Just Mercy Analysis

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.

“Just mercy” written by Bryan Stevenson is a story about “justice and redemption”(title). Bryan Stevenson tells the story about Walter McMillian a convicted murder. McMillian was unjustly charged for the murder of Ronda Morrison by Ralph Myers even though there was clear evidence that McMillian did not commit this murder. McMillian’s story proves the inequities in the American justice system, and Stevenson proves the faults in the system by telling McMillian’s story. “Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done”(17). When we judge people based on their person not the facts innocent people can be charged for crimes that they never committed, and that is where are justice system is unjust.

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.

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).

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.

Written by Eastern alum, Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy follows the personal story of Stevenson and his journey to find mercy in unjust situations. The first two chapters focus on how this journey was commenced. Choosing to defend a man with a “bad reputation”, Stevenson seeks justice for Walter McMillian. Wrongly accused of murder, Stevenson dives deeply into the subject of minorities being blamed for crimes that were not of their doing. Using himself as an example, Bryan was wrongly interrogated by police due to neighborhood stealing as he was simply sitting in his parked car enjoying music. Moving onto the topic of prison, where the falsely accused people go, prisons are being exposed for their cruelty towards the inmates. Stevenson provides letters from current prisoners giving their own experiences in prison. Reports of abuse, solitary confinement and torture that sometimes end in death are happening

Just mercy is a powerful novel Written by Bryan Stevenson in the book he put us in a different world. while he depicts the social injustices he experiences while he defended an innocent man. Walter whom was set up for a murder of a women named Ronda even with multiple witnesses he is still convicted. Which made this be my topic of interest during the time that I was reading Just Mercy. Because In this society we have a race based institution where they can directly say a African American is guilty without fair trial. in the which mean that African Americans are “Guilty until proven innocent”. which is the opposite when it come to the opposite races.

Kerry Cook was a wrongfully convicted man who wrongly served twenty years in Texas's scandalous prison for the murder and rape of a twenty-one-year-old women named Linda Jo Edwards. His fight for release was said to be one of the worst demonstrations of police and prosecutorial misconduct in American history. He was tossed into a place for which no man could be assembled, and he sustained himself through beatings, molestation, and discouragement, however, he continued to fight against a justice system that wanted to control his voice and resisting to admit an error. During his twenty-year tenure, Cook went to the process of rehabilitation and education which helped him eventually regain his voice that the justice system tried to take from him.

On September 13, 1986, two women were brutally murdered. The first woman, Mitzi Nalley, was stabbed twenty-eight times, a second woman, Kelly Farquhar, was stabbed fourteen times and her throat was slit open twice, nearly decapitating her, and a third victim, Ron Ross, suffered nineteen stab wounds and lost an eye. Jonathan Wayne Nobles was on a four month parole, after serving eight months of a three year sentence for theft, at the time of the offense. Despite his horrific crimes, Jon turned his life around while on death row. To ameliorate one’s life is no effortless feat, however, with the help of God, good friends and the recognition of his remorse, Jon became a different man. Even as a renewed man, the question has arisen; Although Jon transformed his way of thinking, and his way of living; Did he still deserve to die? I believe so.

Looking at the cover of the book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redempt, written by Bryan Stevenson, one could not understand what would be thrown at them after opening the crisp pages. Breaking the title of the book down, we know what ‘mercy’ is defined as the feeling toward offenders through a person with the ability to oversee justice within our system. Furthermore, the two words ‘just mercy’ is implied that our officials that are administering the justice within our system go about it in a conscionable way. Stevenson’s starts off with an autobiographical introduction that sets forth how the context will be delivered to the readers. From the start, Stevenson explains how he got into the profession of defense law.

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

The book Soledad Brother helped me comprehend more on the battles people of color face everyday. In the book an innocent man was wrongly convicted of a crime he did not commit. Jackson was accused of stealing $70 dollars from a gas station in Los Angeles. Jackson wasn't given a fair trial, but they keep delaying it back on purpose. If it was me in his shoes at the times, I would have been really upset. Knowing they purposely tried to keep me impression and my rights taken from me. Jackson had the right to a fair trial, yet it never came. After he had been convicted; he was again committed of first degree murder of a police officer inside the prison. Jackson was imprisoned for twenty eight years.

Something terrible happened a few years ago. A mass murder occurred in a midnight theater show of "The Dark Knight Rises." The mentally-ill man, James Holmes, shot 82 people and killed 12 of them. Recently, in his trial he (luckily) escaped the death sentence. James' mother shocked everyone in the court room by apologizing on her and her son's behalf to the victims' families. She said that she was so sorry that this tragedy happened, and that she will pray for those who have been lost. James' trial ended in the conclusion that he shall spend his life in prison.

Racism and socioeconomic class play a very large factor in considering who is executed in America. An alarming statistic shows that 70% of all executions are those in which the victim was a white person (Wade 2013). “Since 1977, the overwhelming majority of death row defendants have been executed for murdering white victims, although African-Americans make up about half of all homicide victims” (Wade 2013). The old adage that ‘you get what you pay for’ unfortunately stands true when considering the representation that is provided for indigent defendants accused of murder.

In 1987, Walter McMillian was sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman in Monroeville, Alabama. Multiple African American alibi witnesses spoke on McMillian’s behalf and the jury had declared him an innocent man but the judge had overridden their verdict and had sentenced McMillian to death row. Despite the lack of concrete evidence against him, McMillian was given the death penalty purely because he was a black man that was disgustingly abused as an easily-believable scapegoat. Evidently, it is essential to abolish the death penalty because it is not a crime deterrent and is racially biased.