What Attorney Bryan Stevenson Learned About Mercy and Compassion from His Prisoner Clients

Attorney Bryan Stevenson has devoted his life to defending those who have been wrongly accused, denied justice or shown no mercy by the U.S. justice system. Through his nonprofit law firm, the Equal Justice Initiative, he has won cases for more than 115 unfairly condemned death row prisoners.

In his decades of work, Bryan has entered some of the harshest places in the country—places where hope is hard to come by. What lessons has he taken away from his daily work with a despised community?

"Mercy is not something we give to people because they deserve it," Bryan says. "Compassion is not something we offer to people because they're owed. It's what we do because it's the way we find mercy for ourselves. You can't get mercy unless you give it. You can't receive compassion unless you give it."

Bryan continues to say he now wants to understand the people who hate him, some of whom have sent him death threats. He says that he has come to view them not simply as enemies, haters or bigots. In a way, he says, they're just like his clients. "They need someone to kind of get past what's created this burden, this fear, this anger, this hostility."

In the video above, Bryan explains why mercy should be extended to everyone, regardless of his or her circumstances.