Just Mercy Summary

Bryan Stevenson’s bestseller, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, is a study of the malfeasance and inhumanity that blights America’s criminal justice system and an attempt to shed light on prison conditions, mass incarceration, racial bias and excessive punishment (Stevenson 293). After Jimmy Dill’s death, a man wrongfully sentenced to death and executed, Stevenson articulates his feelings, and finds comfort even after his perceived failure: ‘I understood that even as we are caught in a web of hurt and brokenness, we’re also in a web of healing and mercy.’ (Stevenson 294) Just as hurt and healing are a concatenation, mercy, and brokenness are linked together.

(Birmingham, Alabama) One of only a few states in the nation that fails to provide a statewide indigent defender program, Alabama also lacks post-conviction counsel for those inmates on death row. Clayton Tartt, an associate with Birmingham's Parkman White, LLP, a birmingham criminal defense firm, feels this is a critical flaw in the state's judicial system and works to provide representation to those who otherwise cannot afford it. Mr. Tartt volunteers with the Alabama Post-Conviction Relief Project to help individuals in this situation. Cody Owens of Weld Magazine recently interviewed Mr. Tartt about this issue.

In the book, Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson, through the events that transpired as an innocent black man, Walter McMillian is sentenced to death row after a young white woman, Randa Morrison, is found murdered in her father's dry cleaner. The murder of the beloved and respected young woman left the community of Monroeville, Alabama in a state of fear and disarray that resulted in anger and hostility towards individuals in the black community. Officials, with pressure from the community to arrest the people responsible for Miss Morrison's murder and with no leads or suspects, would arrest McMillan. Mcmillan already being accused of having interracial relations with a white women, Karen Kelly, it

The injustice of incarcerating a defendant that was tried and convicted without the representation of an attorney is “an obvious truth.” Gideon, 372 U.S. 344. Yet, isn’t there truth to the shocking injustice of leaving the poor and most vulnerable without representation for legal issues regarding basic needs such as shelter, food, safety, family and health? The decision in Gideon stressed that a criminal conviction, stripping an individual of their liberty, without the representation of counsel was a grave injustice that violated the dues process clause. The poor are denied due process, suffering a loss liberty and justice because they cannot afford legal representation. In some cases, the loss is just as great if not greater than being convicted of a crime or imprisoned. Kathryn Grant Madigan, Advocating for a Civil Right to Counsel in New York State Note, 25 Touro Law Review 9–22 (2009).

As a young child I remember being asked the question: “what do you want to be when you grow up.” While I struggled with the answer for many years, in the course of deep reflection I found that I knew two truths about myself: I loved education, and I gained fulfillment through helping others. Developing and learning in the course of my four years at Loyola University Chicago, I discovered a passion to pursue a career in higher education.

Just Mercy is a powerful, eye-opening memoir about criminal justice, social justice, mercy, and race. Stevenson links all of these aspects together to create a narrative that exposes the corruption, prejudice, and abuse of power that runs rampant in our justice system. The criminal justice system today is prosecuting a disproportionally high rate of minorities, and they are shown less mercy than those who are white and privileged. This means that our criminal justice system is failing at promoting social justice, and we must fight for those who come from a different race or disadvantaged social background. Our justice system will not truly be just until we start promoting social justice by using mercy and leaving race out of the process.

In the novel Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson the truth can hurt someone for a little while but a lie hurts forever. For example, an African American man named Walter McMillian was wrongfully accused of murder in Monroeville, Alabama 1986. McMillian was held on death row prior to being convicted and sentenced to death for a crime that he never committed. Along with Mr. McMillian another African American man named Jimmy Dill was held on death row on an account of inadequate legal assistance. Mr. Dill’s conviction was very questionable, but because his lawyers were careless and effortless he was sentenced to death. Alabama is the only state in the country without a state funded program to help death row prisoners. Mr. Bryan Stevenson

Notwithstanding, it is outrageous to see that inadequate defense is one of the main causes of wrongful convictions. The Sixth Amendment grants every american defendants, the right to adequate representation. Justice should be our motto, a bridge between right and wrong but also the apotheosis of righteousness and equity. A lot of attorneys fail to investigate their client alibi, they fail to call or consult an expert for forensic evidence. Some attorneys even fail to show up for hearing, or when they show up, some are intoxicated. Where is justice, if the accused can even be properly represented. People have been wrongfully

