Just Mercy Essay

cWe All Need Mercy: Analysis of the film “Just Mercy”

Angela Twigg

ENG1010

Professor Potas

March 2, 2023

We All Need Mercy: Analysis of the film “Just Mercy”

The film Just Mercy is based off of real-life events. The film is centered around attorney Bryan Stevenson and his work with prisoners on death row. Bryan Stevenson and his organization, The Equal Justice Initiative, provide legal representation to prisoners on death row that are thought to be wrongly convicted, or that have been denied a fair trial. The film is centered around black death row prisoner Walter McMillian, who in 1988, in Monroeville, Alabama was convicted of murdering a white teenage girl. Mr. McMillian was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a trial that lasted

The issues brought to the forefront in the film have real life implications. For instance, while African-Americans comprise 13% of the U.S. population and 14% of monthly drug users, they account for 37% of the people arrested for drug offenses--this is according to 2009 Congressional testimony by Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project. (Quigley, Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law, 2012). This again shows that there is a propensity toward injustice for minorities. It’s important to consider the affect this type of discrimination has on people as a group but also individual. It also needs to be recognized how it may impact a person or groups day to day lives and decision making in these situations. In keeping with time-tested American traditions, black defendants were 38 percent more likely to be sentenced to die than others who committed similar crimes, according to a study by University of Iowa Law School researchers David Baldus and George Woodworth. Their research team analyzed 667 murders that occurred in Philadelphia from 1983 to 1993. Of the 520 cases involving black defendants, 95 were sentenced to die, while 19 of the 147 non-black defendants received the death penalty. (Clarence, Chicago Tribune,1998). While some may deny these issues within our system, I say that they are glaring and must be

Since the death penalty is an incredibly severe and finite punishment the enormity of the action of putting someone to death needs to be run thru the finest of filters before making it an option. Some believe that there are instances that it is warranted, while I may agree, because we are human and not infallible, we cannot ever be one hundred percent sure of its accuracy. The Equal Justice Initiative at the time of the film have won relief, reversals or release of over 140 death row prisoners. (Just Mercy, 2019) This is one example why there should be great cause for concern with the ethics of the death penalty. For instance, “For every 9 who have been executed in the U.S. one person on death row has been proven innocent and released, a shocking rate of error.” (Just Mercy, 2019), The fact that there are several points at which there can be errors or biases within our criminal justice system, the death penalty as a punishment needs to be re-evaluated. I personally believe that even one innocent person executed is too many and therefore makes the death penalty a failure to the criminal justice