sweden for international human
rights
o 2004 double recipient of the Award for Courageous Advocacy from the American
College of Trial Lawyers and the Lawyer for the People Award from the National
Lawyers Guild
o 2006 NYU Distinguished Teaching Award
Bryan is widely published in several widely disseminated manuals on capital litigation and
written extensively on criminal justice, capital punishment and civil rights issues.
o Below is a sample of his 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)
He has argued twice before the Supreme Court
His passion for Law School
o Influenced by the African Methodist Episcopal church
o His core beliefs: “I believe if you tell a lie, you’re not just a liar. If you take something
that doesn’t belong to you, you’re not just a thief. And I believe even if you kill someone,
you are not just a killer. There is a basic human dignity that deserves to be protected.”
Lesson Materials/Resources
1. Bryan Stevenson’s TED Talk
2. Bookmarks with select quotes related to Bryan Stevenson’s story
3