Just Mercy Analysis

In the book “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson, the author is a lawyer and founder of the Equal Injustice Initiative who helps and defends those that are in desperate needs. Stevenson tells different stories of different cases that he had through the course of his professional career. One of the most heartbreaking stories that Stevenson shares on his books is about a boy named Charlie. Charlie is a fourteen years old who murdered his stepfather because he was abusive with his mom and left her unconscious on the floor. Charlie was sentenced to an adult prison because his stepfather was an ex-police officer. When Steven heard about Charlie’s case he ran to the prison to go see him and the first thing that Charlie tells Stevenson is how every night he would get sexually abused in prison by so many men ,and how they would do really awful things to him. “Florida is one of a few states that allows the prosecutor to decide to charge a child in adult court for certain crimes and has no minimum age for trying a child as an adult.”(Stevenson). Charlie’s case is not an unusual one. There are hundreds of prisoners currently in US prisons who are suffering ridiculous prison sentences while other prisoners with more violent, heinous, and terrible crimes have been sentenced to lesser time in jail or are already out. In order to understand why this is still a problem, it’s important to first understand the current issues facing prisons today and what effects come from these issues. Then

Bryan Stevenson was a lawyer based out of Montgomery, Alabama. He helped many of these people get an honest, fair sentence. Through the publication of his book, he has educated many on the reality of our prison systems in America. He shares his firsthand accounts of children being charged as adults, innocent men being charged for crimes they had clearly not had any involvement with, and women living in poverty being charged with murder for burying their stillborn children. All of these cases had one thing in common: poverty.

Stevenson believes that in the justice system we have a “disturbing indifference to inaccurate or unreliable verdicts, our comfort with bias, and our tolerance of unfair prosecutions and convictions”(17). McMillian’s case proves this point because, there was unreliable witnesses that charged McMillian with the murder of Morrison. Ralph Myers was the man who told the police that McMillian was responsible for the murder of Morrison. Investigation started to show that Myers had never met McMillian. ABI agents proved this by “having Myers meet up with McMillian at a grocery store while they monitored the interaction”(33). “Myers could not identify McMillian amongst several black men present he had

The main social problem addressed in Just Mercy is the unjust American justice system and the extreme biases and prejudices that plague it. There are numerous examples of this shown throughout the book. The best example of racial bias and prejudice is Walter McMillian’s case because it shows both extreme racial biases and extreme racial prejudices against McMillian because of the color of his skin.

Stevenson works hard to free this man and many other men and women after so many years of their lives were spent in prison. Stevenson presents several concrete facts to expose the truth of the United States justice system. Stevenson effectively uses logos in the book by proving Walter McMillian’s

In the novel, Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson, it is extremely apparent that there is a link between poverty, wealth, injustice, and justice. This book incorporates a strong theme of poverty and how it relates to justice, as well as injustice. Furthermore, it very apparently works to explain and provide examples of problems within the justice system, and the urgency that these be corrected. One major problem being poverty in relation to obtaining justice. This being said, throughout my personal reading of the book, I have come to agree with Stevenson's statement, "the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice" (Stevenson 18).

Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, is a lawyer from the rural south that advocates for mostly children on death row. He spends most of his time in low income communities with next to no hope. His TED talk was based on his experiences in these communities, his career, and his knowledge regarding minorities while addressing his predominately financially stable, White audience. Trying to persuade an audience that is not effected by what you are trying to speak against is hard, however, Bryan Stevenson is able to do so. Bryan Stevenson’s 2012 TED talk uses ethos to persuade his audience by using his status as a prominent lawyer and an everyday person who many people know and can relate to with strong respectable values in life to prove himself as a trustworthy person in order to argue his point on how the American justice system distorts the truth racial discrimination in the system, as well as the poverty t faces. His use of ethos enables him to establish trust in his audience that can make a major difference in the justice system with most of them being well respected people in society.

Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is a story of innocents sentenced to death row (2015). As an attorney at law, he sheds light on the fraudulent Criminal Justice System with the corruption of cops and prison guards, bribed witnesses, and paid off judges. Written in first person, Stevenson’s (2015) account depicts 50 years of debasement of the Criminal Justice System. Telling the accounts of corruption in first person and using dialogue that included the actual victims conversations allowed his readers to be invested in the story. His vocabulary and the stories used, made the reader realize that corruption takes place in the United States Criminal Justice System both in history and continues through today.

