Review Of Bryan Stevenson's Novel 'Just Mercy'

Owen coper English II Honors Copeland, Lisa 3/24/23 In the book “Just Mercy,” by Bryan Stevenson, the author (Stevenson) realizes the degree of corruption and fraud in the justice system and sets out to try and change it. He tries to liberate a man named Walter from his wrongful imprisonment after six years Stevenson’s understanding of justice is propelled by Herbert, a former United States soldier who came back from the Vietnam War. Herbert’s words help Stevenson realize that the world, along with the justice system, is unjust and corrupt.

Currently, the United States holds 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners (eji.org), which comes out to around 2.3 million inmates. 10,000 of these prisoners are children housed in adult facilities. 20,000 of these prisoners are wrongly convicted of crimes they did not commit (huff post). 356,000 are seriously mentally ill (treatment advocacy). One million of these convicts are African Americans (NAACP).

“Just Mercy”, by Bryan Stevenson is a book about justice and redemption. In this book you learn a lot about the system and how they treat certain cases and people. Stevenson is a lawyer who works in the Equal Justice Initiative. Which is a non-profitable legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit.

My project that I created for the assignment, Just Mercy Book Project & Essay was a spoken word poem. My spoken word poem was based on the book “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” written by an attorney, Bryan Stevenson. In my poem I was expressing my thoughts about how the law enforcements are so quick to assume and incarcerate innocent people. The government officials don’t gather enough and proper information to in fact prove that he/she is actually guilty. In society today there have been over 190 people who have been sentenced to death row that are proven innocent.

Stevenson used pathos when he gives the detailed visit that he had with Henry. To get his point across the author emotionally convinces his readers by introducing Henry. While Stevenson was at the prison talking to Henry in private visitation room a very angry guard walks in and start to handcuff Henry. Full of rage the guard notifies Stevenson that he had taken two extra hours instead of one hour that he has initially requested. Stevenson can only stand helplessly and watch how “[t]he guard was shoving him toward the door roughly.

Bryan Stevenson wrote the book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, in his novel he discusses multiple cases that influenced him into creating what we now know as The Equal Justice Initiative it is a group that has helped create a void in unfair sentencing. Bryan was born in Delaware in 1959, he grew up in a poor neighborhood where he witnessed a division in both social and economic class. The division of classes lead to the start of Stevenson’s journey to inform and make members of the community aware of injustices in our country. There are multiple career paths that he could have chosen that benefited his desire to bring about awareness.

Stevenson’s main goal with death row sentences are to get them re-trialed and sentenced with a lower level punishment, for he believes killing someone is inhumane. The book provides shocking data in regards to death row cases; “By the end of 1989 the number of people executed by the state would double (p68).” “Since 1976 judges in Alabama have overridden jury sentencing verdicts in capital cases 111 times. In 91 percent of these cases judges replaced life verdicts from juries with death sentences (p70).” Time and time again, we see Stevenson working hard in the fight against the court’s decision to make these statistics

By explaining Walter’s situation and why he was convicted and put on death row, Stevenson was able to highlight the injustices within the judicial system and how so many innocent people can be judged too quickly because of one’s race, status, or class. Another anecdote used to demonstrate these prejudices is Stevenson’s mention of the inhuman death of Lourida Ruffin; also a black man, Ruffin lived in Alabama where the predominantly white society felt very negatively towards anyone of a different race. After committing a minor traffic violation, Ruffin was beaten by police and then was refused his asthma inhaler, and he later died in the police station’s holding cell. This case alone emphasizes the constant issue of police brutality, especially towards African American males that is still prevalent today. Stevenson later moves to discuss unfair treatment of the mentally ill in prison, using the case of Herbert

Some people are not as lucky as others. Consequently, those of whom can’t afford a lawyer are already regarded as guilty as they have no one to protect them. There are also judges and law officials who have previously made their decision against one side, and therefore having bias for the other side, not allowing the one side a chance to prove their story. Stevenson mentions that some people who he called ignored and avoided him and wouldn’t give him a chance to speak his side. Stevenson clarifies

Throughout the novel, Bryan Stevenson sees many mistreated death row inmates facing unfairness and racism in their trials. The racism that these people face has life-changing effects. Mr. Dill, one of the people that Stevenson had met with, eventually gets executed for his murder, but does not receive the fair treatment and help that he needs throughout

Death Penalty Death Penalty has two sides, the pros and the cons. The death penalty is not fair to people who turn out innocent. Death Penalty is wrong, and I don 't stand by it. I am against the death penalty. I am against the Death Penalty.

Throughout the years death penalty has become less popular. The public opinion asserts that incarceration is far worse punishment than the death penalty. Death penalty is unconstitutional, everyone has the right to live. The death penalty was created as a punishment to the extreme of extreme cases, but now states are using it constantly and randomly. The death penalty has many flaws.

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.

Over the last decades there has been a lot of controversy about rather the death penalty should be supported. The biggest controversy revolved around society questioning if the government should reserve the right to execute murders. Many argued that murder was murder regardless of who's committing it. They believed that allowing the government to execute murders was a conflict of interest because the government suggest that murder is a cruel crime so they also shouldn't be allowed to commit it because they make the rules regardless of the circumstances. Individual thats support the death penalty believe in the “eye for eye” theory which basically suggest if someone takes a life there life should also be taken from them for the crime the committed.

Death penalty is like the ‘’tooth for a tooth – eye for an eye’’ theory. Instead of acting inhuman to our fellow beings we should find a better way to solve the mind of criminals. Making the problem vanish is not a good idea. We should do psychological researching instead! I, myself have a lot of faith in humanity.