Injustice In Just Mercy

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.

Throughout Just Mercy, the example of jury selection shows

The jury selection system has been fueled by systemic racism for years. In order to be placed into the Jury Pool, people must be registered voters and have their driver's license. This is an issue because decades earlier minority citizens of color had trouble getting licenses and becoming registered voters. In addition, lawyers are able to remove jurors from the trial who they are suspicious of, which tends to be minority groups (Chakaborty and Brangan, 4.08-6.00). An example from the book was, “When a serious felony case went to trial in a country like Monroe County, which was 40% black, it was not uncommon for prosecutors to exclude all African Americans from jury service” (59). This is important because it demonstrates the racism within juries through the fact people of color are excluded from becoming jurors. This was an issue because the Juror pool excluded people of color even from a county that should have black representatives based on their percentage representation of the population. Steveson helped overcome this disadvantage through advocating for Walter

Police brutality is still a prevalent issue today, and police brutality is when police abuse their powers towards minorities for harm. An example of this was when a man Stevenson helped, Lourida Ruffin, was attacked by the police and denied further medication which he needed.“When he arrived at the city jail badly bruised and bleeding, Mr. Ruffin told the other inmates that he had been beaten horribly and was desperately in need of his inhaler and asthma medication.” (37). This is an example of how the police harmed a man, which was unjust. Police harm of the general population is not permitted at all in the US therefore the treatment of Mr. Ruffin is defined as brutal and unjust. The police created more harm for Ruffin which Stevenson attempted to assist by working on Ruffins case. On the contrary, one may argue that police brutality does not correlate with systemic racism, because police brutality can occur for all citizens. This is refuted by Stevenson, “I found bureau of justice stats reporting that black men were 8 times more likely to be killed by the police than whites' ' (43). This is important because it demonstrated the part Black citizens have in being affected by police brutality. Throughout the past century, black US citizens indefinitely have been the majority