The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop: Men's Justice and God's Mercy

"Surely, he thinks, in a world where such a thing as this exists, surely there can be no God." Father Hannigan in The Mercy Seat

The Mercy Seat by Elizabeth H. Winthrop is a brilliant and heart-wrenching novel. Historical Fiction set in the Jim Crow South, the book addresses relevant issues of complicity in injustice and the pressures that maintain the status quo.

The story is told through the viewpoints of fathers and sons, husbands and wives, black and white, lawman and criminal, revealing who is truly innocent and who is guilty.

On a brutally hot day, a young black man awaits midnight. He has an appointment with the electric chair.

Will was found guilty of the rape and murder of a young white woman. Will's memories flash back on a loving moment they shared and the fear that made him run away when discovered.

Will's father Frank knows his worn out mule is not up to the task, but he is determined to deliver his only son's tombstone to the cemetery.

Ora and Dale have a son in Guadalcanal. They haven't heard from him for weeks. Dale has hidden the telegram. A Northerner, Ora has never adjusted to the Jim Crow South. Behind Dale's back, she secrets candy to the young boys working in the field behind their store.

Lane is a prison trusty who is helping to deliver the electric chair. He is halfway through his sentence, having killed a man during a robbery. Sometimes, he says, working ain't enough. Especially when an accident left his father crippled. The captain in charge drinks his way along the road trip.

Father Hannigan is filled with doubt, finding New Iberia more foreign than his Madagascar mission. His job is to console the grieving but he has no words of hope.

The lawyer Polly dreads the coming of midnight, for he must witness the execution. Since boyhood, he has been haunted by the postcard of a lynching his father had given him. His wife Nell does not understand how Polly gave Will the death sentence. He keeps secret the threats he received. Their boy Gabe decides to witness the execution, hitching a ride with the family of the murdered girl.

"...he wonders if it really matters in the end what kind of justice it is--mob or legal--when the end result is death."

During the course of the day, these people question their complicity in evil, make connections, and make enemies. Some find mercy, others are dealt justice; some get away with murder.

This book has haunted me. I want to talk about it and dissect it. I think it would make a great book club pick.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Mercy Seat
by Elizabeth H. Winthrop
Grove Atlantic
Pub Date 18 May 2018
ISBN: 9780802128188

*****

The Mercy Seat begins with a quote from the song The Mercy Seat by Nick Cave, "And the mercy seat is waiting...And I'm not afraid to die." But what is the mercy seat?

The ancient Israelites' religious writings, the Torah, which Christians know as the first five books of the Old Testament, had a sacred cover, the kapporet, which Martin Luther translated as "seat of mercy." This cover protected men from the judgment of God. Sacrificial blood was sprinkled on the kapporet as an atonement for men's sins, and God would extend mercy while still being holy and just. 

The title then refers to the themes of sin and guilt and substitute sacrifice/scapegoat. 

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthonty Ray Hinton

Last year I read Bryan Stevenson's book Just Mercy. It was crushing to read about a justice system based on the number of convictions and political gain at the expense of innocent men.

That book led me to read I Can't Breathe by Matt Taibbi about the death of Earl Garner, and then to Michelle Ko's Reading with Patrick about her experience teaching and later work with a former student who lands in jail. Each book is a moving account of the stories behind the Black Lives Matter movement.

So when I saw that one of the Death Row inmates  Stevenson had represented had written his own book I had to read it.

Ray Hinton had a record and had paid his dues. He was working in a guarded facility when a murder took place, but a romantic rival told police that he had seen Ray at the crime scene.

Ray was poor. Ray was black. Ray had a record. With lousy representation, a partially blind munitions expert witness, and a system stacked against him, he was sent to prison for murders he did not commit.

The Sun Does Shine tells of his struggle for justice, his decline into anger and hatred, and how he found hope and acceptance. He became a model prisoner, befriending the other inmates and helping to improve their lives. He asked for their food to be covered to keep out dust and insects. He asked for books to keep the inmates from dwelling on their problems. He started a book club. He kept up morale.

Ray changed lives. A former KKK member who killed a black teenager called Ray his best friend.

It was the continuing love of his mother and support of his best friend that kept Ray going for thirty years. Even after his mother passed, he heard her inspiring voice to keep fighting. Ray knew he had what many others on Death Row had lacked: a loving family and abiding faith.

