Just Mercy Summary

America is supposed to be the land of the free, but in reality does America give freedom to all? Not if your poor, black, or disabled. In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, who is a lawyer, writes about the harsh realities of the justice system in the United States. He illustrates his encounter with several prisoners, who were wrongly defended based off of race, disability, and class. The main story follows an innocent man put on death row, Walter McMillian.

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’s book Just Mercy is a tale of justice and injustice alike. It describes his life and some of the more prominent cases he worked on as a lawyer, seeking justice for the wrongly convicted. These cases usually involve the unfair treatment of minorities in the legal system.

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.

According to Mother Jones, 21% of male inmates claim to have been assaulted by prison guards, and 33% of women are victims of sexual assault by prison staff. This is just one of the many staggering statistics regarding incarceration in the United States. In his novel, Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson highlights the injustices deeply rooted in the United States Criminal Justice system. Stevenson references personal experiences with young convicts he defended, all of whom had been wronged by the Criminal Justice System. Many of the defendants faced abuse and mistreatment while incarcerated as well.

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.

Just Mercy: Important Student Literature The United States, while only making up 5% of the global population, makes up 25% of the world’s prisoners. The United States seems like the perfect country for freedom and independence; however, in reality, it is a nation with a history of racial injustice and a corrupt criminal justice system that still lingers in today’s society. Such values must be taught to the new generations that will soon control governments, militaries, and the future of our world. The book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson is a must read for students as it teaches important values and messages, and teaches students about the flaws of our country in the past and even today. The life lessons that Just Mercy instills are crucial to

“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 death penalty is a very controversial topic that has been the top of discussion for years around the world. It is a topic that many individuals feel very strongly about. Christopher Hitchens, a political journalist in Washington D.C., writes an essay entitled “Scenes from an Execution” in which it is clear that he is against it. To get his views across in the essay, he uses light humor rather than very serious scenarios directed toward it, although it is a very serious topic. Instead of ranting about opinions, Hitchens writes about his experiences and how others as well as himself were affected. He uses rhetorical devices such as ethos, logos, and pathos to attack capital punishment.

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.

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.

Often, when a criminal is sentenced to the death penalty for committing a murder, people begin to question the legality and morality of it, and try to defend or attack it. One of the first few things that come to mind when people try to defend the death penalty is the statement, “an eye for an eye,” or the principle of lex talionis, meaning we treat people the way they have treated others (Textbook, 538). Although this argument is well-backed up, it does not always prove to be the best principle when determining the type of punishment, one deserves. Stephen Nathanson, an abolitionist to the death penalty, discusses this idea in his article “An Eye for and Eye,” specifically within his argument stating that equality retributivism does not justify the death penalty and that it should be rejected (Textbook, 539). Equality retributivism, which is the idea that we penalize criminals with punishments that are equal to their crimes, serves as a great principle for some crimes but not all. I find this statement, along with Nathanson’s argument, to be true because not all crimes can have a punishment equal to it. Throughout this paper, I will discuss Nathanson’s argument, some objections raised, and lastly, whether the objection succeeds or not.

Just Mercy: A story of Justice and Redemption is an autobiography of the author, Bryan Stevenson and a chronicle of injustice within the American judicial system. The principal story recounts Walter McMillian’s wrongful conviction for the murder of Ronda Morrison in 1986. Interweaved throughout the McMillian story, Stevenson presents his personal story about being raised in a racially segregated community, attending Harvard Law School, and founding the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). Individual chapters address topics ranging from mass incarceration to mental illness to racism to wrongful convictions. The major cases, secondary to McMillian’s case, focus on juveniles sentences to life without parole. Overall, Just Mercy is a scathing examination of race, justice, and mercy in court rooms and prisons across America.

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.

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.