Stevenson, a nervous Harvard Law intern, visits a death row prisoner named Henry and is moved by his resilience and humanity.

Alabama judge Robert E. Lee Key calls Stevenson to warn him against representing Walter McMillian on death row.

With no solid evidence, police target Walter McMillian for the murder of white teenager Ronda Morrison in Monroeville.

Walter McMillian is illegally placed on death row at Holman Prison before his murder trial even begins.

After a brief trial with erratic witness testimony and a nearly all-white jury, Walter is convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

Stevenson and Eva Ansley open the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama to provide legal representation to death row inmates.

Stevenson visits Walter's family at their home and meets his thirty-person extended family, offering them renewed hope.

All of Stevenson's appeals on Walter's behalf are denied by Judge Patterson, a former opponent of Civil Rights backed by the KKK.

Stevenson discovers that Bill Hooks was paid for his testimony and that Walter's distinctive truck was not modified until months after the murder.

Ralph Myers calls Stevenson from prison and reveals he was coerced with death threats into falsely testifying against Walter.

At a long-awaited hearing, Ralph Myers testifies before the court that every word of his original testimony against Walter was a lie.

Police bring a German shepherd and metal detector to Walter's hearing, blocking black supporters from entering the courtroom.

Original interrogation tapes revealing Sheriff Tate's coercion of Ralph Myers are presented as evidence at the hearing.

The Alabama Court of Appeals invalidates Walter's conviction, and he walks out of Holman Prison as a free man.

Walter McMillian dies after years of advancing dementia, having spent his freedom speaking out against wrongful conviction.

Bryan Stevenson's journey from nervous intern to determined death row lawyer begins with a single visit to a prisoner named Henry, who reveals to him the profound humanity of those condemned to die. After establishing himself as a lawyer, Stevenson takes on the case of Walter McMillian, a Black man from Monroeville, Alabama, who was illegally imprisoned on death row and convicted of murder despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence. Stevenson opens the Equal Justice Initiative and spends years fighting through hostile courts, corrupt officials, and denied appeals to build a case that can finally challenge Walter's conviction. The breakthrough comes when key witness Ralph Myers admits he was threatened into lying, and hidden interrogation tapes confirm the coercion at the heart of the prosecution. National media coverage and relentless legal pressure ultimately lead the Alabama Court of Appeals to overturn Walter's conviction, freeing him after six years on death row. Walter lives out his remaining years as a voice for criminal justice reform before succumbing to dementia and dying, leaving behind a legacy of mercy and resilience.

Walter McMillian's wrongful conviction and the fight to free him.

As guards roughly drag Henry away, he begins singing the hymn 'Higher Ground,' forever shaping Stevenson's sense of purpose.

A Black teenager is shot by police after a traffic stop while reaching for his driver's license, not a weapon.

Michael Lindsey is executed after a judge overrides the jury's original sentence of life imprisonment.

Vietnam War veteran Herbert Richardson is executed for a bombing that accidentally killed a child, despite his family begging for mercy.

Stevenson discovers that fourteen-year-old Charlie has been raped by multiple adult inmates after being placed in an adult jail.

An elderly couple whose grandson died donates his college fund to support Charlie, whose grandmother has since passed away.

Trina Garnett, convicted as an adult at fourteen for accidentally causing a fatal fire, is raped by a prison guard and gives birth in shackles.

Thirteen-year-old Ian Manuel is placed in solitary confinement to protect him from older inmates and spends eighteen consecutive years there.

Stevenson is illegally strip-searched by a prison guard whose truck is covered in Confederate flag bumper stickers and racist slogans.

Stevenson successfully gets mentally ill client Avery Jenkins removed from death row and placed in a proper mental health facility.

Marsha Colbey, a mother of six with no prenatal care, is wrongfully convicted of murder after delivering a stillborn baby at home.

Marsha Colbey's sentence is overturned after ten years of wrongful imprisonment, and she is tearfully reunited with her children.

After his release, Walter McMillian and Stevenson travel the country together speaking about wrongful conviction and criminal justice reform.

