Criminal Justice In America Now And Then Appears To Be

The main case that Stevenson writes about is that of Walter McMillian, a black man wrongly convicted of the murder of Ronda Morrison (a white woman) and put on death row. Walter’s story was extremely frustration for me to read because the state had absolutely no evidence on him. All the testimonies against Walter were either coerced or made possible by bribery. The fact that a jury actually found Walter guilty of murder is absolutely mind boggling to me. However, I realized that Walter was not found guilty due to evidence against him, but

Another aspect represented and discussed in Just Mercy, is the overpopulations in United States prisons of individuals that our American society criminalizes in place of extending resources. (Stevenson, 2014) These populations include, but not limited to: the mentally ill population, the poor population and trauma victims. Juvenile injustices cases were discussed by Stevenson; how they are often lost in a system, sentenced to life, vulnerable and susceptible to rape, in some states sentenced to death

Bryan Stevenson is a public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the belittled. Through each case he resists against incarceration and abuse. Each person he meets, Stevenson acknowledges and educates people on the prison system, how to take stand and resist against mass incarceration and abuse even if you do not match the same

When it comes to any Criminal Justice System everyone hopes that it is fair and effective. In some situations, the effectiveness sadly becomes more important than being fair. When a crime is done, anxiety of the city’s population to find the killer/rapist/robber puts pressure on police officers and state officials. This may result in a problematic condition to hunt down and convict whoever may fall under the characteristics of the original offender, even if innocent. The author of Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, gives a look into the reality of how corrupt and unjust America’s Criminal Justice System can be. Stevenson graduated from Harvard Law School and founded the Equal Justice Initiative, which is a legal practice that helps defend virtually anyone who is in need of help and does not have the funds to get help. Within Just Mercy, Stevenson talks about legal cases he worked with through the Equal Justice Initiative that have proven the Criminal Justice System is not always fair and is not quick to correct those errors. Throughout the book, it becomes very obvious on how important these issues are and why there is a need to discontinue these problems, as well as ignoring these problems. Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy does an extraordinary job at evaluating the fairness of the Criminal Justice System, although the consistency of who Stevenson is talking about is at times may be hard to follow.

William Brennan, a staunch supporter of the human equality, viewed the Constitution as a vehicle to promote dignity for all. During his address at Georgetown, Brennan emphasized the importance human dignity when he stated, “the Constitution embodies the aspiration to social justice, brotherhood, and human dignity that brought this nation into being”. Although Brennan believed we made great strides in advancing human dignity for all, he acknowledged, “this egalitarianism in America has been more pretension than realized fact.” Threats to human dignity are continuous; therefore, Brennan believed that as a Supreme Court justice he must read the Constitution to help settle disputes that would inhibit the rights of the people.

Devil in the Grove, by Gilbert King, presents the world as it was in the late 1940’s early 1950’s. Racial tensions were high, individuals remained divided, and plagued with violence, but change would transpire. The narrative demonstrates a divided population, one side who would offer resistance and demand change, the other side would offer resistance denounce change protecting the status quo. King introduces Thurgood Marshall, an African American lawyer who would challenge the status quo and bring forth change through his legal defense strategies. Marshall’s approach to combat racial inequality, disparate treatment, and racial injustice of the criminal justice system is at the forefront of Devil in the Grove. King illustrates Marshall’s journey in his unending pursuit of civil rights for African Americans. Moreover, Marshall would use the very same biased criminal justice system to challenge its racial inequalities and effectively obtain reform. Gilbert King’s book, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys and the Dawn of a New America explicates Thurgood Marshall as the groundbreaker who paved the way for social transformation in American with his far-reaching triumphs in cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, thus undeniably redefined justice becoming, as one civil rights pioneer described him, the founding father of the New America.

Charlotte E. Ray, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Pauli Murray, and Thurgood Marshall, these are names of heroes, who dared to change history. Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and Philando Castile, these are names of heroes, who probably would have never imagined affecting history due to their deaths. Jean Camper Cahn asked “and where are we now with our heroes dead and our symbols under attack? ” I, too, have questioned the fate of our nation in current political climates with my heros are gone. Over the course of seven years, I questioned if I was enough to embark on this journey for a Juris Doctorate. In hindsight, I realized I feared the person I would become after law school. Albeit the fear of starting law school, I was committed to invoking

Reading the goals and objectives of the Law School, and The Dan K. Webb Center for Advocacy solidified my decision to pursue law at Loyola. I am especially drawn to Loyola’s emphasis on fostering a learning environment of underrepresented groups, expanding aid for public service practitioners, and integrating social justice into the curriculum because they echo my own objectives for my future law career. Seeing the numerous accolades the program has received through the years, assures me that a degree from Loyola’s Law School will undoubtedly equip me for future success in my professional

