The Supreme Court tested again the procedure and criterion of competency for execution of a mental illness defendant in 2007 in Panetti v. Quarterman (Panetti I). The Supreme Court ruled in Panetti that to be executed an inmate must not only be aware of the reason for his execution, the inmate must have a rational comprehension of the State’s reasoning for his
Irony is a fickle thing. Some people can laugh at irony and its unusual and unexpected ways it can reveal itself. But to the author of the book Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, didn’t find irony to be funny whatsoever. This however did not stop him from ironically naming his book. One would think that a book with the word mercy in its title would be about just that.
The book Just Mercy written by Bryan Stevenson focuses and discusses justice and redemption. This book discusses the author’s life and how Stevenson grew up in a poor and racially segregated neighborhood in Delaware. The settlement he grew up in was very small and most families suffered from lack of water, indoor plumbing, and chickens and pigs surrounded their play space. Stevenson attended college in Pennsylvania and perused a degree in Public Policy. This book is about getting a better understanding of mass incarceration and cruel punishment in America.
Will Schwartz Politics and Ethics 10.20.17 The Right To Kill Whether one agrees or disagrees with the idea that a government has the ability to punish their citizens with death, it is hard to argue that our judiciary system is capable of wielding such power. The flaws that unarguably plague the US justice system make it impossible for our government to fairly distribute and regulate death as a form of punishment. Within the novel Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson outlines his time fighting for the rights of accused individuals inside and outside death row; as well as fighting against those who abuse power granted to them by the justice system.
Bryan Stevenson’s novel Just Mercy tells of his times as a death row attorney for inmates that were unjustly and inhumanely represented in the American court system. A #1 New York Times Bestseller, the book itself tells a story of a man named Walter McMillan who was sentenced to death row in an Alabama state prison. Walter landed in prison after a woman named Ronda Morrison from his hometown Monroe Alabama was found dead at her workplace Monroe cleaners on November 1st, 1983. This telling by Stevenson highlights the injustices and systemized racism that exists in our southern court systems, and without just attorneys like Stevenson to represent these disadvantaged men and women these inhumane practices will only continue.
In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson tells a first person account of his years defending the people who were wrongly convicted or punished by the US justice system. At the heart of the novel is the story of Walter McMillian, a man wrongly convicted of murder and sent to death row. Throughout the novel, Stevenson presents examples of individuals who were wrongfully punished due to racism and discrimination. He shows the readers how our criminal justice system unfairly impacts members of the Black community. He also highlights the destruction and devastation this can cause.
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.
Cecil had no understanding of what he did wrong and also had no understanding of what was happening to him. “In the past decade, six psychiatric evaluations have found that Clayton should be exempt from execution because he does not understand that he will be executed, or the reasons for his execution. However, since his execution date was set, he did not have a competency hearing before a judge that could spare him from execution” (“Mentally Ill Prisoners Who Were Executed”). This shows another example of the court ignoring someone's psychological illnesses and continuing to treat this person like they were an average person who killed someone. This relates heavily to Bryan Stevenson’s case with Herbert Richardson and how his psychological illness was ignored and he was also sentenced to death and executed.
How do things around you change who you are? Looking at different texts made it more apparent how it affects day-to-day life. The author’s of “Just Mercy, The Truman Show, The Midnight Zone, Given to Rust, My True South” uses elements to develop a theme of how places, environments and others shape the individual. One way that places, environments and others can shape the individual is in our justice system or having death looking over your shoulder. One place or environment that shapes the individual is being put on death row in 1983, Bryan is trying his best to help the wrongfully convicted inmates in an Alabama prison be free again.
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.
In “Just Mercy” Bryan Stevenson talks about the layers to each incarcerated individual. He talks about the repeated connections between issues such as mental illness and harsh home environments to juvenile offenders and mass incarceration. Stevenson goes into depth about the different internal and external issues that many incarcerated have. “In fact, there are more than three times the number of seriously mentally ill individuals in jail or prison than in hospitals; in some states that number is ten times. And prison is a terrible place for someone with mentally illness or a neurological disorder that prison guards are not trained to understand.
The Equal Justice Initiative set up by Bryan Stevenson has brought about many changes to the court system and the lives of many people. Stevenson has represented many different people, the majority of which were on death row for unjust reasons. Herbert Richardson, a Vietnam veteran with mental disabilities, was sentenced to death row after a bomb he made accidentally went off killing a child. Another man named Avery Jenkins, a man born with mental disabilities, stabbed a man to death believing the man was a demon trying to kill Avery. Although these cases have similarities and differences, they both show how flawed the judicial system is.
The concept of capital punishment and the epidemic of mental health provide a litany of conversation topics and varying opinions. When considering the two together, an issue arises: what degree of mental illness constitutes imprisonment instead of an institution when someone commits a crime? In Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel In Cold Blood, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith murder a family of four. Although Capote asserts Dick and Perry should have resided in a mental institution, the men did not commit their crimes due to their mental illnesses, but rather more extrinsic issues such as childhood events and social processes, thus meaning that Dick and Perry deserved imprisonment and that their mental issues did not lead them to rob and murder the
“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
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.
