Case Study: Walter Mcmillian

Just as Bryan Stevenson’s grandmother told him, getting close to issues important to people is imperative to fully understanding them (Stevenson 14). Individuals such as Akon, the owner of the Akon Lighting Africa organization, realized how people are at a disadvantage without electricity in Africa, so he bought land in Africa and is using solar electricity to power small villages. By experiencing this first-hand and getting close to the living conditions, he is able to understand exactly what these people are going through. Couples like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt understand how so many children are homeless, so they personally got involved in trying to fix the issue by adopting three children (Dailymail.com). Although this certainly …show more content…
This was the first case Stevenson had ever been involved with starting out his internship at SPDC. This was the case that Stevenson realized he needed to help misfortuned people and why he needed to do so. Throughout the years that it took to finally win Walter’s case, Stevenson never gave up on the case and visited McMillian frequently. Doing so allowed him to create a long lasting friendship with trust, meaning that McMillian could give Stevenson specific details about the conditions of the incarcerated people on death row. Stevenson could indirectly see exactly what the death row prisoners had to go through on a daily basis, which brought him closer to the issues he needed to combat. Stevenson got really close to the case and the emotions of the trial, his client, and his client’s family, extended family, and friends. He visited McMillian’s supporters regularly and created relationships with them. Once, he sat with all of them talking about how unfortunate the situation is and how McMillian is obviously innocent for hours on end. As Stevenson said, “Driving home that night from meeting Walter’s family, I thought of the story in a whole new way” (Stevenson 101). Getting even closer to the case allowed him to discover another side of the story and connect deeper with his client and the issues the client had been facing. Getting closer to all of his clients and their issues had a great effect on Stevenson’s abilities as a lawyer and inspired him to be more thorough with his cases. Getting closer to the issues presented before him in general forced him to have a better understanding of them and be able to challenge these issues most