Just Mercy
written by Destin Daniel Cretton & Andrew Lanham, based on the book by Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan): Mr. McMillian, I can see how that be hard --
Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx): No, you don't! No, you don't. No, you don't. You're rich boy from Harvard, you don't what it is down here. When you guilty from the moment you born. And you can buddy up with these white folks, and make them laugh, and try to make them like you, whatever that is, and you say "yes, sir", "no, ma'am", but when it's your turn they ain't gotta have no fingerprints, no evidence, and the only witness they got made the whole thing up. And none of that matter when all y'all think is that I look like a man who could kill somebody.
Stevenson: I was in the witness room when they killed Herbert Richardson Thursday night. It was the most horrific thing I've ever experienced. I'm sure Ritter's execution wasn't easy for you, either.
Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson): They put me in the cell closest to the kill room. Middle of the night, everybody started screamin', bangin' on the bars. And then... Then come the smell of his skin burnin'. I know that smell.
Stevenson: May I ask you what happened?
Myers: Seven years old. I was sleepin' in my foster mom's basement when her heater blowed up, catched my PJs on fire. I screamed for two minutes straight before they found me. Everybody knowed that I got a fear of bein' burned. They knowed what it would do to my head to be in a place like that. I couldn't stop shaking all night. Curled up on the floor like a baby, tryin' to breathe, but every breath you take just... give you another taste of the man they killed. You can't go through somethin' like that and come out the same.
Stevenson: I know.
Myers: I called that Sheriff the next morning, I told him... I would say whatever he wanted to get me out. He took my statement. Moved me to county the next day.
Stevenson: Walter, I'm so sorry.
Walter: The day I got arrested, I thought I was gonna be okay. 'Cause I got the truth. Soon as they talk to everybody that was with me, they gonna have to let me go. Then, the police keep callin' you a killer. Some white dude say he saw you do it. News people sayin' you did it. Judge and jury sayin' you did it. Now you on the row... Two, three, four years... Your friends and your kids... They ain't callin' you like they used to. After a while, you start wondering what they think about you. You start wondering what you think about you. Truth ain't so clear no more. But the last few days... I can't stop thinkin' 'bout Myers up there tellin' everybody how it went down. That's the first time I feel like myself since I've been locked up. First time I remembered who I is. These fools gonna do what they gonna do. But if they take me to that chair tonight, I'm going out smilin', 'cause I got my truth back. You gave it to me. To me and my family. And ain't nobody gonna take that from us. You ain't quittin', is you?
Stevenson: No, sir!
Walter: Then there ain't no reason for you to say you're sorry.
Stevenson: It's easy to see this case as one man trying to prove his innocence. But when you take a black man and you put him on death row a year before his trial, and exclude black people from serving on his jury... When you base your conviction on the coerced testimony of a white felon and ignore the testimonies of two dozen law-abiding black witnesses... When any evidence proving his innocence is suppressed, and anyone who tries to tell the truth is threatened, this case becomes more than the trial of just a single defendant, it becomes a test of whether we're gonna be governed by fear and by anger, or by the rule of law. If the people standing in the back of this courtroom are all presumed guilty when accused, if they have to live here, and live in fear of when this very thing will happen to them, if we're just gonna accept the system that treats you better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent, then we can't claim to be just. If we say we are committed to equal justice under law, to protecting the rights of every citizen regardless of wealth, race, or status, then we have to end this nightmare for Walter McMillian and his family. The charges against him have been proven to be a false construction of desperate people, fueled by bigotry and bias, who ignored the truth in exchange for easy solutions. And that's not the law. That's not justice. That's not right. I ask that this case be dismissed immediately, Your Honor. Thank you.
Stevenson: I came out of law school with grand ideas in my mind about how to change the world. But Mr. McMillian made me realize we can't change the world with only ideas in our minds. We need conviction in our hearts. This man taught me how to stay hopeful, because I now know that hopelessness is the enemy of justice. Hope allows us to push forward, even when the truth is distorted by the people in power. It allows us to stand up when they tell us to sit down, and to speak when they say be quiet. Through this work, I've learned that each of us is more than the worst thing that we've ever done; that the opposite of poverty isn't wealth, the opposite of poverty is justice; that the character of our nation isn't reflected in how we treat the rich and the privileged, but how we treat the poor, the disfavored and condemned. Our system has taken more away from this innocent man than it has the power to give back. But I believe if each of us can follow his lead, we can change this world for the better. If we can look at ourselves closely, and honestly, I believe we will see that we all need justice. We all need mercy. And perhaps, we all need some measure of unmerited grace. Thank you.
Walter: I taught you all of that?
Stevenson: Yeah, you taught me some of that.
Walter: Pretty good, ain't it?