The Equal Justice Initiative Set Up By Bryan Stevenson

Spending most of his young adulthood in and out of prisons for minor nonviolent crimes, Clarence Earl Gideon seemed like an unlikely victor when trying to appeal to the United States Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court Case, Gideon v. Wainwright, Clarence Earl Gideon, with the help of cases before him and his well trained attorney, successfully succeeded in persuading the Supreme Court to accept his appeal and rule in his favor by persisting until he received the rights all American’s are granted by the United States Constitution. Clarence Earl Gideon had been convicted of many minor crimes throughout his life, but the crime that set the scene for the case Gideon v. Wainwright, was when Gideon was charged with breaking and entering with the

This essay will be about two injustices the Scottsboro trial and Tom Robinson’s trial. A few similarities are that they were treated unfairly and they were all accused of a repulsive crime, raping a white woman. In the Scottsboro trial though, two women were supposedly raped. Both trials happened in the same time period, while also noting that the women in both trials came from poor backgrounds. Atticus gave his all to his case while the nine young men’s lawyer also tried his best.

Although Justice Brennan’s time on the Supreme Court came to an end in 1990 due to old age and ill health, his influence continues to be felt today, both in the courtroom and outside of it. Indeed, the length of the jurist’s service to the American people effective guaranteed that this would be the case. Despite this obituary primarily focussing on his decisive opinions concerning racial fairness, Brennan was a vocal and persuasive member of the court in many other instances. For example, in Baker v. Carr (1962), he convinced his peers to uphold the doctrine of “one man, one vote” by mandating redistricting on the basis of population rather than geographic area.

“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 Death penalty relates heavily with mentally ill offenders and furthers the idea of its injustice and immorality through the M’Naghten Rule. The National Mental Health Association concludes that as many as 370 offenders with severe mental illness are awaiting execution —up to 1 of every 10 prisoners on death row. The justice system does not adequately address cases involving criminal defendants with mental illness. (Silverstein 28).Capote understands the connection between capital punishment and mental illness. Constantly within the novel, the mental illnesses of Perry and Dick are made present and the immorality of capital punishment as well.

In Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy,” there is an underlying sense of hope that is seen in spurts through the constant stories of injustice and unfairness that take place. Throughout the book there are multiple people that are wrongly condemned and have to suffer on the dreaded death row. All of the inmates of the row know they will eventually be executed, but only a select few stay positive and give the reader a sense of hope in such a negative situation. Mr. Jenkins is one of those men. The mentally ill man was in and out of foster care as a child, and his terrible experiences lead to more serious brain damage.

Out of the 337 cases where innocent men and women were wrongfully imprisoned nearly half of the true suspects were identified and convicted. The racial heritage of those who have been exonerated is fairly diverse, consisting of “206 African Americans, 104 Caucasians, 25 Latinos, and 2 Asian Americans” (The Innocence Project). (Transition) Although The Innocence Project has changed the lives of many who others would not afford them the opportunity to prove their innocence, they would not have been able to do so without the recent

Just Mercy is a beautiful in-depth view at the racial inequities within the justice system in America. It also explores countless other topics such as sex, gender, class and ableism. Within it’s pages it exposes the truths of a wrongly accused man, Walter McMillian. Other examples lie within the text as well, but McMillian’s glaring innocents is the main crux of Stevenson’s story. Throughout the novel Stevenson looks at the many facets of the human condition.

Bryan Stevenson, a public interest lawyer devoted to assisting the incarcerated, poor and condemned, shared his thoughts on how “we”, americans, cannot fully evolve due to the lack of consideration for human rights and basic dignity of all persons, in his recent Ted Talk, “We Need to Talk about Injustice”. Stevenson gives numerous statistics which shows the numbers growing in reference to people who have been incarcerated. He continues on to go into detail about unfairness throughout the justice system in America. Stevenson brings to light the issues amongst the justice system with various scenarios that have occurred in the past. I agree with Bryan Stevenson that America is flourishing when it comes to technological advancements and innovations,

Bryan Stevenson never knew what could happen and he was full of fear of the possibility of jail time or death. Herbert Richardson was a mentally ill person who didn’t get the help he needed, and due to that, he killed little girl and was executed. During that time, the mentally ill lost most of its funding, and because of that, those who needed help couldn’t get it. Richardson and other mentally ill people didn’t have much money and lived in poverty. Without justice, the world would become nothing but poverty, despair and fear, and the only ones who wouldn’t be affected are the

Even though it’s nonfiction, it reads much like a fiction novel would, getting comparisons to ¬To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. What makes it even more compelling than the fictional novel is that these are the stories of real people, of those wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced. Stevenson’s memoir truly shows the power of mercy and what it can do for those wronged by judiciaries. This book’s story of justice and redemption and Stevenson’s struggle to free convicts from unjust or excessive punishment is deeply moving and powerful. The reader will root for him as he struggles to do as much as he can for the accused.

The Court has to come face to face with the claim that the administration of death, regardless of the offense, is a cruel and unusual punishment, is morally unethical for the government to be conducting, and is a violation of the Constitution. Aside from the fact that death is not only a severe punishment because of the amount of pain and its irreversible finality, the

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.

No matter who you were, no matter what job or education that you obtained, you are still seen as an unintelligent and vulnerable human. For example, in the memoir, Stevenson explains his encounters of stereotyping and prejudice; in the courtroom, his intense meeting with Tom Chapman, the encounter with the prison guard while meeting with death row inmate, Avery Jenkins, exposing how even though he is a lawyer and a Harvard graduate, he is still seen as a helpless, foolish black man. Additional examples include the young children who receive convictions despite of the circumstances of the act committed or even their whereabouts of the act such as; Charlie, a fourteen-year-old boy sent to an adult prison after shooting his mother’s abusive boyfriend and George Stinney, another fourteen-year-boy executed in Georgia because of his knowledge of the whereabouts of two missing young white females. The book clearly frames how a person’s skin color will determine their overall fate in life under no circumstances thus validating my

Have word got around about the free help Mr. Stevenson was offering to those on death row people started to want his help for other reasons; such as life imprisonment convictions. The cases began to overwhelm the staff at the EJI, but they worked everyday to get more convictions overturned and sentences reduced. They also began to work on the prison conditions around the United States and try to get justice for those brutally assaulted or raped in