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Essay Comparing Just Mercy And When They See Us

439 Words2 Pages

The justice system is not as fair as one would hope, the scales are tipped by coercion and unfair police tactics. While within, prison and juvenile conditions can be equally as harmful to those convicted. The book Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson, clearly portrays police officers careless of the federal criminal process and how prison conditions have failed those convicted. Similarly, on the show, When They See Us, police officers use their abuse of power to coerce young teens into admitting to crimes they did not commit, later leading them to struggle and be abused inside prison and jail. In both Just Mercy and When They See Us, the justice system attempts to follow the federal criminal process well, yet inmates are still abused by one another, …show more content…

In When They See Us, while they did not investigate in a good manner and they reached a false conclusion, they did make sure to investigate all of them. The five boys involved were thoroughly investigated, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise. The lead detective, Fairstien, also conducted a search of the crime scene. She went to the park, searching for evidence and looking at everything. From the marks left in the dirt, to the marks left on the victim's clothing. In Just Mercy, when a young lawyer, Bryan Stevenson, takes on Walter McMilians, a man who was wrongfully convicted for murder, Stevenson also conducts a thorough investigation. Even though Walter is already in jail, when Stevenson takes on his case, he starts at the beginning of the entire federal criminal process. Stevenson makes sure to review all aspects of Walters' case, before making any judgements. Even though his family had already made statements, Stevenson visits Walter and his family to get a sense of who he was and his whereabouts on the day of the murder. He listened to “testimonials about Walter, the town, race, the police, the trial” (pg. 1).

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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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Bryan Stevenson first encounters Walter McMilian with the same tentative demeanor he has with the rest of his clients. He enters the situation hearing out the inmate’s side of their stories. From there, he reviews their cases and begins working; regardless if he believes they are guilty or not. However, Stevensons case with McMilian differed from the rest. This was evident right from the beginning.

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In his book Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson shows empathy and compassion as he puts a stop to mass incarceration for Juvenile Offenders by providing equality of justice. Stevenson works endlessly, day and night to correct a wrongful conviction of a Death Row inmate, Walter Mcmillian. When he first meets Walter, at the end of the Book, we know that he's innocent. In page 73 of Just Mercy, Stevenson meets Walter’s wife Minnie Belle Mcmillian, and his Daughter, Jackie, as they were waiting patiently for him, after he promised Walter that he’ll meet his family. This shows that Stevenson will even put in the time and effort in order to get to know more about Walter and his family in order to prove he's innocent.

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Stevenson's mom was the one that led him to realize that he was in the wrong for his

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This all sounds good for the government in that it is earning it more money, but it is giving the officers “perverse incentives” (EJI Research) and persuading them to arrest more people, which is then leading to wrongful convictions. In the book, Bryan Stevenson had to deal with lots of pressure from the surrounding communities of his clients that he was working for. With that, it became difficult for Bryan to remain focused solely on the client and not give into the thoughts and opinions of their families and friends. When Stevenson was working on his case involving Walter McMillian, a man who was wrongfully convicted and placed on death row, he put a lot of stress on himself to make sure that justice was served. However, even more pressure was placed on Bryan once Walter’s family came into view.

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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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The phrasing he used on why Walter was accused really showed that it was just racism. Stevenson wrote: “Now, four months into his term as sheriff, he faced a seemingly unsolvable murder and intense public pressure. But there was now evidence against Walter except that he was an African-American man in an adulterous interracial affair. maybe that was evidence enough.” This quote demonstrates how racism makes people suffer for nothing but their ethnicity.

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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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Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. By Bryan Stevenson. Spiegel & Grau, 2015. Pp. 368.

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