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Analysis Of Just Mercy: A Story Of Justice And Redemption

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Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. By Bryan Stevenson. Spiegel & Grau, 2015. Pp. 368. 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. 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 …show more content…

Many children were being sentenced to death row or to die in prison for non-homicidal crimes. This developed because the government did not see what the difference between a child and an adult committing the same crime. Before a decade ago the United States did not have a set age for which a child could be trial as an adult. They finally passed a law saying that no child shall either be sentenced to death row or die in prison. Cruel and unusual punishments developed for the minorities because instead of a black man committing a crime and getting lynched, this was the governments way of saying they could make sure they were executed and punished for the crime. Poor living conditions in prisons emerged because judges were inclined to send more people to prison than the space that was provided. Therefore, prisons became over crowed and hard to handle. Living spaces in prisons got smaller and more prisoners has to share their place with someone else. Security at the prisons also fell downhill, as male guards saw the women and young children as prey for rape. Most prisoners were either brutally assaulted and/or rape while in …show more content…

This non-profit organization was trying to help as many prisoners that were wrongly accused or sentenced to death row when they should not have been due to age or mental status. The workers were not getting paid for their services they worked out of passion to help those wrongly convicted or sentenced. The largest advocacy group in Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption was the Equal Justice Initiative or EJI. EJI was founded by Bryan Stevenson himself after finding a passion for helping those wrongly condemned to death row. It started by just helping fight the cases of those people who were either innocent on death row or who should not have received such a harsh punishment due to mental illness or cruel and unusual punishment for the crime they committed. 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

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The article forced me to ponder about the existence of unfairness and injustice which inevitably and constantly hinders society because the individual discussed in the article experiences these factors in an unusual and rather extreme circumstance. William Goldman, the author of The Princess’ Bride once rhetorically questioned, “Who says life is fair, where is [this statement] written?”, which summarizes the outcomes of life itself. Humans frequently face adversity throughout daily lives, whether minor challenges or major hurdles; these problems include unretainable lost objects or the death of a beloved individual. To others, injustice may appear judicially and politically; Ivan Henry and David Milgaard were both wrongfully convicted of sexual

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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.

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Have you ever needed something so desperately and you still didn’t get it?We learn how the incarcerated people in the book Just Mercy have been denied their medical attention, even though they had pleaded. The book was written by Brian Stevenson, who is a Criminal Defense Lawyer. It reveals the truth of the unfair actions made by the Criminal Justice system. Its inadequacy in medical treatment is certainly a prime contribution to the deaths of many prisoners each year. We learn how some people were denied the very thing they need to survive, their medication they need to help them wake up the next morning.

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Marsha Colbey in Just Mercy is a mother of two daughters who was imprisoned for conviction of murder and was on Death Row and was, not only successfully freed from imprisonment, but also brought light to the case of women in jails being sexually harassed. For instance it’s stated (pg.2, B) “Marsha held on despite these challenges and started advocating for some of the younger women.” This displays how Marsha was hopeful even though she had many obstacles to face and thus altered Bryan’s understanding of hopefulness as he realized how hopefulness is something you will always need in order to succeed. Similarly, it’s also written (pg.3, D) “I hope we can do more to help more people.” This also reveals how Marsha altered Bryan’s understanding of hopefulness and redemption because she is telling us how she believes that people deserve second chances at life, and Bryan took that as a life lesson.

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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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For being such an advanced country, America’s biggest issue stays unresolved. That issue is its justice system. In the book Just Mercy, the author Bryan Stevenson writes, “We have to reform a system of criminal justice that continues to treat people better if they are rich and guilty than if they are poor and innocent.” The majority of prisoners in the U.S. are black, mentally ill, or poor. Minorities are treated harshly by the justice system in the United States because it’s built to benefit the rich, guilty, and white.

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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.

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Another strategic technique used by Stevenson was logos, means to convince an audience by use of logic or reason. Towards the ending of the chapter, the author assimilated facts and statistics about the increase in the variety of crimes and harsh punishment. For example, hundreds of thousands of inoffensive offenders are having to spend from years to decades in prison for harmless crimes such as writing a bad check or minor property crime (Stevenson 15). These shocking facts make the reader think if these people should actually be imprisoned for minor crimes for such long periods of time. The audience also thinks about the difficulties the families of the people who are in prison have to go through without them.

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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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