Is each person defined by the worst thing that they have done? Can we as a society approve of hunting down and attacking the most vulnerable of people due to their vulnerability? Is it acceptable for the law to determine who deserves to die and who doesn’t? “Just Mercy” prompts its readers to explore these questions and many more. In this book, Bryan Stevenson, lawyer, social activist, and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, documents his time as a young lawyer in Montgomery, Alabama working to save death row prisoners and those wrongfully accused and incarcerated.
In a book that is both devastating and inspiring, Bryan Stevenson presents the cases of several of his clients who were either arrested for crimes they did not commit, or whose sentence did not match the crime. Stevenson forces you to consider the humanity of the accused; the life they lived before incarceration, the life they lived during incarceration. Among the cases presented, the ones that caught my acute attention were the ones of prisoners with mental and intellectual disabilities.
In the chapter named “Mitigation”, Stevenson focused solely on the treatment of individuals with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system. In many instances, prosecutors and judges neglected to consider mental and intellectual disabilities when
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George Daniel suffered a car crash one night and woke up in an upside-down car. He ended up going home without seeking any medical attention. Daniel incurred some brain damage after the accident which only progressed over time and resulted in psychotic behavior. One night, Daniel wandered into the home of an older lady; this lady called the police. The officer pulled Daniel out of the home, Daniel resisted and they ended up wrestling on the ground. Sometime during the ordeal, the officer pulled out his gun and during the struggle, the officer was shot in the