A few years later, lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Walter 'Johnny D' McMillan (Jamie Foxx) is arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death row for the murder of Ronda Morrison - a crime he did not commit. Later, Bryan and Johnny testify in front of congress about the death penalty. Chapman acquiesces, and allows for the charges to be dismissed – Johnny D is freed and returns home to his family. Bryan goes to Chapman’s house and confronts him, arguing for justice and the truth, but Chapman will not buckle.Īt the motion for dismissal of charges, Bryan makes a moving and impassioned speech about the law, justice, and fairness, and argues that in a just world these charges must be dismissed. Bryan is sure that Chapman will agree to dismiss all charges, but Chapman wants another trial and for Johnny to stay on death row. 60 Minutes does a story on the case which draws national attention to the story, and the state grants Johnny D a new trial. Everyone is devastated.īryan promises it isn’t over, and will appeal this decision out of local courts and up to the state supreme court. Though it seems like a slam dunk, the local court still refuses to grant a retrial, saying there’s no way to know when Myers was lying. Though he hesitates, Myers eventually admits he lied and that Johnny D is innocent. With all his evidence, Bryan files to get Johnny D a new trial, and calls many witnesses to the stand – all the people who saw Johnny at the fish fry, a police officer who admits he was asked to lie about the crime, and finally Myers. The other men clang their cups onto their bars so that Herb can hear their support through the grates, and Herb is executed. Bryan watches from the gallery in horror as Herb is put into the electric chair.

Bryan meets with him, and since he had no family, he tells Bryan he asked for his military flag to be sent to him.

On death row, Johnny D and Anthony Ray Hinton (O’Shea Jackson), give Herb their support as he is taken to be executed. Eva takes him to the prison since Herb asked him to be there. Bryan digs and finds audiotapes of Myers’s original statement, where he flat out refuses the Sheriff’s demand to frame an innocent man.īryan is informed that Herb’s stay is denied. He tries to coerce him to come forward and tell the truth, but Ralph demurs. With his one witness down, Bryan decides to go visit Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson) in prison. They drop the charges, but Darnell backs out, too scared. Meanwhile, the police arrest Darnell saying he perjured himself with his statement – Bryan angrily goes to see Chapman and the Sheriff, and tells them what they’re doing to Darnell will never hold up. The fact that Herb was a war vet and has PTSD was never introduced at trial, so despite all his appeals being used up, Bryan files for a stay of execution. Eva and Bryan are able to secure real office space and open the Equal Justice Initiative.īryan continues to work on Herb and Johnny’s cases. Everyone gets out of the house but the police don’t find anything – Bryan tells Eva he understands if she wants to quit, but she says absolutely not… she wants to set an example for her kids. One night, Eva gets a threatening phone call at the house, telling her in racist terms that if she keeps helping Bryan and the death row inmates she’s dead – and that there’s a bomb under her house. But when Bryan reviews the case against Johnny D, he finds it to be completely thin.īryan meets with the new district attorney, Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall), and presents him with the evidence he has collected in Johnny D’s case, and hopes he will have his cooperation since the evidence clearly doesn’t add up – but Chapman stonewalls him and says he will do everything he can to ensure that Johnny D, who he says is clearly the murderer, stays in prison. When he meets with Johnny D, Bryan is rebuffed completely – Johnny D tells him in a town this corrupt and racist the truth doesn’t matter, and he’s wasting his time.

He meets with multiple inmates, including Herbert Richardson (Rob Morgan), a former Vietnam war vet with extreme PTSD who set off a bomb that killed a woman. He meets up with his one contact, local advocate Eva Ansley (Brie Larson) to start their venture, but she can’t find anyone to rent them office space, so he stays in her home and they work from there.īryan goes to meet with the death row clients and is forced to undergo a strip search – not a requirement for attorneys – by the cruel prison staff. After he graduates, he moves from Delaware to Alabama to start offering legal services to death row clients with grant money he’s been given. Jordan) is a Harvard law student interning on death row cases. In 1987 in Alabama, Walter ‘Johnny D’ McMillan (Jamie Foxx) is arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death row for the murder of Ronda Morrison – a crime he did not commit.

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