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Analysis Of Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

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In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson retells powerful stories to highlight how minorities and juveniles within the criminal justice system are often unheard. Stevenson addresses Walter McMilliam’s case to prove that he was ignored by the police and others because he was an African American accused for interracial romance with a white women and murder. During the 1800’s, racial discrimination was extremely harsh onto black people which led their community to be targeted by the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system incarcerates African Americans but no other races which proves that they’re avoiding their safety and rights. He states “The ABI agents were left with plenty… that was enough evidence” (Stevenson 30-31). In other words, Stevenson argues …show more content…

According to the criminal justice system, children underage who commit a criminal act are sent to an adult prison. Children don’t have to be sentenced for 10-15 years just because of a small crime that wasn’t against the law. Stevenson states “The lawyer didn’t realize that two of the charges against Ian were punishable with sentences of life imprisonment without parole” (Stevenson 128). Stevenson believes that no one deserves to be physically abused because they can become ill or suicidal. In the 1980’s, our country was giving lots of attention to black and brown children because of their poor actions and threats towards people. Stevenson states “At most, they might have stayed in custody until age twenty-five or older, if their institutional history or juvenile detention…” (Stevenson 134). Basically, what Stevenson is addressing is the juvenile justice system should’ve heard Ian’s words instead of pleading guilty because his attorney said. If his story was different than Ian wouldn’t be in adult prison for life and wouldn’t be suicidal because of his surroundings and

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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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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.

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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.

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Bryan Stevenson uses the art of rhetoric in Just Mercy to allow readers to understand how America’s history of racial tension has influenced mass incarceration through the criminal justice system. Stevenson asserts throughout the book how the criminal justice system is corrupted through vast instances such as Joe Sullivan and Walter McMillian. The criminal justice scene immorally targets those who suffer from mental illnesses, people of color, and the poor. Through Stevenson’s rhetoric, readers come to understand the parallel worlds between himself and those convicted.

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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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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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The book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson brings awareness to the unfairness in the justice system and in our federal prisons. Incarceration of citizens suffering with mental health issues is a problem in our U.S prisons and the justice system but there are solutions to this problem like offering different programs to the mentally ill. In the book Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson gives a glimpse of the cruel, unjust sentencing practices problems we have with our justice system. Our prisons are flooded with inmates who suffer from a mental illness and with correction officers who are not properly trained to handle inmates who suffer from this hidden illness.

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1/5/23 Racial injustice has been a prominent issue in the American criminal justice system for centuries prior to Bryan Stevenson's entry in the criminal justice world. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, goes in depth on specific unjust criminal charges based on racial assumptions. Bryan Stevenson does work on ending these suffrages and freeing clients who have been unfairly accused on death row. Throughout the book, Stevenson addresses systemic racism through examples of jury selection, several case studies of unfairly incarcerated individuals, and police brutality which his advocacy for inmates overcomes by creating racial justice within the criminal justice system.

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Yet, according to government statistics, African Americans and whites have similar rates of illicit drug use and dealing” (Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander, 2010). Therefore, the war on drugs was a systematic effort to target and arrest African Americans on the pretense of suspicion of drugs, which accounted for a higher incarceration rate among communities of color creating a racial divide. With this intention, the criminal justice system is a racial based institution that marginalizes and controls the fate of African Americans. In the book Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson represented Walter McMillian who was wrongfully convicted of murder and put on death row without legal and fair representation states, “We’ve institutionalized policies that reduce people to their worst acts and permanently label them criminal, murderer, rapist, thief, drug dealer, sex offender, felon- identities they cannot change regardless of the circumstances of their crimes or any improvements they might make in their lives” (Stevenson, 2015). With this in mind, Walter McMillian’s case is one of the many racial segregated cases that was denied effective representation and prosecutorial misconduct because he was black, which has subjected many African Americans to unfair treatment by the criminal system leaving

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“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

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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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There are many victims of unfortunate circumstances in the world today, yet some of these results could have been easily avoided. In the novel, Just Mercy, the author Bryan Stevenson addresses many cases in which children under the age of 18 are incarcerated within the adult criminal justice system. By treating children as adults in the criminal justice system their innocence and undeveloped person, become criminalized. These children become dehumanized and only viewed as full-fledged criminals and as a result society offers no chance sympathy towards them. Stevenson argues that children tried as adults have become damaged and traumatized by this system of injustice.

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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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The author Bryan Stevenson teaches his audience about criminal and racial discrimination in judicial systems using his own firsthand knowledge of devastating occurrences, and references in the nonfiction novel Just Mercy. The stories that Stevenson tells are all examples of how the legal system has been corrupted. Firstly, Stevenson uses ethos throughout his prose to provide an individual's perspective on America's racial injustices. Stevenson is a civil rights lawyer who shares personal experiences with injustice.. When Stevenson states, "I've represented abused and neglected children who were prosecuted as adults,"(9)

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Ashley Tinajero Mrs. Trull AP Language and Composition 27 December 2022 Just Mercy The book Just Mercy tackles many different issues throughout the novel however its most notable one being the political injustice that consistently damages people of color and to be specific Americans the author Bryan Stevenson translates this issue through his thoughtful rhetoric and eliciting a sense of hope and sadness within the reader to emphasize the issue of the flawed justice system targeting African Americans and imposing rules that are purposefully set to ensure African Americans do not succeed in trials of any sort. In the novel the main case is that of Walter Mcmillion who is wrongly accused by a white man of murdering a young girl with the blatant

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