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Equal Justice Initiative: Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

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This year at Elon University, all first-year students were given a summer reading. The author Bryan Stevenson, a gifted attorney, who founded the Equal Justice Initiative; fights to raise awareness about the injustices in the United States legal and social systems. Just Mercy, his book magnifies his early career, where he fought for people on death row. This book talks about the injustices that happened back in the 80’s and 90’s but, these same injustices by the police are still around today, but justified by law now. Bryan Stevenson had his own encounters with the police like many black men in America today. He was engaged by two white Atlanta SWAT officers while sitting in his car listening to music. The racial discrimination against Black
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At this point, I am half way done with Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. While reading this book, I have made many personal connections and opinions.  To give you some background on this book, I will explain a little bit of what I've obtained so far.  Just Mercy is a memoir about a lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, who exposes the flaws in the justice system. Many of the flaws that he reveals are cases of racism; where prejudice prevails over evidence.

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The book, “Just Mercy”, written by Bryan Stevenson, tells the story of true justice in helping incarcerated people fight for freedom. He develops convincing arguments showing the hidden flaws and inequality in the American criminal justice system. Bryan Stevenson makes his arguments through three appeals, ethos, logos and pathos, using personal experiences, his viewpoint on juvenile sentencing and justice, and his priorities. In chapter 2, Stand, Stevenson shares his personal experiences with the Atlanta Police Department to provide exposure to racial inequality. On a drive home from Gadsden, Alabama, Stevenson gets pulled over by an Atlanta SWAT car: “The other officer was now leaning inside my car and going through my papers.

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Bryan Stevenson wrote the book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, in his novel he discusses multiple cases that influenced him into creating what we now know as The Equal Justice Initiative it is a group that has helped create a void in unfair sentencing. Bryan was born in Delaware in 1959, he grew up in a poor neighborhood where he witnessed a division in both social and economic class. The division of classes lead to the start of Stevenson’s journey to inform and make members of the community aware of injustices in our country. There are multiple career paths that he could have chosen that benefited his desire to bring about awareness.

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Mary Kwentus Mr. Singleterry ENGL 2250 22 May 2023 Social Unjustness In Bryan Stevenson’s novel Just Mercy Stevenson gives his first-person accounts of the social justice system in America and marginalized Americans who are unfairly punished. The novel retells the cases of Stevenson. Stevenson fights to end the justice system’s unjustness and racial discrimination. The novel follows Stevenson as he and his company the Equal Justice Initiative work to help prisoners on death row and give them the legal representation they deserve.

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The (In)justice System “‘I feel like they done put me on death row, too. What do we tell these children about how to stay out of harm’s way when you can be at your own house, minding your own business, surrounded by your entire family, and they still put some murder on you that you ain’t do and send you to death row?’”(Stevenson 93). In the memoir Just Mercy, we follow the life story of Bryan Stevenson who we see start out as a young Harvard law student and as the novel progresses transforms into a lawyer helping those on death row who do not have any help. He has many experiences where he sees people change, statistics that prove injustice, and where he experiences injustice. All of these are examples of rhetorical strategies, which are

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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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Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy exposes several ethical failures that permeate the criminal justice system, reflecting a profound disregard for human dignity and justice. Firstly, the book highlights the systemic racism that unjustly targets minorities (Stevenson, 2014). The disproportionate incarceration of African Americans, despite constituting a small percentage of the population, is a testament to the biased application of laws and policies. The pervasive racial profiling, leading to discriminatory arrests and excessive bail amounts, further perpetuates this injustice. Secondly, Stevenson highlights indigent defendants' lack of adequate legal representation (Stevenson, 2014).

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In the book Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson is determined to help those who are treated unfairly in our justice system. He meets those who are treated unfairly because of race, gender, income or mental disabilities. Stevenson uses his law degree to win or receive new trials for the underprivileged. Stevenson believes that race, income, or other factors should not effect a court trial. The same goes for other aspects of life such as a college applications, financial aid, or scholarships.

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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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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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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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