Analysis Of Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy (2019) is a powerful and thought-provoking movie directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. The movie is set in Monroeville, Alabama in the late 80s/early 90s, and is based on the memoir of Bryan Stevenson, an African American lawyer who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, “a nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to prisoners who have been wrongfully convicted or unfairly sentenced” as stated by the WealthChoice article Meet the Equal Justice Initiative. The movie follows Stevenson's journey as he seeks to defend Walter McMillian, a wrongfully convicted death row inmate in the state of Alabama. Another key figure in this movie is Eva Ansley, a white woman who co-founded the Equal Justice Initiative with Bryan Stevenson.

In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson retells powerful stories to highlight how minorities and juveniles within the criminal justice system are often unheard. Stevenson addresses Walter McMilliam’s case to prove that he was ignored by the police and others because he was an African American accused for interracial romance with a white women and murder. During the 1800’s, racial discrimination was extremely harsh onto black people which led their community to be targeted by the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system incarcerates African Americans but no other races which proves that they’re avoiding their safety and rights.

There are many vulnerable populations in the book “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson, They all affected me in different ways. Out of all the populations Woman in jail had the most significance to me. One of the women in the book named Marsha, was pregnant with her seventh child. One day she was feeling ill and decided to take a warm bath to relax in the tub. The family didn’t tell anyone about her stillbirth and they keep a burial for the baby that only included the people who lived in their home.

“There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy (Stevenson 109) .” This bold statement is one of many as Bryan Stevenson sets the tone for his renowned award winning novel Just Mercy. As a young lawyer from Georgia, built the foundation for his company, SPDC (Southern Prisoners Defense Committee) to help convicts that are on death row or in need a second chance. Bryan Stevenson, a young lawyer from Georgia who fought for justice on the behalf of inmates on death row, showed tremendous intelligence in becoming a successful lawyer, demanding for not backing down in moments of refusal, and was an overall advocate

The author Bryan Stevenson teaches his audience about criminal and racial discrimination in judicial systems using his own firsthand knowledge of devastating occurrences, and references in the nonfiction novel Just Mercy. The stories that Stevenson tells are all examples of how the legal system has been corrupted. Firstly, Stevenson uses ethos throughout his prose to provide an individual's perspective on America's racial injustices. Stevenson is a civil rights lawyer who shares personal experiences with injustice.. When Stevenson states, "I've represented abused and neglected children who were prosecuted as adults,"(9)

Ashley Tinajero Mrs. Trull AP Language and Composition 27 December 2022 Just Mercy The book Just Mercy tackles many different issues throughout the novel however its most notable one being the political injustice that consistently damages people of color and to be specific Americans the author Bryan Stevenson translates this issue through his thoughtful rhetoric and eliciting a sense of hope and sadness within the reader to emphasize the issue of the flawed justice system targeting African Americans and imposing rules that are purposefully set to ensure African Americans do not succeed in trials of any sort. In the novel the main case is that of Walter Mcmillion who is wrongly accused by a white man of murdering a young girl with the blatant

Rhetorical Analysis of Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson, a young and impressionable lawyer, whose work with Southern Prisoners Defense Committee (SPDC), opened Stevenson’s eyes to the defenselessness of death row inmates. Coupled with his own experience with bias and unfair treatment, Stevenson wrote a book based on the lives of those he helped- and attempted to help. Slightly shadowed by his own bias, Just Mercy was an inciting piece of literature of the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020.

In an excerpt from his book, Just Mercy, Bryan Steveson - renowned civil rights lawyer - utilizes contradictions and characterization to demonstrate to uneducated readers the racism and failure of the justice system in order to motivate them to fight to dismantle the corrupt system. Throughout the description of Walter’s illegal placement on death row - death row lawyer Byran Steveson - details the contradictory actions of the sheriff and the other inmates to reveal to the American readers the failings of the justice system. After discussing Walter's despair created by his imprisonment, Bryan recounts the arrest of Walter. Bryan narrates Walter’s complete confusion during his arrest due to the, “racist taunts and threats from uniformed police

The book Just Mercy tells the long and sad story of what African American lawyer Bryan Stevenson had to go through in fight towards freeing Walter Mcmillian from his wrongly accused sentence. Walter Mcmillian was put in this position because of the murder of Ronda Morrison who was a white teenage girl that lived in Monroeville Alabama. There was no evidence on the crime scene and the only reason the police arrested Walter was because of a false accusation of man who wasn't even at the crime scene and the whole trial only lasted 2 days. As a result of his case, he ended up with a 30-year sentence in prison for murder but only ended up spending a total of 6 years due to his retrial that was led by his lawyer. Bryan Stevenson, his lawyer, is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization with the goal of fighting for people who have experienced any form of racial injustice or discrimination.

In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson tells a first person account of his years defending the people who were wrongly convicted or punished by the US justice system. At the heart of the novel is the story of Walter McMillian, a man wrongly convicted of murder and sent to death row. Throughout the novel, Stevenson presents examples of individuals who were wrongfully punished due to racism and discrimination. He shows the readers how our criminal justice system unfairly impacts members of the Black community. He also highlights the destruction and devastation this can cause.

In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson concludes “the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice,” and by this he means that when there is no justice, most people will live in poverty, despair, and fear. Despair is the complete loss of all hope, and each of these characters felt that feeling. Bryan Stevenson was stopped and searched by the police, and he was full of fear because one officer had pulled a gun on him. Fear, Police rely on fear to break the law and do as they wish, because they know a majority of people are scared to go against the police. In chapter 3, Walter McMillian was in jail awaiting his trial and eventual execution, this alone drove him into a pit of despair.

Bryan Stevenson knew the perils of injustice and inequality just as well as his clients on death row. He grew up in a poor, racially segregated area in Delaware and his great-grandparents had been slaves. While he was a law student, he had interned working for clients on death row. He realized that some people were treated unfairly in the judicial system and created the Equal Justice Institute where he began to take on prisoners sentenced to death as clients since many death row prisoners had no legal representation of any kind. In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson focuses on some of these true stories of injustice, mainly the case of his client, Walter McMillian.

In Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy, he writes to illustrate the injustices of the judicial system to its readers. To do so, Stevenson utilizes multiple writing styles that provide variety and helps keep the reader engaged in the topic. Such methods of his include the use of anecdotes from his personal experiences, statistics, and specific facts that apply to cases Stevenson had worked on as well as specific facts that pertain to particular states. The most prominent writing tool that Stevenson included in Just Mercy is the incorporation of anecdotes from cases that he himself had worked on as a nonprofit lawyer defending those who were unrightfully sentenced to die in prison.

1. Which social problems are treated in this book? Why did they develop? Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption focuses on many social problems, including the miscarriage of justice to the poor, disabled and minorities; along with the poor living conditions in prisons, and the cruel and unusual punishment. The miscarriage of justice developed throughout our country’s history.

The search for justice is never ending. Justice may be delayed, denied, or postponed, however, the search is timeless. To be just is to argue for fair rights for all. It is to be someone that will help the people of the community. However, many times justice is not sought and not given to those who need it most.