Just Mercy Summary

Both Reginal Rose and Larry Watson shows the importance of achieving justice in their stories. However, what they achieved is different; justice was attained in 12 angry men, while it doesn't in Montana 1948. The prohibiting factors that makes the justice harder to achieved are the prejudice, bias and misuse of power. They also shows the relationship between power and justice, just in contrasting way.

“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.

U.S. lawyer, Clarence Darrow, in his 1924 Plea for Mercy, explains why two boys that have committed a murder, should not be executed. Darrow’s purpose is to explain to the jury that even though these children have committed a crime, they still have families and lives to live too. He paints a direct tone of sympathy in order to remind the jury that in this time of violence, these boys didn’t truly know what was going on. He uses rhetorical appeals such as fear, intelligence, and plain folk to get his point across.

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.

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.

When Harper Lee was writing about the trial of Tom Robinson in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” she had a very real case to look to for inspiration. The trial of the Scottsboro Boys was a world renowned case in the 1930’s in which nine black youths were accused of raping to white girls in Alabama. Lee’s novel took this case and created the fictional case of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a lower class white girl in a small town in Alabama during the Depression-era. The Scottsboro trials were the main source of inspiration for Lee’s novel, and although the circumstances of the novel differed from the real-life scandal, the similarities between the two cases are quite abundant.

Bryan Stevenson’s novel Just Mercy offers a shocking and intriguing view into the American criminal justice system. Regardless of whether you agree with Stevenson on these controversial topics, it is not a story you can read without being affected by it. There are so many stories that make you question whether our justice system is actually doing its job. Before reading this novel, I never thought about our criminal justice system. I didn’t have much of an opinion on capital punishment nor did I realize just how much prejudice is still ingrained in society. It is hard to accept just how corrupted and prejudice the officers and judges Stevenson meets are, but the worst part is, the stories Stevenson tells are fairly recent. The biggest revelation I had while reading Just Mercy is that racism, as well as other prejudices, are not dead. They are alive and thriving within each and every one of us.

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.

Bryan Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy, has many themes in his book. One of which is the importance of human life. He goes through many cases of which, in the end, he realizes that every human deserves empathy and mercy and a fair chance at living their lives. Throughout the novel there is one specific case that changes Stevenson’s perspective the most however. This case is the Walter McMillian case that demonstrates the unfairness that was tolerated for death row inmates. Stevenson expresses this theme throughout the book. Some examples are through the McMillian case, the mental patient case, the juvenile case, and his own experience.

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.

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.

1. Justice is word that throughout time has held a multitude of meaning, ranging from Greek ideals such Thrasymachus representation of justice as the right of the powerful and Plato’s republic where the word meant harmony of the soul and state to its current definition of fairness. However, what is fairness, is it need based where those that are well-off are obligated to help those that are less-fortunate or is it merit based where hard work determines everything. The characters of Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible hold theses vastly different concepts of justices, to the extent that each member of the price family believes in a different idea of justice than another. However, by the end of the novel the true justice that each of the

Throughout the movie, The Shawshank Redemption, and Bryan Stevenson’s novel, Just Mercy, a theme of censorship is evident. Such is seen in the way prisoners are killed or threatened to be in order for them not to say things, the way prisoners and those related to the case are paid in order not to talk, and the way those seen as guilty prior to telling their side of things fully get pushed to the side, lacking the ability to self-advocate. In censorship, justice is denied of a person or group of people through the use of a violation of rights established through the use of death, money and blackmail, and the movement of prisoner testimony to the side.

Bryan Stevenson, the author of Just Mercy, is a gifted young attorney who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, which is a legal practice dedicated to protecting the rights of the poor and support of the wrongly convicted. One of his main cases that proves that “the opposite of poverty is not wealth, the opposite of poverty is justice” (Stevenson). This case is comprised of Walter McMillian who was victimized due to the color of his skin and cruel punishment of the justice system (Stevenson). Parallel to that of the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Walter McMillian was charged with the murder of a white young women in Monroeville Alabama. McMillian cut timber for a living and therefore did not have any extra money to spend trying to redeem himself of his freedom. In addition, there was no tangible evidence proposed against Mr.

In the book by Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy a Story of Justice and Redemption, talks about all these things, specifically in chapter fourteen in Cruel and Unusual. He discusses Equal Justice Initiative’s challenge to prosecution and life imprisonment without parole of minors. And focuses on the case of