Anthony Ray Hinton was falsely accused of committing two murders outside of Birmingham, Alabama, in 1985. He was wrongly convicted and spent nearly 30 years on Alabama’s death row before he was exonerated and freed in April 2015. A deeply compelling speaker, he has become a community educator and powerful advocate against the death penalty who speaks nationally about the urgent need for criminal justice reform.

His sentencing appeal was managed by attorney, Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of the New York Times #1 Best Seller, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, in which he describes Hinton’s case. Just Mercy is a powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice – from one of the most brilliant and in uential lawyers of our time. Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Stevenson into a tangle of conspiracy, political machinations, and legal brinksmanship – and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of justice.

Free and open to the public – seating is limited, first come, fist served.

Sponsored by the Honors Program, Psychology Club, Black Student Union, Pi Gamma Mu with funding provided in part by the UE Student Government Association, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Law, Politics, and Society, and the Office of Academic Affairs.