A Brief Note On Greetings From The Equal Justice Initiative

“Freed Man Talking; Death Penalty System Broken” by Ray Krone, can help our lives because it identifies one of our defects in our justice system which is innocent people being convicted of a crime they had no involvement in. In the Article “Frees Man Talking; Death Penalty System Broken”

In its third execution of 2022, Arizona executed Murray Hooper for a 1980 crime that was never analyzed using modern forensic methods. In the days preceding his execution, his attorneys continued to request DNA testing and pursued new claims of prosecutorial misconduct based on evidence not revealed until Hooper’s clemency hearing. All challenges to his conviction and death penalty have failed. In an investigative report published the day before Hooper’s scheduled execution, Liliana Segura of The Intercept reviewed the issues of race, misconduct, and innocence that have been central to Hooper’s legal challenges.

Just like Kalief, 97% of the African Americans who are currently sitting in prison never saw a trial (Averick, 2016). The criminal justice system stopped being about who guilty or innocent, but rather on the amount of money greedy white-privileged men can earn based on the number of people in a prison. Kalief Browder endured physical and emotional pain, for a crime later shown he didn’t commit. Browder was released after the charges were dropped, but two years after, he died by suicide (Averick, 2016). The life of Kalief Browder and his family will forever be scarred because of a system who sees people as dollar signs.

Could you imagine a family member convicted of a felony you know they didn't commit? This happens in the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson which is also a memoir of Bryan Stevenson's life as a criminal justice lawyer. This book takes place in the 1980s in small Monroe County in Alabama where Walter McMillan, an African American man lives with his family. Monroe County is a poor community in a predominantly African American community. Stevenson at that time lived in Virginia.

In conclusion "Just Mercy" serves as a powerful portrayal of racial bias in the criminal justice system during the late 20th century. Bryan Stevensons' narratives shed light on systemic injustices faced by African Americans and other marginalized communities. Supported by media sources such as The New York Times' report on racial disparities in criminal justice and scholarly articles on sentencing disparities based on race "Just Mercy" effectively demonstrates how pervasive this issue was. "Just Mercy," continues to show that it provokes contemplation expertly leads readers on an introspective journey through the shadows of our criminal justice system where we are confronted with the heartbreaking consequences resulting from racial bias. Through riveting narratives

Wrongful convictions are one of the major problems that the justice system faces. Much worse is that there are people whom the judicial system has sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit. A wrongful conviction is a terrible injustice that is magnified when an innocent person spends years in prison or death row. The number of exonerated ex-offenders is steadily rising, however growing awareness of the injustices occur every day in American courts, it helps raise profound doubts about the accuracy and fairness of the criminal justice system. Cheryle (Hayes)

Our criminal justice system is harsh on all the prisoners but especially to the African American prisoners. If our communities, courtrooms, and cell blocks work together, our criminal justice system can be

Prison is a dark, lonely and terrible place. A majority of people incarcerated are people of color. Mass incarceration is mainly concentrated on racial and ethnic minorities. In A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, it is shown that no matter your background or your story, you will still be targeted because of the color of your skin. Brown assures that The United States has only five percent of the world’s population, but twenty five of the world’s prison population.

Stevenson knows what it feels like to be in their situation and has gained the motivation to do what's right to help these innocent people. Seeing these cases is hurting him because he knows that this is a major problem that needs to be fixed. This is where he comes into

Over the past last two decades the support of the death penalty has been declining dramatically in America. In the op-ed article “Most Americans Support the death penalty” published in the Washington Post News on the 17th of April, reporter Mark Berman composes an overview on the feelings most Americans have towards the death penalty. This was accomplished through the division of various sizeable groups between gender, race, and political views. On this specific subject the reporter of this article, Mark Berman, demands that “there is still some risk that an innocent person will be put to death” (Berman, p. 1). Throughout Berman’s op-ed article he portrays his demand through two out of the three appeals, pathos, logos as well as the feedback

This is the moment of exigence for Stevenson and his commitment to becoming a lawyer to help those in need while facing capital punishment. His tone shifts from his feelings in a narrative to his realization of the flaws in the American justice system. He describes the United States as having a "radical transformation that would turn us into an unprecedentedly harsh and punitive nation and result in mass imprisonment that has no historical parallel" (15). This description of the United States also shows his reasons for becoming a lawyer.

Is it fair that an African American man is sentenced up to life in prison for possession of drugs when Brock Turner is sentenced to only 14 years, later to be reduced to six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious women. The judiciary system are believed to have a high african american incarceration rate as a result of discrimination. At a presidential debate on Martin Luther King Day, President Barack Obama said that “Blacks and whites are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, and receive very different sentences… for the same crime.” Hillary Clinton said the “disgrace of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates so many more african americans proportionately than whites.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King Jr.). The societal ill of wrongful convictions is a widespread issue in the U.S. and around the world that some say is detrimental to society while others argue that they benefit society. Is it right for numerous innocent people to sit in jail, some on death’s row, for crimes they did not commit because of a jailhouse informant, inadequate defense, misused forensic evidence, false confessions, or eyewitness misidentification (Innocence Project)? These people deserve justice: wrongful convictions are damaging to those who receive them and to all of society. Wrongful convictions cause people to lose their lives, whether they do that by staying in jail

The biases within the justice system make it impossible to evaluate whether or not a person truly deserves to die. In Bryan Stevenson’s memoir, Just Mercy, Walter Mcmillian receives a death sentence despite being innocent. The media and the corrupt officers made it difficult for Stevenson to change the minds of others. While Stevenson was pushing for others to recognize that Walter was innocent, he realized that Tom Chapman, a prosecutor to Walter, just like others was “trapped into this narrative just like everyone else involved” (Stevenson,112). The modern media effectively creates narratives in which Black Americans are seen as suspicious or criminals.

Bryan Stevenson’s novel Just Mercy tells of his times as a death row attorney for inmates that were unjustly and inhumanely represented in the American court system. A #1 New York Times Bestseller, the book itself tells a story of a man named Walter McMillan who was sentenced to death row in an Alabama state prison. Walter landed in prison after a woman named Ronda Morrison from his hometown Monroe Alabama was found dead at her workplace Monroe cleaners on November 1st, 1983. This telling by Stevenson highlights the injustices and systemized racism that exists in our southern court systems, and without just attorneys like Stevenson to represent these disadvantaged men and women these inhumane practices will only continue.