Bryan Stevenson was overworked but took on Ray's case. They had to fight the Alabama court system that would not accept the evidence that would prove Ray's innocence.

When Ray was finally released he had been on Death Row longer than he had been free. It was a shock; the world had changed. The first night of freedom he slept in the bathroom because the bedroom was too large and strange. He was given no compensation. He had no Social Security or pension or savings built up. He would have to work to support himself the rest of his life.

I was devastated and I was inspired by Ray's story.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Watch a powerful video with Mr. Hinton at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6bvANcfflM

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
by Anthony Ray Hinton; Lara Love Hardin
St. Martin's Press
Pub Date 27 Mar 2018 
ISBN: 9781250124715
PRICE: $26.99 (USD)

A Story of Reconciliation and Healing: Convicted

When I was a freshman in small Michigan liberal arts college I asked a man where he was from. He said from outside of Benton Harbor. Where was that, I asked? He described the town in most negative terms and said, “if a bird flew from here directly west to Lake Michigan, and dropped a bomb just before the lake, that’s Benton Harbor.” Over the years I learned more about Benton Harbor and its affluent sister city across the bridge, St. Joseph.

I was moved to read Convicted: A Crooked Cop, an Innocent Man, and an Unlikely Journey of Forgiveness and Friendship by Jameel McGee and Andrew Collins with Mark Tabb because it was about Benton Harbor and a Michigan story.

Benton Harbor was once was a booming port town until the 1960s when manufacturing jobs disappeared and the white population moved across the river to St. Joseph. It has suffered forty years of racial tension, high unemployment, and the decay of city services and infrastructure. The murder rate per capita is one of the highest in the United States and drugs are rampant.

As in African American communities across the nation, the push to be tough on crime resulted in aggressive police tactics. Officer Andrew Collins yearned for recognition and success and became legendary for his narcotics related arrest rates and convictions. When he took short cuts and illegally manipulated evidence he justified it as part of putting away the bad guys. When he skimmed money off confiscated drug money, it was his just due for working for so little money.

Jameel McGee tried to keep away from drugs and criminal activities but was convicted for a crime he did not commit as a teenager. And then one day he asked a stranger to give him a ride to the store and his life changed forever. The police found drugs in the car and the stranger set Jameel up for the crime. The policeman who arrested him was Andrew, who manipulated evidence to ensure a conviction.

Convicted is the story of how these two men came to this fatal meeting, how it changed their lives, and how they each turned to faith and God. It is a story of how forgiveness is the first step in reconciliation and new life.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

The book is presented with first-hand stories by both Andrew and Jameel, which gives an immediacy and authenticity to the story. Jameel insists on his innocence, and Andrew professes that his using ‘short cuts’ was part of his wanting to do good by ensuring bad people were off the street. They both had to come to terms with their personal responsibility for their fate and to stop blaming others.

Jameel turns to God to help him let go of his murderous anger. Andrew turns to faith to find forgiveness.

Ten years after Andrew arrested Jameel they meet again. They must decide between vengeance and hate, or forgiveness and healing.

Convicted is an inspirational biography about Christian redemption. But the basic lessons shared are important and universal, applicable even for those outside of a faith community. Don’t travel the easy path, Don't justify your errors and choices. Anger corrupts. Admit your failings and ask for forgiveness from those you have harmed. Put aside hate and vengeance in order to grow into health.

He has told you, O man, what is good;And what does the Lord require of youBut to do justice, to love kindness,And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

America has created a police culture that corrupted Andrew, as I read about in I Can’t Breathe by Matt Taibbi and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, and the poverty that causes crime as I read about in Michelle Kuo’s Reading with Patrick.  For people of faith, it is clear that we are called to do justice and to forgive and to be kind. 

There are many ways of telling the stories that we need to hear. Perhaps Convicted will reach people who would not otherwise read about the issues of institutional racism, the failure of the police and justice system, and the poverty that fuels crime.

I received a free book from Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Convicted

A Crooked Cop, an Innocent Man, and an Unlikely Journey of Forgiveness and Friendship

Jameel Zookie McGee & Andrew Collins & Mark Tabb

Publication Date: Sep 19, 2017 

Hardcover $21.99

ISBN: 9780735290723 

Ebook $11.99

ISBN: 9780735290730

Reading with Patrick: The Memoir of an Idealistic Teacher

Michelle Kuo is a Chinese-American who grew up in West Michigan. I've lived in West Michigan. I lived in an entire county with only a handful of African Americans. I don't think there was one Asian person out of the 40,000. So it is understandable that Kuo grew up feeling alienated, identifying with the African American experience.

