Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

The play Mission of Mercy was written by Esther Lipnick. It was about a woman becoming a nurse. That woman's name was Florence. Florence Nightingale is many different things. But she is brave more than anything.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption is an autobiographical account written by Bryan Stevenson. The book details Stevenson’s trials and tribulations as a civil rights lawyer practicing during the height of discrimination and racism in America. Stevenson founded The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a law firm in Montgomery Alabama, to defend minorities and the disadvantaged who were wrongfully convicted or sentenced unfairly. Convictions were often long processes which were filled with setbacks. The trials were often riddled with corruption, injustice and blatant dishonesty. Thus, many innocent people, or those who were simply incapable of knowing right from wrong, were imprisoned or sentenced to death. Despite numerous injustices and reasons to lose hope and perspective, Stevenson is able to evoke change which instills a feeling of hope within the reader as well

The novel, Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson covers many aspects of the legal system, including Stevenson’s quest to get prisoners who were convicted as adolescents out of adult prison. Later, Stevenson sees how the prisoners who were convicted as children revert to a very low mental state and often have a great deal of trouble readjusting if they are even remotely capable of doing so. Children should never be pushed into adult prisons or receive adult punishments because of their lack of brain development and not one hundred percent clear understanding of difficult situations. One of these difficult situations that Bryan Stevenson encountered was with a young fourteen year old named Charlie and the impacts of an adult world in a child’s head.

Accurately determining ones mental health is a big issue in the United States when it comes down to convicting individuals of crimes they have committed. “Not guilty by reason of insanity”, an overused vague statement used to defend those of their gruesome actions and lessoning their sentencings all together. The Insanity plea needs to be reexamined due to the fact that it is used to get criminals lesser penalties, if the plea was to be used, that it must be through medical determination rather than a legal statement, and that once those who were claimed to be insane have been helped by proper psychiatric help, that they should face the full penalty to the crime that they had committed.

Mercy can be given to anyone at anytime for any reason. Sometimes it is wrongfully given but most of the time, mercy isn’t given when it is most deserved. The book “Just Mercy” written by Bryan Stevenson, talks about this injustice. One major theme that Stevenson talks about is that we all deserves mercy for some of the things we do. Murdering someone on accident doesn’t make that person a serial killer.

A month ago we started reading the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. At first it was like any other assigned book, you read it because it is assigned and you want a good grade. You don’t try especially hard to connect to the text and count the pages until you are done. Then it changed. Stevenson’s voice shined through and he began to tell stories about people who I never gave a second thought about, child murderers, wrongly convicted mothers and exonerated death row inmates. I connected to this book in a way I’ve never connected to an assigned book before. I began to look forward to reading further and reading ahead before the chapters were assigned. I discussed the book not only at school but at home any chance I could get. I began

Criminal verdicts are always being watched by our community because citizens seek protection by law enforcement. Although the criminal justice system has established a foundation which is expected to promote public safety and punishment of criminals, they do not always live up to that capacity. One aspect of this is the insanity defense expectation. Verdicts are revealed after analyzations of criminals’ intent to commit crimes are determined. If it is proven that a person had no knowledge or sanity in committing a crime or breaking a law, that person will not be punished nor charged as a criminal. I strongly disagree with this method of decisions by our judicial system. No leeway should be available

Reading books with heavy content never gets any easier. A lot of the times, it is hard to comprehend the nature of the book because it sounds fictionalized. The problems that we hear and read about are oftentimes the reality of the society that we live in and yet, because we become complacent our lives, we end up forgetting about these problems. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is an excellent reminder of what is wrong with our society. He shows readers how skewed our justice system is, while protecting those while were wronged. The purpose of this book is “about getting closer to mass incarceration and extreme punishment in America. It is about how easily we condemn people in this country and the injustice we create when we allow fear,

My commitment to resolve issues concerning water and our environment draws on one of my biggest strengths, the will to care and get close to others. In my History 105 class, we discussed the book, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. The book has been a big influence in my way of contributing to my community. One evening the author spoke in the Beasley Coliseum, he mentioned proximity and keeping hope alive. Afterward, I put these two philosophies together to significantly influence others. I met Jordan during the Week of Welcome. She was feeling disconnected and marginalized here in Pullman. I committed sometimes helping Jordan finding clubs, church and other activities. I took the initiative of seeking for anything around the campus that might

As assumed, mental health courts are available to the mentally ill and disabled population. With that being said, if an individual goes through valid and reliable testing for a mental illness or disability and it comes back positive, the use of a mental health court in a criminal case can be warranted. Nonetheless, this is only legally binding if the results of professional testing deem that a mental illness or disability contributed to their criminal activity. The reasoning behind the availability of mental health courts is to allow individuals who are deemed mentally ill or disabled during a criminal case the ability to gain stability through multiple intervention measures. Subsequently, one feature of mental health courts is giving “defendants

Throughout the ages, society has debated why mental disabilities occur and how to treat those with disabilities. One big concern is serving justice when someone who is mentally ill commits a crime. As our society has learned more about mental defects, the way we treat people with them has to change. As we consider the treatment of the mentally ill across the ages, we see that justice can bring about more equitable and humane treatment.

This paper will discuss whether or not mentally retarded criminals should be held accountable for their actions with the punishment of execution when the crime is murder. I do not believe that mentally retarded criminals should have a blanket exemption from the death penalty because of their mental incapacity. Although all cases of murder involving a mentally retarded suspect are unique, the lives extinguished by these murderers are of no less value than those whose lives taken by mentally competent murderers. Presently, the Supreme Court of the United States upholds the execution of mentally retarded defendants and holds the belief that capital punishment does not violate the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the

One of the biggest reasons I decided to attend Vanderbilt Law School was because of the resources and opportunities that the school provided. Regardless of whether I am fortunate enough to accept a Garrison Social Justice Scholarship, I plan to utilize the school’s incredible resources as I prepare for my career as a death penalty litigator. First, Vanderbilt has courses that study the central issues in death penalty litigation. While there are many excellent and relevant courses, I’m going to highlight two courses that I would use to prepare for my career. Despite the fact that it is patently unconstitutional, a large proportion of death row inmates are mentally or intellectually disabled. Professor Slobogin, who is one of the most cited

I witnessed first-hand the complexities of mental illness in the justice system through my graduate externship at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, which solidified my research interests in law and mental health. In my externship, I conducted clinical interviews and administered clinical and forensic assessments to pre-trial defendants who were found incompetent to stand trial. Though I worked with individuals who were not yet adjudicated, I discovered that symptoms of mental illness had nevertheless impacted their trajectory in the criminal justice system. This experience introduced me to many unique challenges that mentally ill offenders face in the judicial system. I witnessed case processing and trial delays often result in patient decompensation and psychiatric readmission. I watched patients shift repeatedly back and forth from correctional facility to psychiatric hospital, reminiscent of the way that mentally ill offenders supervised in the community recidivate and are “cycled” back into the institutionalized criminal justice

As a matter of law, the jury verdict should be reversed because imposing death penalty punishment upon a criminal defendant who is suffering from mental illness is cruel and unusual punishment and that violates the Eighth Amendment of the State of Hamilton.