A Reflection On Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy Final Reflection

In the United States, child incarceration has been a longstanding problem. According to the Sentencing Project of 2021, there are nearly 50,000 juveniles being held in detention centers, prisons, or other correctional facilities. This issue was brought to light from Just Mercy by Bryan Stevensons, which chronicles the work of Stevenson as a lawyer advocating for those who have been wrongly convicted, including children.

Stevenson’s book is mainly centered around Walter McMillian, a black man wrongfully accused of murder and sentenced to death. McMillian’s case was particularly egregious, as the evidence was flimsy at best, and he had multiple eyewitness accounts in his favor. He spent 6 years on death rom before

He was released after 27 years. Trina Barrett just wanted to see the boy she liked. It was evident that she had extreme mental issues and yet, they still arrested her. She was put in Tutwiler Women’s Prison, where she was sexually assaulted by an officer and became pregnant. Stevenson’s work as a lawyer and advocate has helped bring to attention the ongoing issue of child incarceration and has led to important policy changes. One such ruling is Miller v Alabama, which banned life sentences without parole for juveniles. This decision recognizes that adults and children are different and should not be subjected to the same

In Joe’s case, he was sent to prison for sexual battery at 13 because his white partners accused him of raping a white woman. Just one year into being a teen, he was sent to prison, where he was raped, sexually assaulted many times, and was suicidal. He developed multiple sclerosis, in which he needed to be in a wheelchair. He was convicted on nothing but a white woman saying “Joe’s voice could ‘very easily be that of the perpetrator’”(pg. 257). This is another example of the government not noticing or caring about the environment children grow up in and the disorders many of them end up having. Even if people are innocent such as Antonio, the system will keep them in prison, anything to help them sleep at night. Just how do judges and juries sleep at night, knowing they are putting a child in a prison where they know that the child will develop extreme