The Supreme Court declares sentences of life imprisonment without parole for children convicted of non-homicide crimes to be unconstitutional.

Two elderly men, Joshua Carter and Robert Caston, disabled by brutal forced labor at Angola prison, are finally released on parole.

Beyond Walter McMillian's case, Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative fight for a staggering range of clients whose lives expose the systemic failures of American criminal justice. From veterans executed without mercy to children imprisoned in adult facilities and subjected to rape and prolonged solitary confinement, each case reveals a different dimension of how the most vulnerable people are discarded by the system. Stevenson witnesses his first execution, fights unsuccessfully to save intellectually disabled men from the electric chair, and works to relocate a mentally ill man from death row to a hospital where he can actually be treated. He also takes on the cases of wrongfully convicted women, including a mother imprisoned after a stillbirth, whose release after ten years brings a small measure of justice. After Walter is freed, Stevenson continues his broader reform work, eventually winning a landmark Supreme Court ruling that life without parole for juvenile non-homicide offenders is unconstitutional. The pool closes with the release of two elderly men disabled by decades of forced labor at Angola prison, a former slave plantation, representing a hard-won but meaningful victory.

The cases and clients that reveal the full scope of injustice in America.

Stevenson's grandmother, the daughter of former slaves, tells him he cannot understand important things from a distance — he must get close.

Stevenson files an official complaint after being held at gunpoint outside his own apartment, but is condescendingly dismissed by authorities.

After witnessing an execution from his death row cell, Ralph Myers suffers a mental breakdown and agrees to testify against Walter.

Judge Key and the district attorney conspire to move Walter's trial from diverse Monroe County to the heavily white Baldwin County.

Darnell Houston tells Stevenson he can prove Bill Hooks lied and is promptly arrested for perjury in clear retaliation.

New DA Tom Chapman dismisses evidence of perjury in Walter's trial, revealing he is either naïve or willfully indifferent to injustice.

Karen Kelly, interviewed in prison, confirms that Ralph Myers and Walter McMillian never actually met before the murder accusation.

The Supreme Court of Alabama approves EJI's Rule 32 petition, granting Stevenson access to all criminal files in Walter's case.

Bomb threats and threatening letters begin targeting the Equal Justice Initiative office as Stevenson closes in on the truth.

The next day, Mrs. Williams — attacked by police dogs at Selma in 1965 — strides past the courthouse German shepherd and enters the hearing.

DA Chapman secretly opens a new investigation into Walter's case after national media coverage from 60 Minutes raises public doubts.

Bill Hooks recants his testimony against Walter following the wave of national media scrutiny of the case.

Walter panics in his care facility, convinced he is back on death row, and desperately begs Stevenson to save him.

Condemned client Jimmy Dill tells Stevenson 'I love you' over the phone moments before being led to his execution.

Stevenson meets a woman outside the courthouse who calls herself a stonecatcher and offers peppermint candy and comfort to all grieving families.

This pool traces the critical turning points that drive the narrative forward, from the personal convictions that launch Stevenson's career to the legal breakthroughs and heartbreaking defeats that define it. Stevenson's grandmother's early lesson about proximity and empathy frames everything that follows, while his own experience of being held at gunpoint outside his apartment makes institutionalized racism viscerally personal. The path to overturning Walter's conviction is shaped by a series of revelations — a witness intimidated into lying, a community silenced by fear, and evidence deliberately withheld — but also by moments of unexpected courage, including a Civil Rights survivor walking past a police dog. Bomb threats, dismissed complaints, and a DA's willful indifference show how deeply the system resists correction. Moments of mercy cut through the darkness: a racist prison guard softened by a shared story of foster care abuse, a woman who channels her grief over her murdered grandson into courthouse vigils for strangers. The pool ends not with a legal victory but with a human one — a condemned man offering love to his lawyer on the night of his execution, and a stranger pressing a peppermint into Stevenson's hand.

The decisions, discoveries, and emotional reckonings that change the course of the story.