The Significance Of The Denied Appeal By Bryan Stevenson: Chapter Analysis

Bryan Stevenson was a lawyer based out of Montgomery, Alabama. He helped many of these people get an honest, fair sentence. Through the publication of his book, he has educated many on the reality of our prison systems in America. He shares his firsthand accounts of children being charged as adults, innocent men being charged for crimes they had clearly not had any involvement with, and women living in poverty being charged with murder for burying their stillborn children. All of these cases had one thing in common: poverty.

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.

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.

Through every hero’s life, there comes many injustices towards him/her not only because they’re trying to make a difference but also due to their appearance, ideas, and their ambition for justice. Stevenson’s first run in with injustice was a night while was just sitting in his car, being pointed at with a gun with a white male in control of his life. As stated we get a point of view of how Stevenson felt due to this particular incident, “What I replayed the whole incident in my mind, what bothered me most was the mount when the officer drew his weapon and I thought about running” (42). When proceeding with a case, Stevenson had to go visit a felon, but when trying to enter a while male correctional officer that owned a truck with many disgraceful bumper stickers stopped him in his tracks. This man filled with tattoos with no source of empathy or sympathy initiates a confrontation with Stevenson due to the power he is given. Although Stevenson came to visit many times, this guard was new to him stating, “You’re going to go into that bathroom and take everything off it you expect to get into my prison”

Two kids with the same name, similar experiences, and circumstances grow up to become two different people. Why did one end up in jail for rest of his life; while the other became a man of many accomplishments? What factors were involved in the success and failure of these two boys that caused a perfect storm of bad circumstances? As the author puts it, “Our stories are obviously specific to our two lives, but I hope they will illuminate the crucial inflection points in every life, the sudden moments of decision where our paths diverge and our fates are sealed. It’s unsettling to know how little separates us from another life altogether” (Moore xi). I aim to dissect the problems and elements that played a role in changing these boy’s lives.

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

While Wes Moore (author) was preparing for Oxford and having his story illuminated in the Baltimore Sun, the other Wes Moore was arrested for robbery, along with his brother, and was charged with murder; they would most likely receive the death penalty. Because Wes (author) couldn’t shake the story and a feeling of connection with the other Wes Moore, he wrote a letter to him. The imprisoned Wes Moore wrote back, and so began a correspondence. While spending time with Wes, the author discovered that “ generation of young men, boys who came of age during a historically chaotic and violent time and emerged to succeed and fail in unprecedented ways”

Wes Moore,inmate, had made many terrible choices in his life. When he was young, he stole money from his mom, prioritized football over academics, stole money from his mom, and got into many fights with other children. One fight that he’d gotten into was with another young boy his age which he’d pulled out a knife on. This led seven year old

He writes about how new prisoners are not receiving the same rehabilitation as he did when he first entered the prison system 17 years ago. Hopkins acknowledges that if he was born later he may still be in prison. Hopkins’ writes, “ The idea is to make prison a secular hell on earth- where the young potential felon will fear to go, where the ex-con will fear to return.” This is very effective as it makes the reader empathize with the new coming prisoners and how they are subjected to the poor rehabilitation programs offered. There is an underlying theme throughout the essay in that prisoners are treated like animals and are thrown in cages regardless of their

Bryan Stevenson began to second guess himself while he was in law school. In his senior year, he came to the realization that with his major in Philosophy, “no one would pay me to philosophize”, and the only graduate program that didn’t

The stories of long grueling hours at his own law firm and driving hours away from home to help clients are the vertebrae of Bryan Stevenson’s book, Just Mercy. Rather than a terribly persuasive story filled with solutions to making this world a better place; Stevenson marries his triumphs and failures of being an lawyer to the emotional journey him and his clients take everyday. This formula allows readers to be stimulated throughout the entirety of the book whilst possibly making truer views and opinions about our country’s justice system.

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.

“Curtis was a kid I met several years ago- one of the kids who helped inspire me to write this book in fact. He’d been locked up at ten years old, for a robbery capping off a criminal career that started at seven when he was arrested for stabbing a teacher with a pencil. He was sent, at ten, to the CA Youth Authority, a then notorious institution that held young men up to 24 years old. “Terrified and petrified” is how Curtis described his

Before Donohue v Stevenson was decided in 1932 it was unclear whether the transferor of a chattel owed any duty of care to the ultimate receiver of the chattel. It was taken as a matter of fact that if the ultimate receiver was not the purchaser there was a clear absence of contractual agreement between the parties and therefore no Duty of Care. The only Duty of Care implied, if the ultimate receiver of the chattel was not the purchaser, was if the chattel were in a class of “Dangerous Chattels ” or if the chattel in question was known to the transferor as being dangerous as in Langridge V Levy .