(soothing music)

- [Efrem] Take a drivethrough downtown Montgomery.

It's Alabama's state capitol,

the county seat of Montgomery County,

the heart of the AfricanAmerican civil rights movement

and home to the Equal Justice Initiative,

the non-profit organizationattorney Bryan Stevenson

started many years ago

to give legal representation

to poor prisoners wronglyconvicted of crime.

Stevenson's humble hero story

- The first time I visited death row,

I wasn't expecting to meetsomebody the same age as me,

from a neighborhood just like ours.

It' coulda been me, Momma.

- But what you're doing is gonnamake a lot of people upset.

- [Efrem] Is now a major motion picture

staring Michael B. Jordan as Stevenson

and Jamie Foxx as one of hisreal life clients on death row.

- Your life is still meaningful.

And I'm gonna do everything possible

to keep them from taking it.

(hands thump)

- You don't know what youinto down here in Alabama

when you're guilty fromthe moment you're born.

Guard.

- Mr. McMillan?

- We done here.

- Michael, when you first hearof Bryan Stevenson's story

or read the book,

what were your initial thoughts?

Did you know immediately

this was something you wanted to do?

- Yeah, when I first heard about Bryan

I was actually embarrassed

that I didn't know that muchabout him in the first place.

But as soon as I got educated on him,

listening to his TEDTalk, reading his memoir,

meeting him, getting toknow him as a person,

and the work that he's doing,

I immediately knew it was something

that I needed to be involved with,

trying to figure out how to get it done,

what people would beinvolved, how to develop it.

So, it was a no-brainer for me.

- Did you hand pick Jamie? (laughs)

- I felt like he was theonly person I saw for it.

He's the only person thatI felt would be able to

give the character what it needed.

- Having someone like Michael B. Jordan

who's up for the task of doingsomething like "Just Mercy",

introducing us to Bryan Stevenson,

I think is the golden part of it.

- Why you doing this?

- Why am I a lawyer?

- No, no.

Why is you a lawyer down here in Alabama,

taking these cases that ain'tnobody gonna pay you for?

- When I was a teenager mygrandfather was murdered

over a black and white TV.

We kept waiting forsomeone to show up to help.

And that's when I realized

that outside my community nobody cared.

- The book as well as thefilm called "Just Mercy",

I can't think of mercy orgrace without thinking of God.

How would you describe your work

in terms of how it relatesto being a work of God?

- Yeah, I think it's very shaped by that.

I am a person of faith.

I have always had to believethings I haven't seen

and have chosen to live by grace.

And so, for me, it's consistent

with the work I've been trying to do.

I was drawn to helping people

who were accused andincarcerated and condemned

because I believe that we are all more

than the worst thing we have ever done.

- [Efrem] Walter "Johnny D." McMillian

is among Stevenson's first cases,

an Alabama man wrongly convicted of murder

and sentenced to death.

- You the lawyer?

- Yes, ma'am.

- Thank you so much fordriving all the way out here.

Most lawyers barely make time to call.

- [Efrem] His is also thestory shared in the film.

- [Bryan] We all need grace.

- How did Walter McMillian'sstory and that case change you?

That was very early in your career.

- Yeah.

Well, one of the things that it did for me

is it made me appreciate howwhen we falsely accuse someone

and convict them and condemn them

we don't just do it to them.

We do it to whole families,whole communities.

It was a community injury.

- You can buddy up with these white folks

and make 'em laugh andtry to make 'em like you,

whatever that is and yousay yes sir, no ma'am,

but when it's your turn,

they ain't got to have nofingerprints, no evidence

and the only witness theygot made the whole thing up.

And none of that matter

when all y'all think is

is I look like a manwho could kill somebody.

(serene music)

- That's not what I think.

- You play Walter McMillian.

How easy or difficult was it for you

to play the role of a black manwrongly convicted of a crime

and literally, possiblybeing sentenced to die?

- I don't think any of that is easy.

I don't think any of the mindset of it,

I don't think it's easy.

I don't think it was easyfor us to go on that set

and be in those jail cells.

You know, as black men that'sthe place you never wanna be

and I don't even visit people in jail.

I have a thing about seeing the perception

of seeing my family membersor people that I know in jail.

So, that was a tough stay.

- [Walter] Last lawyer saidthere ain't nothing left to do.

- There's always something that we can do.

Whatever you did, yourlife is still meaningful.

And I'm gonna do everything possible

to keep them from taking it.

- You've been at this nowfor more than 30 years.

What sacrifice, do you think,

or what would you look back on your life

and say is the greatest sacrifice

you've had to make to do this?

- You know, it's interesting.

I don't really think of anything I've done

as being a sacrifice.

It's been hard.

It's been challenging.

There are things that peoplelooking from the outside

might say I don't have

but I feel reallyprivileged to do what I do.

I feel like it's been a real gift.

- [Efrem] With that gift,

Stevenson works to share thestories of those forgotten,

on film and also here

at the National Memorialfor Peace and Justice,

a museum he opened to remember those

lynched in America after slavery.

Efrem Graham, CBN News,Montgomery, Alabama.

(soothing music)