I admire how Kuo struggled with her immigrant parent's dreams for her and her personal desire to dedicate her talent to human rights. And I appreciated her honesty in admitting her failures and steep learning curve about the limits of what she could accomplish. It recalled to mind the idealism my husband and I once held and the pain and disappointment when faced with reality.

Reading with Patrick is her story of two years teaching English in one of the poorest counties in America, working in a school for troubled students. Success was not immediate, but she persisted. Her kids realized she was a teacher who cared.

She leaves under pressure to continue her education, planning a career in law. Several years later one of her best students is in jail for manslaughter. Kuo puts her personal life on hold to be with Patrick. They start back at square one. He has to physically relearn how to write legibly and read with understanding. Over seven months he becomes a gifted creative writer.

The story of how she discovers how to awaken his mind and set his spirit free is heartwarming and also devastating. I thought of the old television commercials for supporting black colleges: A mind is a terrible thing to waste. But of course, these children born in poverty, with little opportunity, do lead wasted lives. Kuo discovers many of her students have also ended up in jail or pregnant and it makes her reconsider her own estimation of her legacy.

Patrick accepts a plea bargain and serves his time. And then discovers all the doors are closed to him. As Kuo points out, the justice system has moved from trials to settlements, but the jail sentences permanently impair futures. The justice system and public education, and the legacy of racism behind them are addressed with thoughtful insight.

It is Kuo's self-revelatory journey that sets this book apart.  And I loved reading how students, and in particular Patrick, responded to literature and poetry.

I won this book on a giveaway. Thank you to LibraryThings and the publisher.

Random House
Publication Date July 11, 2017
$27
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9731-6

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

I have been privileged and protected in my small life. I came from a working class family with no significant problems. I was able to find a college to accept my less than stellar grades. I married a man who went into the ministry. We had challenges but we had what we needed. No one in my family was ever in jail, no one was targeted because of color or religion.

I knew about the great faults in American society and my heart was in the right place. I spoke out when I could, boycotted, tried to be educated, tried to pattern the right behavior. But I had no idea of the depth of my ignorance until reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.

The stories Stevenson shared crushed me, like a pressure on my chest. I read a chapter at a time, then had to step away and let the horror and despair subside. For Stevenson reveals an American justice system not only without mercy but that was corrupted on the local level for political gain.

In the 1980s, fear of rising crime was used by politicians who proposed stricter and harsher prison sentences, three-strike laws, and treating children as adults. As prisons filled to overcapacity, for-profit prisons arose and they lobbied for harsher sentences to keep their business profitable. The death penalty was reinvigorated, even if the methods employed were cruel and unreliable.

Caught in the cycle are innocent men and women, children relegated to life in prison where they are sexually abused, the mentally handicapped, and women who raped by men unpunished for their abuse of power.

Bryan Stevenson was drawn to seek justice for those on death row, especially the innocent without legal counsel. He started the Equal Justice Initiative and Just Mercy is the story of his work and the people he tried to help. It is a cry for reform of the justice and prison system. And a cry for mercy.

The book has won numerous awards and prizes. Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times called it, "Searing, moving." It is a disturbing book to read, especially because upright citizens who demand punishment have little idea of who they are condemning and what they are condemning them to. We have instituted "vengeful and cruel punishments" justified by our own suffering. "But simply punishing the broken--walking away from them or hiding them from sight--only ensures that they remain broken and we do, too. There is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity," Stevenson writes.

There is one story that brings hope. A prison guard who showed extreme racial prejudice learns more about the prisoner he has treated with contempt, and he could connect his experiences to the prisoner's. It changed the guard's mind and his life.

Stevenson is the mouthpiece for the stories of unjustly imprisoned men and women, allowing readers to understand their walk. May we learn compassion and press for a just system, showing mercy to those broken by racism, mental illness, poverty, addiction, abuse, and trauma.

As Stevenson reminds us, we are all broken people.

I received a free book from Blogging for Books in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Just Mercy
Bryan Stevenson
Spiegel & Grau
$16 paperback
ISN: 978-0-8129-8496-5