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Bryan Stevenson's 'Just Mercy'

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The book Just Mercy tells the long and sad story of what African American lawyer Bryan Stevenson had to go through in fight towards freeing Walter Mcmillian from his wrongly accused sentence. Walter Mcmillian was put in this position because of the murder of Ronda Morrison who was a white teenage girl that lived in Monroeville Alabama. There was no evidence on the crime scene and the only reason the police arrested Walter was because of a false accusation of man who wasn't even at the crime scene and the whole trial only lasted 2 days. As a result of his case, he ended up with a 30-year sentence in prison for murder but only ended up spending a total of 6 years due to his retrial that was led by his lawyer. Bryan Stevenson, his lawyer, is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization with the goal of fighting for people who have experienced any form of racial injustice or discrimination. …show more content…

When he went into this trial, he was aware of the danger that he was putting not only himself but everyone he was associated with. What he was getting ready to do was challenging the word of a white man while being an African American on top of the case being based around another African American male. During the first day of the retrial everything went smoothly and according to plan. The side supporting Walter was successfully able to present and plead Walter's case, they were able to get some people questioning the justice system and totally flip the script. But the very next day the whole momentum changed due to the court not allowing any African Americans to view Walter's trial. There was also a point. Where they didn’t even allow Bryan into the court just based off his skin color and appearance. Which ties into the young activist that I picked for this

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African American Stevenson Just Mercy Summary

1015 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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Summary Of Walter Mcmillian's Case

310 Words | 2 Pages

Next, we are introduced to Walter McMillian’s case where he was wrongfully accused of a crime. There was hard evidence proving that Walter was innocent, although he was innocent the biggest problem of his case is that he was put on death row before his trial, which is illegal. However, Stevenson represents Walter who was accused of the murder of Ronda Morrison. Throughout the case it is clear that the evidence does not point to Walter being the murder. At the beginning of the book, Walter had his own business where most of his customers were white.

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Rhetorical Devices In Just Mercy

1762 Words | 8 Pages

Rhetorical Analysis of Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson, a young and impressionable lawyer, whose work with Southern Prisoners Defense Committee (SPDC), opened Stevenson’s eyes to the defenselessness of death row inmates. Coupled with his own experience with bias and unfair treatment, Stevenson wrote a book based on the lives of those he helped- and attempted to help. Slightly shadowed by his own bias, Just Mercy was an inciting piece of literature of the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020.

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Rhetorical Analysis On Just Mercy

1272 Words | 6 Pages

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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Stevenson Quotes In Just Mercy

659 Words | 3 Pages

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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Rhetorical Analysis Of Just Mercy

668 Words | 3 Pages

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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The Perils Of Injustice In Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy

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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Ethos In Just Mercy

474 Words | 2 Pages

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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Injustice In Just Mercy

1337 Words | 6 Pages

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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Just Mercy By Walter Morrison

513 Words | 3 Pages

The United States criminal justice system is the practice of the government upholding social control, prevent crime, and to penalize those who violate laws. The system however, does have many flaws throughout its policies and how it is run. A major flaw in the system is when people are wrongly accused of a crime that they didn’t commit. We see multiple examples of this in the novel Just Mercy by author Bryan Stevenson. Two of those being the case of Walter McMillan, and the case of Diane Tucker.

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Bryan Stevenson Just Mercy

779 Words | 4 Pages

“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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Essay On Just Mercy

442 Words | 2 Pages

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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Just Mercy Thesis

637 Words | 3 Pages

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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A Comparison Of To Kill A Mockingbird And Go Set A Watchman

1634 Words | 7 Pages

Due to logic, actions and morality of the jury, Carl Lee was set free. Just Mercy also depicted an African American male, Walter McMillian, who was put in jail. In his case, he was sentenced to death row for false accusations of gruesomely killing a young female. While in jail, there were multiple other Black men who were also wrongfully convicted, one of them dying on death

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Just Mercy Analysis

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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