书籍介绍
这不像一本冷静的法律著作，而像一份带着体温的证词。作者斯蒂文森创办的平等司法倡议所，专替那些被社会彻底抛弃的人辩护：被判死刑的穷人、被冤屈者、困在系统最底层的妇女儿童。书中反复叩问的，不是'罪有应得'，而是'每个人都不止是他犯过的最坏的那件事'。它最刺痛读者的地方，在于揭示了一个悖论：当我们以正义之名行残酷之实时，被损害的并非只有囚犯，还有施暴的我们自己。它不提供清晰的废死立场，而是逼你承认法律系统里渗透的种族与贫穷。适合那些愿意被'宽恕'这一概念重新定义的人——它让你看见，同情心不是软弱的道德表演，而是一种要求我们彼此负责的清醒。
作者简介
Bryan 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 Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.
AI导读
核心看点
- 作者亲历美国司法系统，揭露死刑与种族歧视的残酷真相。
- 通过真实案例展现法律漏洞，探讨慈悲与正义的深刻关系。
- 揭示贫困与不公的关联，呼吁修复破碎的刑事司法体系。
读者共识
- 内容震撼人心，虽令人心碎但展现了人性光辉与希望。
- 作者真诚且具同理心，改变了读者对死刑及司法的看法。
- 被誉为现实版《杀死一只知更鸟》，极具社会影响力。
精彩摘录
- "A flood of execution dates awaited us. Between the passage of Alabama's new death penalty statute in 1975 and the end of 1988, there had been only three executions in Alabama. But in 1989, driven by a change in the Supreme Court's treatment of death penalty appeals and shifts in the political winds,"
- "They were all grateful for the help, but as the spring of 1989 approached they all made the same request at the end of our meetings: Help Michael Lindsey. Lindsey's execution was scheduled for May 1989. Later they would ask me to help Horace Dunkins, whose wxecution date was scheduled for July 1989."
- "I thought of the victims of violent crime and the survivors of murdered loved ones, and how we've pressured them to recycle their pain and anguish and give it back to the offenders we prosecute. I thought of the many ways we've legalized vengeful and cruel punishments, how we've allowed our victimiz"
- "In debates about the death penalty, I had started arguing that we could never think it was humane to pay someone to rape or assault and abuse someone guilty of assault or abuse. Yet we were comfortable killing people who kill, in part because we think we can do it in a manner that doesn't implicate "
- "Havel had said that people struggling for independence wanted money and recognition from other countries; they wanted more criticism of the Soviet empire from the West and more diplomatic pressure. But Havel had said that these were things they wanted; the only thing they needed was hope. Not that p"
- "恐惧与愤怒是正义的威胁，它们可以感染一个社会、一个州甚至一个国家，它们会使我们盲目、非理性和危险。 宽恕只有植根于希望和自由意志，才是正义的。当宽恕给予了不值得宽恕的人，它才是最有力量、最开放和最具变革性的。那些不值得宽恕、甚至不追求被宽恕的人，正是同情心最有价值的部分。"
- "We have shot, hanged, gassed, electrocuted, and lethally injected hundreds of people to carry out legally sanctioned executions. Thousands more await their execution on death row. Some states have no minimum age for prosecuting children as adults; we've sent a quarter million kids to adult jails and"
- "Most incarcerated women - nearly 2/3 - are in prison for nonviolent, low-level drug crimes or property crimes. Drug laws in particular have had a huge impact on the number of women sent to prison. "Three strikes" laws have also played a considerable role. I started challenging conditions of confinem"
用户评论
kindle
“Our brokenness is also the source of our common humanity, the basis for our shared search for comfort, meaning, and healing. Our shared vulnerability and imperfection nurtures and sustains our capacity for compassion.”
有关法律、正义、公平的书，作者是著名的律师和社会活动者，书的内容非常personal，具体的案例和故事也非常好看。在看这本书以前我对死刑没有一个清晰的立场，看完以后依然没有，但我觉得自己对这个话题了解更深入一些。我不觉得法律是用来保持“公正”的，法律是用来维持社会正常运转的一种手段（政令又是另一种，当然道德也是一种），从这个角度出发，死刑是否能为这个目标服务的，服务到什么程度，才是衡量是否应该取消它的标准。而这个问题的答案，也是因社会而异的。换言之，在我这种非常实际的人眼里，废除死刑本身无所谓对错，还是要看它在一个特定的环境里是强化还是弱化法律有效维护社会运转的作用。当然，这本书不仅仅是关于死刑，它对司法正义、美国南方的种族歧视和压迫都有很真实的反映，很多地方听的人非常悲哀和愤怒。
非常真诚的一本书。一直以来我都是比较坚定的中偏右，但是这本书至少说服了我“在一个充满了极度不公的系统里，死刑是无法达到惩罚或威慑的作用的”，也让我意识到在美国推动废死，并不是自由派不顾公义的一意激进的行为。读这本书的时候，忽然想到几年前看到一个网红的状态，印象最深的是一句“他们最终还是处决了Tommy（Thomas Arthur）”，状态里塑造出的激进精英废死先锋的形象让我十分不适。读完这本书，我才明白，“激进”，“精英”，“废死”都不是让我不适的原因，缺乏真诚才是
整体看下来，像是Appellate Brief的Statement of Facts部分。抒情非常尴尬，但是材料都是非常震撼的，内容是真实的。
每一個故事都令人心碎，但是更心碎的是，假如有人在這片土地做Bryan一直致力去做的事，他可能收穫一份高危的職業，一開始他會獲得感激和信任，但也許很快他也會消失不見，或者關於他的正義無法得到伸張。
Be merciful and humane as much as possible
所有正义都是手心里极尽呵护的花。
还记得大学听他的seminar时的震撼，be stonecatcher，not caster
病隙听完。司法界的不公让人唏嘘，幸亏有作者这样的stone-catcher。
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