I agree that before reading Just Mercy, I did not realize the impact of brokenness relating to what makes people human. Furthermore, as you said people need coherence in their lives in order to feel less threatened and less broken. People do not know how to handle or communicate with the sick and mentally ill which is why many of these individuals are in prison. I agree that these people are imprisoned so that they are discarded from society in an attempt to feel less threatened and less broken. Imprisoning these individuals allows everyday people to live a coherent life, but it does not permit the mentally sick or ill imprisoned individuals to live a coherent life because they are stuck with living a broken inhumane life where no one

It is hard to believe that a system that is supposed to promote fairness wouldn’t be so corrupt. However, there are ways to help this section of the Criminal Justice System become less flawed. For the public defense attorneys, an increase in

In the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright, the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel became incorporated, and as a result, those who are indigent are entitled to a court-appointed attorney to represent them in any courtroom. This landmark case led states to enhance their public defense systems because “public defenders assist in the fight against crime and contribute to the effective operation of programs that may help reduce recidivism, thereby increasing the effectiveness of our justice system” (Fabelo, 2001, p. 2). Ensuring that states allocate necessary funding and resources to their respective public defender systems will reduce individual public defenders’ caseloads. Policymakers examining the needs of public defender systems should use personal testimony from people who utilized the service, verdict and sentencing data, and public opinion polls as measures of

Attorney’s fight everyday to ensure the rights of their clients the “Victim”. Today even with new laws being put into the law books that help victims when violated, the courts are still not looking out for those individuals who have in fact be victimized. “Advocates for victims’ rights have long complained that they have been sidelined by a criminal justice system that is focused on the interplay between the state and the defendant”. (Boland & Butler, 2009)This statement alone dictates how the system actually works when it comes to the victim in court. Most individuals lose sight that there

Though there are positive aspects of the adversarial system, scholars argue that as it is practiced today, the system is deeply flawed and does not promote truth finding. According to Keith Findley (2012), Clinical Professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and Co-Director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, the criminal court system as of today seeks justice but does not seek the truth. Findley asserts that the adversarial system disproportionally benefits the prosecution over the defense (2012). This is due to the fact that though the prosecution and defense are supposed to be equal, they are not. It is a fact that prosecutors are funded by the state and are able to gain access to evidence and resources unlike criminal defense attorneys. In high profile cases it is known that the Prosecutor’s Office appoint their most skilled attorney to the case while it is known that indigent defendants aren’t able to afford highly experienced attorneys. As a result, the truth is not uncovered or the goal. Along with this, in the case involving normal proceedings indigent defendants are often given public defenders as legal representation. According to Ray Finkelstein (2011), a former Judge, the Public Defenders Association is heavily burned with cases and they do not have the same resource and funds as the Prosecutors Office. Therefore, public defenders are often over worked and have a high volume of clients that they have to represent with little resources to assist in the

In Bryan Stevenson’s book “Just Mercy” and Stephen King’s movie “Shawshank Redemption”, injustice is brought up frequently. Injust is shown through racism, money, and mental illnesses. Bryan and Stephen use great examples and details to explain how injustice is obviously in today’s court systems.

We have read in the news recently that there are plenty of public defenders who are facing budget cuts and are in a financial crisis. A present day example of this can be seen by how a chief public defender in New Orleans has had to resort to turning clients away due to a lack of resources. However, it is not only due to money that they have had to turn clients away, these client who may have no other means of representation; they also believe that they can no longer perform up to the standards of the Constitution and their own code of ethics. As such, it could be argued that the public defenders can’t provide ‘effective counsel’ when there are too many cases, which would violate the defendant’s right. They would seem to be caught in a catch 22, where they are doomed if they take on all the cases or they are sued if they don’t. The public defender’s office in New Orleans is understaffed, currently employing 42 overworked lawyers, in relation to the 72 attorneys and 20 investigators it employed in 2008. The New Orleans chief public defender Bunton was quoted saying “As we shrink, that problem grows because we have more cases and fewer lawyers to handle them… A lot of our experienced lawyers chose to find something else to do… [and] in accordance with the ethics of the Constitution, I can 't give the most important cases to inexperienced lawyers." These go against the standards set by the ABA Standards for Criminal Justice and the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and