Just Mercy Analysis

Stevenson depicts many stories of prisoners that he attempts to defend, but by including his personal encounter with racism he logically lets readers see how much discrimination is abundant in our country. Not long after Stevenson parked his car in front of his Atlanta apartment, did a police and a SWAT car stop in front of him. He describes that as he got out of his car, “the police officer had started walking toward [Stevenson’s] vehicle drew his weapon and pointed at [Stevenson]” (40). Stevenson had just gotten home and was about to go inside he certainly gave these police officers no reason to think they needed a gun. Soon after one police pointed his weapon at Stevenson the other “grabbed [him] by the arms and pushed [him] up against the back of [his] car” (40).

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

We want to free people who have been wrongfully convicted" (Stevenson 159). On and on Stevenson readers start to notice a pattern in which the cases Stevenson takes an interest in. was only right that he would have a concrete team and building to support him all the way. As he wins more and more, he is starting to be viewed as a credible person. He even presented his idea to Rosa Parks, who was a huge African American civil rights activist, a very credible person agreeing to

This quote explains that we aren't defined for our mistakes, especially because Walter McMillan was accused of that charge. People assumed he was a criminal now, when he was never one in the first place. Bryan attempts to save Walter McMillan from death row until the end. According to the text, they state,” There's a wide percentage of African Americans, but they only picked one. Stevenson 78.

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”

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 calls lynching domestic terrorism. Here’s what he hopes to address with the memorial honoring black people who were killed”, by Kurtis Lee reveals that Stevenson wants people to examine an era of American history that goes ignored. More specifically, Stevenson argues that the era of racial terror is the era that is least understood in American history. He states, “Black people in L.A., the black people in Cleveland and Chicago and Detroit went to these communities not as immigrants, but as refugees and exiles from terror. And many of the contemporary issues are shadowed by this exodus from the American South, which was a direct response to terrorism and lynching.” Additionally, truth and recognition about racial inequality haven’t been truthful throughout American history. In this passage, Stevensons suggests that one of the ways we can overcome these contemporary issues and problems is if we understand the history, the legacy, the circumstances that gave rise to this more clearly. In conclusion, Stevenson’s belief is that communities ought to have a chance to begin conversations, to facilitate dialogue that might lead people to understand the importance of history in a public space, allowing others to

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).

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

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

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.

I can infer thru my reading of Just Mercy that Stevenson is a believer in Jesus Christ, and his belief in Christ is what motivated him with enormous courage and conviction to fight for the poor, the oppressed, the voiceless, the vulnerable, the outcast, the wrongly accused, women and juveniles. Bryan Stevenson has a passion for young teenagers as he fights for changing the laws regarding how the judges run juvenile trials, death row cases and life without parole sentences. Throughout the book, a reader can find the concept that everyone makes mistakes, horrible mistakes, and that, at one time or another, everyone will need mercy granted. As Stevenson is fighting for his clients, hope is in his heart; if it were not, he would have quit being

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.

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.