In Bryan Stevenson’s novel, Just Mercy, it is extremely apparent that there is a link between poverty, wealth, injustice, and justice. This book incorporates a strong theme of poverty and how it relates to justice, as well as injustice. Furthermore, it works to explain and provide examples of problems within the justice system, and the urgency to correct these. This being said, throughout a personal reading of the book, one might come to agree with Stevenson's statement, "the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice" (Stevenson 18).

Through every hero’s life, there comes many injustices towards him/her not only because they’re trying to make a difference but also due to their appearance, ideas, and their ambition for justice. Stevenson’s first run in with injustice was a night while was just sitting in his car, being pointed at with a gun with a white male in control of his life. As stated we get a point of view of how Stevenson felt due to this particular incident, “What I replayed the whole incident in my mind, what bothered me most was the mount when the officer drew his weapon and I thought about running” (42). When proceeding with a case, Stevenson had to go visit a felon, but when trying to enter a while male correctional officer that owned a truck with many disgraceful bumper stickers stopped him in his tracks. This man filled with tattoos with no source of empathy or sympathy initiates a confrontation with Stevenson due to the power he is given. Although Stevenson came to visit many times, this guard was new to him stating, “You’re going to go into that bathroom and take everything off it you expect to get into my prison”

Just Mercy was written in 2014 by Stevenson Bryan. This story takes place in Montgomery Alabama. This story is about the broken system of justice. How people are judged unfairly even in the supreme Court. Bryan Stevenson primarily focuses on death penalty cases and juveniles sentenced to life or death. He provides relief for those incarcerated also, he understands the need to fix this criminal justice system by focusing on poverty, and racial disparities. Stevenson chooses cases that did not receive justice. This book discusses the prison life and how they are treated. It also decides about the different cases and how each case has one theory. It provides additional insight into the rush to incarcerate for life people as young teenagers, putting them in an adult prison. Where they are certain to suffer from sexual, mentally and physical abuse.

Stevenson becomes largely aware of all of the injustices, specifically all the racial injustices that occur within the prisons and specifically within death row. This injustice that occurs within death row is saddening to observe, especially when it comes down to ending one’s life. Stevenson reminds his audience that everyone makes mistakes and deserves mercy because no one is perfect, however every life has value. His most prevailing case of this is the Walter McMillian case. At this time in 1980s, Alabama has the fastest growing prison population. Stevenson therefore spends much of his time in Alabama for the defense of McMillian as he is accused of murder and an alleged drug lord and rapist. With the defense of Walter’s community on his side along with his connection with EJI (Equal Justice Initiative), Stevenson was determined to

Many people believe the titles of names of places, people, or books have little to no meaning, I can argue there is a reason behind every single capitalized letter and chapter title and every person’s name. In the common read, Just Mercy we can truly test this theory. Throughout the introduction and sixteen chapters that follow, the amount of emotion and strategically placed names of each chapter depict a strong image of struggle or happiness. The title of the book itself “Just Mercy” represents all that America strives to become a civil and lawful society. We can start by dissecting the title “Just Mercy”. If you were to google “Just” the word is defined by having a basis in or conforming to fact or reason. (“Just.” Merriam-Webster). The definition of the word “Mercy” states two different meanings, compassion; or a blessing that is an act of divine favor. (Mercy.” Merriam-Webster). Immediately upon putting these two words together you come to find they balance each other. The correspondence between just and mercy sound like they belong together, it simply means the fact of being kind. Beginning with the rest of the titles, Stevenson parallels Harper Lee’s famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird into his day to day struggles of an unjust court system.

After reading this week’s reading of Just Mercy I found it astonishing just how many people seek out Bryans help. Bryan is an amazing person because he will help any wrongly convicted person as much as he can. He does not see them as a paycheck, but as an actual human being that needs his help. I believe that Bryan is able to successfully help everyone that comes to him because like them he is a minority. They all know what it is like to be discriminated against and they all want to break the existing hierarchy. Bryan knows that he is their only hope for receiving the justice that they deserve, therefore he fully commits his life to helping wrongly convicted individuals. Moreover, even Rena Mae’s mother and her family go to Bryan for help, which is interesting because Bryan is defending

A huge factor in Stevenson`s involvement is the fact that he is a person of colour, and most of his clients are as well. I think part of the reason why Stevenson brought such a controversial topic to a TED Talk convention is because he knows most of the people there are privileged and have not had to see the injustices he has lived through. He hopes to make his audience think about the treatment of crime and criminals in a personal way, and prevent the suffering of others from remaining in the back of their minds.