Alienated by a town he called his home, isolated by the same officials that were supposed to keep him safe, and abandoned by a justice system that was put in place to protect the innocent and condemn the guilty, Walter McMillan sits alone in his cell only to await his punishment for a crime he did not commit. This is a fatal flaw in the system that produces the exact opposite result of what is expected of them. We are trained to trust them in convicting the guilty criminals in order to keep ourselves and our communities safe. Sometimes, the innocent are penalized for the wrongdoings of others. Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer whose mission is to fix this problem when he hears of Walters case and believes he has been wrongfully accused of a

Desperately clinging to the “southern-way of living,” ex-Confederates in Mississippi’s enacted Black Codes to codify the excessive arrests of the black man and preserve a system that viciously resembled slavery. Caught up in his economic interest, the white man halted the progress that so many had worked for, reshaping the American criminal justice system to provide legal covers for terror against African Americans and to preserve black inferiority. In the mid-1800s, if African Americans refused or could not show proof of gainful employment, they would be charged with vagrancy and put on the auction block with their labor sold to the highest bidder (Anderson 19). From the Reconstruction Era to the late 1960s, criminal justice has been one of the greatest civil rights crises of our time; imprisonment of individual African American “offenders” represents the systematic imprisonment and oppression of whole groups of the population.

The justice system of the United States has held a complicated history of racism, greed, tragedy and corruption. Though less than three centuries old, the United States has grown to be one of the largest and most powerful of nations in the world. With a population of 323 million people, the nation is expected to be capable of keeping up with the crime and justice of the people. However, when the law is constantly changed and ratified to fit the needs of the time, control over how much power one body of the justice system has, is never constant. What defines a criminal is not strict, and the treatment does not have to necessarily be humane.

In the speech, “John F. Kennedy Civil Rights Address”, John F. Kennedy, Civil Rights Activist and 35th President of the United States of America, argues that “This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” He claims that all men are created equal, and therefore, all men are to share the same rights. He develops this claim by first reacting to a series of threats and defiant statements on how the University of Alabama was attempting at desegregation. He acknowledges this by stating that “It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops” and by elaborating on how all men are created equal with this Nation being founded by men of many different nations and backgrounds. Kennedy then addresses that if a man with darker skin cannot enjoy the necessities of a decent, full, and free life in which all of us want, then who among us should accept this delay of action? This then leads him to stating that the time is now for this Nation to fulfill its promise. Finally, he establishes a strong call to action in which he peads to the American society to make it easier for us, as a Nation, to move ahead and provide the kind of equality of treatment that all of us deserve. Kennedy’s purpose is to unify the people of

The results from an excellent work of writing are brilliant and constructive to society; challenging conventional beliefs, and introducing new conversations. “Just Mercy”, a novel shining light on the countless injustices of the criminal justice system, is narrated and inspired by a young lawyer who represents the most desperate and vulnerable victims of the criminal justice system in America; these being the poor, the innocent, and the wrongfully condemned. Further, the novel calls attention to compassion in the pursuit of justice, as creating compassion within the system will push towards new analysis of law and order’s place in our society. Bryan Stevenson, founder of The Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, is certainly a pioneer of human rights, a person who represents his human compassion through the representations he has upheld in the real world, as well as writing Just Mercy, which further illustrates the intersectionality of poverty and racial discrimination that is ever so present in the foundation of America. The function of a major system in society always needs criticism for the betterment of all, so what better way than to analyze “justice” as it is the claimed virtue of America’s “justice” system, as well as its’ pursuit contending with the foundation for Bryan Stevenson’s career and creation of the novel “Just Mercy”.

In any justice system ran by man, the flaw with the system is the judgement. Equality is an utopian theme. It is searched for by everyone, but has yet to be found. What we have in America is a system that has produced egregious patterns in the individuals of whom it convicts. The African American community has been the party that has been so critically effected. Bryan Stevenson, author of “Just Mercy,” a critically acclaimed novel about the injustices committed against the African American community, has spent his life fighting for change. He convinces the readers that the major flown the United States judicial system is the death penalty. He communicates his point across by sharing countless stories and anecdotes. Through these appeals, he continually shows the failures in the system. Through the end of his work, the reader can here Stevenson pleading that the American justice system needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Growing up, children are told stories of how America is the greatest country in the world and the guarantee that citizen’s safety is the top priority. Children are told that cops save the day and make sure all the bad people will go to prison and never harm anyone else ever again. Unfortunately, the criminal system is not so black and white like I grew up to believe in. I remember when I first read How to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and I was horrified by the realization of how immensely racist and cruel society was at one point. In my naive mind, I thought that society is much better now and the criminal system is full of justice and fairness. Just Mercy demonstrates, as powerfully as any book on criminal justice that I’ve ever read, the extent to which brutality, unfairness, and racial bias continue to infect criminal law in the United States. At the same time that Stevenson tells a story of deep-seated and widespread injustice, he also recounts instances of human compassion, understanding, mercy, and justice that offer hope. Reading this book has opened my eyes to the unfairness that I was not paying enough attention to. My knowledge and awareness has grown enormously due to Stevenson's moving stories of the people wrongly put on death row.