Just Poverty In Just Mercy, By Bryan Stevenson

Stevenson works hard to free this man and many other men and women after so many years of their lives were spent in prison. Stevenson presents several concrete facts to expose the truth of the United States justice system. Stevenson effectively uses logos in the book by proving Walter McMillian’s

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

Fourteenth Amendment (Equal Protection Clause): For one to file an equal protection claim, one has to prove that the “government intentionally discriminated against the plaintiff by classifying him or her for different treatment under the law than one similarly situated.” For the equal protection clause to be violated, a government has to group individuals in such a way that denies them certain rights or provides different treatment on the basis of traits they have no control over.

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.

Throughout the book Just Mercy, there are several unjust circumstances, such as imprisonment due to lack or wealth or mental illnesses, which occur within the judicial system that Mr. Stevenson discusses with the reader. The author uses several devices to display the behaviors that occur within the novel, and these devices genuinely help the reader see through Mr. Stevenson's point of view. Bryan leads his audience through the several predicaments he encounters and displays the true faults of the judicial system itself. He walks us through the struggles of individuals such as Trina Garnett, Walter McMillian, and many more. Bryan Stevenson displays the injustices of the judicial system, such as racial bias and child imprisonment without parole,

Many are put onto death row without actually having a fighting chance to plead their case, provide the full story, and prove their innocence. Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who fights for those who have been left for dead and aren’t given a second chance. Bryan Stevenson is a social justice activist, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a clinical professor at New York University School of Law. He founded the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989. Stevenson has fought long and hard for those whose voices have been silenced because of their ethnicity and background. His views have been strongly influenced by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where the faithful attendees of the church had celebrated for 'standing up after having fallen down, ' showing Bryan that no matter how many times you are knocked down, you can always pick yourself back up and there will always be someone there to lend you a helping hand. Making Bryan want to be that helping hand, to be the on there when someone had no one else to turn to. These experiences informed his belief that "each person in our society is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.” When Stevenson was sixteen, his grandfather, Clarence L. Golden, was stabbed to death in his Philadelphia home during a robbery.Bryan stevenson has dedicated himself to fighting poverty and challenging

“Just Mercy” was written to enlighten society of the corruption in a system that is meant to bring justice. Sadly, it isn’t applied to many cases. The idea behind our legal justice system sounds great on paper, but the way it is executed is sometimes lacking. Every day people are sentenced without solid evidence because of the color of their skin, social status, age, or even mental capabilities. These people barely received legal aid or representation in court. But while some people may be found wrongly guilty, others may be found wrongly innocent. People are found innocent without solid evidence because of the color of their skin, social status, age, or even mental capabilities. Many of these injustices lead back to racism. The author of

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is perhaps the most sweeping and has likely impacted the general jurisprudence of the Supreme Court the most of any other amendment. This is because, where all other right-protecting amendments protect something specific, the fourteenth amendment was designed to ensure that states guaranteed due process rights, applied the law equally, and protected the “privileges [and] immunities of citizens of the United States.”

This insinuates that the court system prioritizes getting through cases as quickly as possible to give the community a sense of reassurance that a criminal is off the streets. Poor people accused of crimes typically cannot afford a lawyer who will put their time and effort into proving their innocence, which results in them not receiving the justice they deserve. A

The book, “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson pleas to fix the current unfair and fragmented system of criminal justice and juvenile justice. The book’s plot focuses majority on Stevenson’s work and his clients. The main narrative tackles the story of Walter McMillan, who was accused of killing a white woman, but despite hard evidence that would prove he’s innocent, is disregarded by the court due to his race. The main issue was not even the lack of care for racial equality in this case, but the fact that he was placed on death row before his case went to trial. This is one of many unjust cases that have happened in the past and that are currently happening in the system revolving around the death penalty. The remaining excerpts from the book

Stevenson becomes largely aware of all of the injustices, specifically all the racial injustices that occur within the prisons and specifically within death row. This injustice that occurs within death row is saddening to observe, especially when it comes down to ending one’s life. Stevenson reminds his audience that everyone makes mistakes and deserves mercy because no one is perfect, however every life has value. His most prevailing case of this is the Walter McMillian case. At this time in 1980s, Alabama has the fastest growing prison population. Stevenson therefore spends much of his time in Alabama for the defense of McMillian as he is accused of murder and an alleged drug lord and rapist. With the defense of Walter’s community on his side along with his connection with EJI (Equal Justice Initiative), Stevenson was determined to

Stevenson will reference other people and describes the crimes they had committed with the sentence they were given. These cases were, explained through Stevenson, examples of how our legal system holds corrupt individuals of that profession as well as the use of improper sentencing to those wrongfully convicted of the crimes they have and or haven’t done. Throughout the book we can see what Stevenson endures within his work life and social life. He encountered a confrontation with white police officers which then shined light on how the African American race were being treated based off their race which correlated to a specific stereotype. As an audience, we were left in the end with an understanding of how the McMillian case impacted Bryan Stevenson for the better and the worst.

Jimmy Santiago Baca is a winner of the International Prize for his work in, A Place to Stand. The making of a poet. He writes, “I had no money. There is no way I’m going to make bail” (Baca, 187). In some cases, prisoners are only locked up because they had to get appointed a defense attorney who convinced them to plead to the charges so they would not have to go to trial and risk getting an extended amount of time. District attorneys are elected by the citizens and those people want someone who is tough on crime. If the district attorney is not tough on crime, the people will not reelect him. This can lead to many innocent lives being wasted; For instance, some criminals will sit in a cell for decades for the smallest offense. However, if a prisoner attempts to plead not guilty and the case goes to a trial by jury and they do find him or her guilty, they will be sentenced to an even longer term. It is obvious that our justice system is unfair and against human morals and ethics. They are somehow “innocent until proven guilty” yet they cannot afford to prove themselves innocent. Not only is poverty a reason for the rising increase in the population of inmates, many lack the education needed to understand the law or what they are being accused of.

In "We need to talk about an injustice" Brian Stevenson argued about how the justice system in America isn't good. He gave this example, one in every nine people who have been on death row are found innocent This shocked me because we never know when we are killing an innocent man because it's more than 10 percent likely for it to be true. One of the main points Brian wanted to give across his speech was that there is power in the identity we have. We get some of our identity by not how we treat the rich but how we treat the poor. Another thing he talked in his speech was about children in prison. We are the only country in the world that would put a 13 year old that would be sentenced life in prison. Another thing he talked about was the unequal

“As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird. The theory Bryan Stevenson has applied to the justice system is extremely useful since it sheds insight on the difficult problem of poverty and racism towards many African Americans. The justice system focuses on the people with more power. The more power you have, they more advantages you get to get away with. The Ewells may not have any social power but since their white, it gives them more capability over others. Considering racism and poverty have become a monumental issue, the chances of someone believing a black person is diminishingly low.