Inequality In Just Mercy By Bryan Stevenson

In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson takes readers on a heart wrenching journey with inmate Walter McMillian as he writes about his personal experience with injustice and racial inequality within the Criminal Justice System of the United States. This is a powerful account about an innocent African American man convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a white woman, a murder that he did not commit. While telling us this story, Stevenson shares his professional ties to many cases that dealt directly with horrible inequity and treatment that he witnessed first hand that targeted people of color in Alabama. As someone who had not been exposed to the truth about what has really been going on in our country for decades, Just Mercy was an amazing

There are many aspects of this book that are captivating and powerful. In chapter 2, Stevenson states that “Despite the reforms of the 1970s and early 1980s inmate death in jails and prisons was still a serious problem. Suicide, prisoner-on-prisoner violence, inadequate medical care, staff abuse, and guard violence claimed the lives of hundreds of prisoners every year” (2014, p.36). Throughout this part of the book, there is heavy focus on the observations and experiences of Stevensen. It became apparent that the way McMillain came to be accused of this murder and the way he was racially profiled was directly impactful to Stevenson. This connection was made stronger when we heard the story of the racially motivated incident that Stevenson himself experienced at the hands of the police. It is explained later in chapter 2 that Stevenson was sitting in his car alone when a police vehicle came down a one way street

In 1989, he was able to open his nonprofit organization alongside Eva Ansley. This organization fought to legally represent and fight for African American men and women who were sitting on death row in Alabama. There is no doubt that the primary theme of this book is how the legal system has an agenda against people of color and time and time again accuses, convicts, and executes the innocent. In chapters 1 and 3 specifically it was remarkably evident how blatantly law enforcement ignored alibis, planted ideas in the minds of the accusers, and condemned a successful African American man for someone else’s crime. This is not Stevenson’s only case, and he keeps readers drawn in with the stories of other people who have dealt with a similar yet unfortunate pattern of racism within the criminal justice system. One of the most compelling stories that stood out to me was in chapter 14 when Joe, a young thirteen year old boy was convinced to participate in a burglary with two older boys and was solely blamed for the sexual assault of a white woman, a crime he did not commit. It is explained that “The only physical evidence to implicate Joe was a latent partial palm-print that the state’s examiner testified matched him. This was consistent with Joe’s admitted presence in the bedroom prior to the rape.