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African American Stevenson Just Mercy Summary

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Moises A Iriarte CRJ 101 Professor: MS. Chaumtoli Huq As a criminal justice major student I have put a lot of enthusiasm in his course and have learn more about how the system works. One of the story that interested me on the book “just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson is the Walter McMillian [page 20]. Even thou I knew that African Americans were discriminated back in time, I read and learn about how they were treated and all the suffering they went though. The story of Walter starts as Stevenson took Walters case, Stevenson took the case because Walters case was one of the flood of cases Stevenson found myself frantically working on after learning of a growing crisis in Alabama[pg. 21]. As Stevenson continues to tell Walters story he mentions …show more content…

Even thou the Supreme Court struck down this law some sates still follow their own constitution [pg. 29]. Walters’s life was heading for disaster and he continue to see Kelly, he even testify on behalf of Kelly in court when Kelly husband had file for a divorce due to his wife seeing a black men. Kelly’s life also came down has she lose custody of her kids, she began to see other males, and she meet a guy named Ralph Myers. Myers had committed a crime and kill Vickie Lynn and he could find a way out as police had him in custody, he confessed of the murder but also drag Kelly and Walter. Even thou police didn’t believe his version, but the sheriff was getting heat of a previous murder of an 18 year old girl, who was like the daughter of the town. Her case have not yet been solve and the people wanted answers. Myers did not only blame Walter in the Lynn case but told police that Myers have been the actual murder of Ronda Morrison. The police saw that like a way out to get someone take the blame for Ronda’s murder, as police knew Walter had no criminal record and a good reputation, maybe and just maybe …show more content…

I always had a mentality that when we were stop by cops we had to know whatever they told us. Not knowing that we as the people have rights also and a cop can’t just came and stop us just because we looked suspicious. A few years back I just to dislike cops, because they seen bad using excess of force and targeting innocent people, and like we talk today in class there are a lot of cops in places they shouldn’t be, just entrapping people. But I learn that as a cop I can make my own decisions and that my actions matter and I choose how I want to conduct to the people. We all have decisions is up to us if we want to do the

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283 Words | 2 Pages

At this point, I am half way done with Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. While reading this book, I have made many personal connections and opinions.  To give you some background on this book, I will explain a little bit of what I've obtained so far.  Just Mercy is a memoir about a lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, who exposes the flaws in the justice system. Many of the flaws that he reveals are cases of racism; where prejudice prevails over evidence.

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1267 Words | 6 Pages

Bryan Stevenson’s a black man from a poor family in Delaware grew up to be a lawyer, whose legal career was focused on helping marginalized people wrongly convicted or punitively sentenced for non-homicidal crimes. This work of literature was mostly focused on his account of the injustices, blatant racism and discrimination that the Criminal Justice System inflicted on the poor marginalized people of Alabama and other southern states. Stevenson presented a variety of cases throughout the book, however his main focus was on the case of Walter McMillian, a Black man falsely convicted of murder and was sentenced to death in Alabama in the 1980’s. Stevenson was the founder of Equal Justice Initiative, an organization that provides legal representation

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1070 Words | 5 Pages

There are so many different kinds of books with different themes, genres, and stories to tell that trying to find one that can interest a lot of people at once is almost impossible. A good author is able to take a chunk of people with different likes, dislikes, backgrounds, and political views and make them unite together to believe what the author is trying to say. Bryan Stevenson is a good author. Stevenson wrote about his experiences as a lawyer who is primarily faced with criminals looking to appeal their sentence to shorter ones or to prove their innocence in his book called Just Mercy. Just Mercy is composed of different people’s experiences as convicted felons, many on death row, and Stevenson introduces problems that the United States

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741 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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1870 Words | 8 Pages

Mercy, a concept describing compassion or forgiveness towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. As a humanitarian, future world leader and citizen of America I’d like to think that the world I live in is a forgiving place where everyone gets a second chance. Unfortunately, in the court of law, this is not always true. By reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson I found that it is very hard to acquire justice and redemption to many civilians who have been incarcerated. This book explores various stories of injustices in the judicial system by incorporating people from different racial groups, socioeconomic background, mental disabilities and more.

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742 Words | 3 Pages

The United States of America has been a long-standing symbol of liberty; the pledge of allegiance even states “with liberty, and justice for all.” However, digging not-so-deep into America’s government and justice system reveals anything but liberty or justice. Luckily, there are many people out there willing to push to reform the system and help those who have been treated unfairly. Bryan Stevenson is one of those people, and his anecdote about Walter McMillian intends to show the deep rooted problems in the justice system, as well as the fairly easy solutions to make strides towards repairing it and the people who have been wronged by it. He does this by using a somber tone about the life of McMillian, as well as using a hopeful one when

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871 Words | 4 Pages

Racism means hate towards another race and injustice mean unfair treatment, according to learner 's dictionary. In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, an African american lawyer, was helping people get justice for the colored community. Another book similar to Just Mercy is, To Kill a Mockingbird, which made in 1960 was written by Harper Lee. Harper Lee addressed many issues about racial injustice too. Just Mercy was written in 2014,

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442 Words | 2 Pages

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

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997 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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2176 Words | 9 Pages

“You were given thirty days once for disorderly conduct, Robinson?” asked Mr. Gilmer. “Yes suh.” “What’d the black person look like when you got through with him?” “He beat me, Mr. Gilmer.” “Yes, but you were convicted, weren’t you?”

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902 Words | 4 Pages

Dating as far back as the 1800’s when slavery was an extreme issue, blacks and other minorities were considered to be the most likely to commit a crime and were often convicted on the testimony of a white person. Mr. McMillian is a perfect explain in the book as a

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1517 Words | 7 Pages

This essay will focus on the racial profiling of Mexican-Americans in the Los Angeles community. The parts of Los Angeles I will be focusing in are South Central, Compton, Watts and East LA. Racial profiling consists of the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense. The main suspects that racially profile Mexican-Americans are law enforcement authorities. Racial profiling is a repressive social practice that uses group characteristics to individualize stereotypic behavior for minorities in American society.

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884 Words | 4 Pages

Are Police Racist On April 29, 2017 Jordan Edwards, unarmed, was leaving a house party that was getting “out of hand”. He was fatally shot and killed while in the car leaving with his brother and three other unarmed teenagers. Jordan was considered a great student and he was liked by many of his teachers and classmates. This is just one of the many times police officers have fatally shot someone that was unarmed and just happened to be black.

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567 Words | 3 Pages

In this trial Tom Robinson does not receive the justice that he deserves. During the time period that the story takes place the colored men are treated with little respect and

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1362 Words | 6 Pages

The topic for this research proposal project is on community policing, and the factors that are involved in determining if relationships between law enforcement and citizens in these neighborhoods are strained. In order to be successful, community policing must be built on trust, as both civilians and law enforcement must work hand in hand to protect their communities. If there is a lack of trust, then these programs becomes broken, and can therefore lead to other violence and criminal acts. This research proposal project will focus on minority based communities and citizens, where the majority of the citizens are either African American or Hispanic.

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